Russian ‘active measures’, including election meddling, disinformation and influence operations, were as common throughout the Cold War as they are today.
The technological sophistication of the modern state is no substitute for human intelligence gathering.
Espionage feeds off betrayal. And yet we find it difficult to love those who betray their country even in a just cause.
The communications revolution has transformed the context of war reporting. And yet the traditional role of the foreign correspondent is still essential.
Thucydides saw plague as a disease of the ‘body politic’ – and an opportunity to improve the health of society. History shows that pandemics have a way of disrupting our assumptions about medical and social progress.
Hitler’s conviction that a new Eurasian order should be constructed with Germany at its zenith had its ideological roots in the early science of geopolitics.
With China positioning itself as a leader on the world stage, its government is drawing on memories of the role the country played in shaping the post-War order. This raises tough questions about China’s self-image.
Portugal’s commercial dominance of large swathes of the world lasted little more than a century but the images, transmissions, and trades that it engendered left a significant and long-lasting influence.
The tension between independence and compliance is everywhere in society – but in medicine, reason must come before rules.
On 22 November 1990 the Tory leader resigned. What forces brought about the end of her extraordinary premiership?
From the Archive – first published in Empire and the Future World Order (2005) after the Engelsberg Seminar. The late beauties of empire represented all that was best in the British imperial idea – its romance, its glamour and its sense of humour.
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 historical discernment.
Rebay and af Klint, both strong-willed artists, were dedicated to their beliefs in the potential of art to hold spiritual value.
Niccolo Machiavelli, Renaissance statesman and political theorist, saw factional politics as essential to the prosperity of the Roman Empire and his native Florence. Are today’s partisan divisions as beneficial?
The constitutional order is changing as citizens become alienated and demand more say. Americans must take care that their habits of law – the ethos that makes the US exceptional – are not swept away.
Britain’s reverence for its National Health Service was developing long before the post-war promise of a New Jerusalem.
The human ability to cooperate is what elevates us above apes and monkeys.
John Hughes’s films re-established and updated the American dream for a new generation. His complex legacy helps us understand what went so wrong.
Donatello, one of Florence’s most distinguished sons, produced sculpture worthy of the ages.
To argue that Thatcher attacked the post-war dream is to caricature, not illuminate, her importance to British history.
Karl Marx was wrong about revolutions – in practice, they beget Caesars and Napoleons.
Engelsberg Ideas is brought to you by The Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit
Stureplan 3, SE 103 75 Stockholm, Sweden editors@engelsbergideas.com www.axsonjohnsonfoundation.org
By subscribing, you consent to us contacting you by email. You may unsubscribe at any time, and we’ll keep your personal data safe in accordance with our privacy policy.
