Essays

Long-form writing from leading scholars and commentators on history, statecraft, warfare, philosophy and culture.

Trump gold card souvenir.
essays

How Trump’s America is remaking global trade

In his drive to compete with China, President Trump has used bilateral trade deals to pursue geopolitical goals, accelerating the World Trade Organization's slide into irrelevance.

Marc Levinson June 17, 2026
An engraving of George Washington with Lafayette at Valley Forge.
essays

The America of the French imagination

French attitudes to the American republic were shaped by the culture of Enlightenment and Revolution, and gave way to a sense of disillusionment as the decades took their course.

Jeremy Jennings June 12, 2026
Tage Erlander (centre), Prime Minister of Sweden between 1946-1969, meets US President John F. Kennedy.
essays

Sweden’s Cold War tightrope

Throughout the Cold War, Sweden pursued a shrewd diplomatic strategy in the Baltic, calming tensions between the superpowers while quietly aligning itself with the democratic West.

Magnus Petersson June 11, 2026
Leo Tolstoy on Vacation in the Woods by Ilya Repin (1891).
essays

A summer of reading

Contributors to Engelsberg Ideas share the books they’ve enjoyed in the summers of their lives.

Engelsberg Ideas June 11, 2026
Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister of Singapore, gives a press conference.
essays

What small states can learn from Singapore

Singapore's survival in an increasingly tricky neighbourhood holds pointed lessons for Europe's smaller states.

Floris van Berckel Smit and Deborah Koh June 10, 2026
A digitally colourised engraving based on 'Peter the Great in a Storm on Lake Ladoga' by Charles Auguste, Baron de Steuben.
essays

Peter the Great put Russia in a Swedish uniform

The Russian tsar's quest to westernise his country took inspiration from Swedish institutions while dismissing the notion of a literate civil society that animated and sustained th..

Kristian Gerner June 5, 2026
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia at the White House.
essays

Armenia, Azerbaijan and the unfinished peace

After two military defeats and the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia is betting on peace with Azerbaijan and a future beyond Russia.

Thomas de Waal June 3, 2026
A large billboard with Iranian propaganda regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
essays

How Iran could survive the war but lose the peace

A shattered economy and an unbending hostility to Israel could prove far more dangerous to the Islamic Republic's survival than the war itself.

Meir Javedanfar June 2, 2026
Scene from a fresco in Uppsala Cathedral depicting Gustav I Vasa, King of Sweden (r. 1523-1560).
essays

Sweden’s age of conquests

In the 16th century, Sweden’s rulers forged a fiscal-military state capable of projecting power across the Baltic Sea, launching a quest for empire that combined national glory wit..

Mats Hallenberg May 28, 2026

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