Essays

essays

The Eurasian Century, Part I: What Mackinder Knew

Sir Halford Mackinder believed that major showdowns in international affairs of the 20th century would revolve over control of the Eurasian continent and its maritime approaches. H..

Hal Brands December 6, 2021

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The Eurasian Century, Part II: The Great Black Tornado

Germany’s drive for dominance unleashed the great black tornado of the First World War. Only a global coalition, including the US, could hold Eurasia in balance.

Hal Brands December 6, 2021

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The Eurasian Century, Part III: The Totalitarian Challenge

The Second World War showed that the difficulties of blunting Eurasian challenges early could be severe—but that the price of rolling them back later could be far worse

Hal Brands December 6, 2021

essays

The Eurasian Century, Part IV: Cold War

An authoritarian, expansionist Soviet Union represented the heartland threat Mackinder had long foreseen. But ironically, his insights birthed a strategy for containing that threat..

Hal Brands December 6, 2021

essays

The Eurasian Century, Part V: Beijing’s Gambit

In many ways, Xi Jinping’s China is a state like no other. But its ambitions for global supremacy are but a new twist on a familiar problem – and are eliciting a familiar response ..

Hal Brands December 6, 2021

essays

Reassessing Christian history

While Christianity may strive to sing in a single voice, no one modern denomination ought to claim a monopoly on the truth. The region's history is in fact far more eclectic.

Diarmaid Macculloch November 29, 2021

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Why 16 billion cortical neurons are not enough

Humanity has come quite some way in the past 200,000 years but are we really anything more than primates with a few million more neurons than our closest relatives?

Suzana Herculano-Houzel November 22, 2021

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Why applied history matters

Forget the seduction of grand theories and presentist moral judgments. To learn the lessons of the past, the great foreign policy analysts of our age must rediscover the art of his..

Iskander Rehman November 20, 2021

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On guard: the contemporary salience of military fortification

Fortresses, border walls and guard towers – today’s excessively guarded age is on a global scale far exceeding famous past efforts including that of Roman Emperor Hadrian and the G..

David J Betz November 19, 2021