Essays

essays

Kissinger: the ultimate realist

Henry Kissinger understood the imperative of international order over all other considerations. We would be wise to engage with his legacy.

T.G. Otte December 12, 2023

essays

Armenia’s existential moment

Armenia is facing its most precarious moment in three decades. The loss of Karabakh, a region with a centuries-old history of Armenian habitation and heritage, will reverberate for..

Thomas de Waal December 5, 2023

essays

Lifting Italy’s classical music curse

The country that was instrumental in developing liturgical music, invented opera and whose language remains classical music’s lingua franca has become a musical backwater.

Elisabeth Braw December 1, 2023

essays

Palestine, pragmatism and the lessons of 1956

None of the 1956 initiatives for a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict were successful. Recalling those efforts is not intended as a counsel of despair, but as a reminde..

Gill Bennett November 28, 2023

essays

‘We need to see these terrorist groups through their own mindsets’ — in conversation with John Sawers

EI’s Angus Reilly talks to Sir John Sawers, former head of MI6, about understanding the nature and aims of Hamas, Israel's lack of a political strategy, Iran's Axis of Resistance, ..

Angus Reilly November 23, 2023

essays

The strange death of private life

In the early 1970s, the idea that private life meant a right to be left alone – an idea forged over centuries – began to disappear. We should mourn its absence.

Tiffany Jenkins November 21, 2023

essays

JFK’s abiding legacy

Through his visionary leadership, inspired rhetoric, and willingness to compromise, John F. Kennedy summoned the narrative of American hope, his most powerful and enduring legacy.

Fredrik Logevall November 20, 2023

essays

What the Romans did for the US

An awareness of Roman history was crucial to the founding of the American Republic. Perhaps the solution to the United States’ current external and internal crisis still lies with ..

David Cowan November 13, 2023

essays

An endless dialogue between past and present

The German art historian Aby Warburg understood that the mysterious power of iconography lies in its ability to transform the meanings of visual imagery over time. It is a power th..

Wessie du Toit November 6, 2023