Essays Archive

Yad Vashem, Hall of Names, photographs of victims of the Holocaust lining a circular wall, Jerusalem, Israel.

essays

Civilisation and Auschwitz are not a contradiction in terms

With Nazism, it was proven, if proof was ever needed, that barbarism does not necessarily stand in contradiction to culture and that even the most noble artistic expressions can in..

Göran Rosenberg April 26, 2022

The Standard of Ur (2600 BC), Mesopotamia, British Museum, London.

essays

Technology transfer across the ages

There are countless instances throughout history of what could be called intellectual property theft - from the appropriation of the technology of Chinese silk manufacture in Byzan..

Daniel T Potts April 21, 2022

Russian and Indian national flags and scale model aircraft seen during Indra 2017, a joint Russian-Indian military exercise, at the Tsentralnaya Uglovaya airfield. Credit: Yuri Smityuk/TASS/Alamy Live News

essays

How the West can drive a wedge between India and Russia

Helping India remove itself from its structural dependency on Russia is a delicate task. Decoupling must ultimately progress along two paths: providing an alternative to the deep t..

Jack Watling & Sidharth Kaushal April 21, 2022

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