Essays

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

During the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940) skiers of the Finnish army in white camouflage made lightning and effective attacks on units of the Red Army.

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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

A stamp printed in the USA shows Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

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Thomas Jefferson’s spirit of scientific endeavour is what America needs today

Now a firm tenet of American romantic popular imagination, Lewis and Clark’s early nineteenth-century expedition, sponsored by Thomas Jefferson, was also a pragmatic one, which led..

David Cowan May 10, 2023

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The Passion of Hilma af Klint

The passion of Hilma af Klint in every sense – sexual, aesthetic, and religious – is the key to her art.

Stephen Kern April 28, 2023

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Made in Taiwan: How Developing Countries Can Leverage High Tech

Taiwan’s hi-tech revolution began with a vision – now the small island-state has captured around sixty per cent of the world market in semiconductor chips, used in everything from ..

Lukasz Bednarski April 27, 2023

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Can Epic Poetry Revive History?

‘Read history, poetry’, urged the historian David McCullough. When combined, as the ancients knew, history and poetry offer an incomparable insight into the human condition.

Michael Auslin April 25, 2023

Leonidas at Thermopylae, by Jacques-Louis David, 1814.

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The West’s Lust for Liberty

The love of liberty is not unique to the West but the lust for liberty is.

Christopher Coker April 21, 2023

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Hacktivism’s Cold War Turns Hot

Hacktivism's definitive role in the Ukraine-Russia conflict shows that the future of war is already here and it's digital.

Vasileios Karagiannopoulos and Athina Karatzogianni April 17, 2023

Alexander Pushkin statue in Pushkin Square, Moscow.

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Taking Pushkin off his pedestal

Too often Russian literature is fetishised. It needs to be liberated. That process should begin with Pushkin.

Thomas de Waal April 12, 2023

Promotional poster for the film, Spartacus. 1960.

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Spartacus, history’s nowhere man

Spartacus is a figure who floats between history and allegory, an empty void, like the upper slopes of Vesuvius, where he and his supporters first took refuge, now obliterated by e..

Richard Miles April 11, 2023