Essays

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

A large Sèvres presentation plate celebrating Nazism's alleged debt to Charlemagne.

How the Nazis weaponised Charlemagne

Nazi historiographers sought to present Adolf Hitler as the heir to Charlemagne. They are neither the first, nor the last, to mythologise Charlemagne and attempt to shape his legac..

Samuel Rubinstein June 10, 2024

Singapore harbour with the city in the background.

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The Singapore way

If Britain is to reckon with its present economic sickness, it will require a cultural transformation of an epic scale. The triumph of Singapore in the 20th century may offer a gui..

James Vitali June 7, 2024

'The Meeting of General Klüke von Klügenau and Imam Shamil in 1837', 1849. The artist was Grigory Gagarin.

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How Tolstoy immortalised Russia’s Caucasus forever war

Tolstoy’s novella Hadji Murat resonates with enduring themes of betrayal, collaboration and resistance in Russia's wars in its Caucasus borderlands.

Suzanne Raine June 3, 2024

Pianist Eugen D'Albert with an orchestra, 1916.

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Britain’s war requiem

In the First World War, British and French composers created music to commemorate the dead, but they also celebrated the way that art could transcend the divisions wrought by confl..

Richard Bratby May 29, 2024

Undated propaganda video released by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant showing a group of foreign ISIS fighters holding up their passports as they pledge allegiance to the caliphate in Anbar Province, Iraq.

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The Caliphate: the persistence of a brutal ideology

Radical Islamism remains a potent threat. Despite the military defeat of ISIS, the idea of the Caliphate, with its programme of terror and violence, endures.

Shiraz Maher & Joana Cook May 28, 2024

Niccolo Machiavelli statue in Florence, Italy

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Why Machiavelli wrote The Prince

If we want to understand the ‘meaning’ of The Prince, we should start with Machiavelli himself.

Alexander Lee May 23, 2024

Riot police use a water cannon during an opposition protest against 'the Russian law' near the Parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on May 1, 2024.

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Georgian nightmare

Georgia's flawed political culture and fragile democracy is at another tipping point.

Thomas de Waal May 21, 2024

Woman reading a newspaper in front of a big pile of newspapers.

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Testament to doomed media

The old media has failed to rise to the challenge of tech. But we'll miss it when it's gone.

Bryan Appleyard May 20, 2024

Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stand next to a poster of Ayatollah Khamenei.

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The looming battle for succession in Iran

The question of who will succeed Ayatollah Khamenei, the 85-year-old supreme leader of Iran, and how the IRGC will shape the decision, looms large for the country and the wider Mid..

Afshon Ostovar May 16, 2024