Essays

essays

China-US rivalry risks dividing the EU

The EU was forged in the bipolar conditions of the Cold War, expanded under American unipolarity and could plausibly disintegrate as the world returns to a state of bipolarity, thi..

Timothy Less June 20, 2023

essays

The deep historical roots of Russia’s scorched earth policy

The Russians are pursuing a scorched earth policy in Ukraine as they did in the War of 1812 and after Operation Barbarossa.

Paul Josephson June 14, 2023

essays

The People’s Republic of SF

Life in China increasingly resembles life on another planet – by Beijing’s deliberate design. If the twenty-first century really is the ‘Chinese Century’, as currently forecast, th..

Steven Tucker June 7, 2023

essays

Know your enemy

Japan's attempt to win global power in the Second World War is a warning from history for western policymakers.

Michael Sheridan June 1, 2023

essays

The German key to European liberty

Germany today struggles to muster a serious military response to the Russian challenge. That should trouble keen observers of Europe's history.

Brendan Simms May 30, 2023

essays

The true genius of automata

An automaton chess player bewitched the public of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - but its real value was all-too-human.

Gaby Wood May 26, 2023

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How War Made Odessa More Ukrainian

War challenges all assumptions, and nowhere is this clearer in Ukraine’s historic – and strategically placed – Black Sea port. Its citizens have – mostly – turned their back on Rus..

Thomas de Waal May 17, 2023

essays

Liberty in the Shadow of Bonaparte

Benjamin Constant’s considered response not only to the mass murder inflicted by the French Revolution, but to the attempt to reduce the whole French population to the condition of..

Jeremy Jennings May 15, 2023

essays

Why Finns Joined The Fight

Finland’s path towards NATO may have been a long one, but Finland is in no sense a reluctant ally.

Charly Salonius-Pasternak May 10, 2023