Essays

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

George Washington crossing the Delaware.
essays

The unintended consequences of the American Revolution

Despite the United States' resplendent origin myths, the motivations for the complex and confused events of 1775-83 now appear as diverse as their participants.

J.C.D. Clark April 29, 2026
Flags of various European countries members of a NATO force integration unit in Vilnius, Lithuania, 29 March 2022.
essays

Europe’s geopolitical awakening has begun

Longstanding scepticism towards US foreign policy has forced Europe to prepare for a new world order without America at its centre.

Marina E. Henke April 27, 2026
Emmanuel Macron visits a French nuclear submarine navy base.
essays

The problem with a French-led European deterrent

London must establish its own vision for the nuclear defence of Europe, one shorn of fashionable shibboleths about the British and French arsenals, and rooted in long-term strategi..

Franklin C. Miller and Daniel Skeffington April 24, 2026
US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat at a meeting in August 1975.
essays

How to make peace in the Middle East

Those attempting to secure a diplomatic bargain between the United States and Iran should draw lessons from the historic peace deal struck by Israel and Egypt after the Yom Kippur ..

Shiraz Maher April 22, 2026
Sarawak State Legislative Assembly in Malaysia.
essays

Borneo gains a new prominence in Malaysia’s political landscape

The fracturing of politics in Peninsular Malaysia has shattered the Malay-Muslim ascendancy that shaped the country.

Imran Shamsunahar April 21, 2026
A view inside the Bandung Conference hall, 1955.
essays

Bandung and the birth of non-alignment

In 1955, leaders from Asia and Africa convened to assert their independence from superpower blocs, sowing the seeds of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Alex White April 20, 2026
Relief depicting the figure of Lycurgus (left), the legendary lawgiver of Sparta and Solon (middle), his Athenian counterpart, and the Light of Wisdom (right). US Supreme Court, Washington DC.
essays

Athens and Sparta’s epic struggle for supremacy

The rival city-states were radically different expressions of a wider Classical Greek world, with each representing a divergent – and competing – experiment in how to organise huma..

Adrian Goldsworthy April 17, 2026
1806 satirical cartoon by James Gillray depicting John Bull and Napoleon Bonaparte separated by a wall labeled 'Island of Blockade'.
essays

How to wage economic warfare

Economic warfare works slowly, gradually imposing ever higher costs on the enemy. But there is no single trick that causes an adversary's war effort to falter.

Duncan Weldon April 17, 2026
A weathered UN buffer zone sign in the 'green line' dividing North and South Cyprus in Nicosia.
essays

Can the United Nations survive?

Eighty years since its creation, the UN is struggling to compete in an ever more fragmented geopolitical landscape, in which rival organisations present a fundamental challenge to ..

Peter Caddick-Adams April 15, 2026

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