Essays Archive

essays

Best of Engelsberg Ideas in 2023

Here is a selection of ten pieces we have published in the last twelve months which highlight the biggest stories and themes of 2023 — a year in ideas.

Engelsberg Ideas December 31, 2023

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Fumio Kishida at the Hiroshima memorial, 21 May 2023.

essays

2023: The revenge of history

Events in Europe and the Middle East in 2023 have further shattered the idea that history had reached a stable plateau. The world is a more dangerous place at the year’s end than i..

Helen Thompson December 26, 2023

Aerial view of shipping container port terminal.

essays

The world in 2024

Experts look ahead to 2024 and outline what they believe will be the most important geopolitical developments of the coming year.

Engelsberg Ideas December 22, 2023

A US soldier uses binoculars at an observation post during Vigilant Fox, a joint exercise including Finnish soldiers, US soldiers, and British soldiers.

essays

The West needs to wake up

The West’s hegemonic position faces a growing challenge from an emerging coalition in the East which seeks to revise the international order in its own interests. To preserve its p..

Timothy Less December 20, 2023

Henry Kissinger caricatured as 'Super K' on the cover of 'Newsweek' magazine, 10 June 1974.

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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

Ethnic Armenians flee from Nagorny Karabakh.

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

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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

A United Nations vehicle passing Israeli troops near Quantara on the east bank of the Suez Canal. A U.N. observer was posted on either side of the canal to supervise the cease-fire between Israel and Egypt.

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

A young boy stands by a poster of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

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