Essays Archive

The Flammarion Wood engraving. The image is often used as a metaphorical illustration of either the scientific or the mystical quests for knowledge.

essays

Where does esotericism belong in modern academia and what is its purpose?

Scholars of esotericism are often asked to justify their field of research and its place in modern society. However, esotericism provides fertile ground for radical thinking and is..

Marco Pasi April 20, 2022

Unloading cargo ships in the British East India Company docks in 19th century London. Hand-colored woodcut

essays

Globalisation — lessons from George Canning on how to remake trade

The current reaction against free trade is a result of a blind faith in the market, but retreat into economic isolation is not a solution either. The policies of George Canning, a ..

David Cowan April 14, 2022

Klaus Kinkel, Helmut Kohl and Theo Waigeln at the EMU Council in Brussels, May 1998. Credit: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo.

essays

Foes into friends: Germany’s role in postwar European integration

It is the ultimate irony of the past 20 years of European integration that its very effects are now pushing Germany closer to the position of power which post-war European treaties..

Kiran Klaus Patel April 13, 2022

'Young America rescues Europe!', declares a French cartoon from 1918. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo.

essays

America’s return as the reluctant defender of the liberal order

The US cultivated a garden that it grew weary of the burdens of sustaining but, once all other alternatives have been exhausted, the US will be pushed back into defending its liber..

Kori Schake April 6, 2022

Winston Churchill raising his hat to the crowd in Quebec City

essays

The importance of the individual in history

Throughout the ages, oracles, journalists and political scientists have attempted to guess the course fate may take. But should they fail to take the specifics, particularly specif..

Vernon Bogdanor April 1, 2022

essays

Thucydides was a Realist

Realism at its core is the capacity to look at the world without euphemism. In that spirit, Thucydides is a tonic to wishful thinking.

Patrick Porter April 1, 2022

A depiction of a Greco-Roman religious sacrifice

essays

The different ways to know the gods in Ancient Greece

The idea that 'real religion' in ancient Greece is to be found only in the so-called 'mystery' cults, that is, cults involving initiatory rituals, dies hard.

Robin Osborne March 28, 2022

A model railway energy transformer. Credit: Cum Okolo / Alamy Stock Photo

essays

Why do politicians get energy policy wrong?

There are three principal and often conflicting aims when it comes to energy policy: reducing carbon emissions, consumer protection and the security of supply. When the politics of..

George Yarrow March 25, 2022

A print of a First World War Imperial German Navy battlecruiser, the SMS Goeben.

essays

The geopolitics and grand strategy of Alfred Thayer Mahan

Alfred Thayer Mahan's writings on naval warfare have overshadowed his contributions to geopolitics. His theories, however, are clearly playing out today.

John H Maurer March 21, 2022