Why do democracies decay?
Is decay inevitable? Is democracy too unstable? The example of Ancient Athens shows us how delicate democratic institutions are.
Long-form writing from leading scholars and commentators on history, statecraft, warfare, philosophy and culture.
Is decay inevitable? Is democracy too unstable? The example of Ancient Athens shows us how delicate democratic institutions are.
The elegance of Georgian architecture, best exemplified in Bath and Edinburgh, can inspire a modern Renaissance in British housing design.
Russian identity is shaped by its literature, perhaps more so than any other major world power. The arguments championed by its great authors resonate in the present.
When Jesuit missionaries arrived in Japan, they found a rich and beautiful culture - their early dialogues left deep marks on civilisation in Europe and in Asia.
One of the original conceptions of the United Nations Organization, and the 1925 Locarno Pact, show how leading states might think about diplomacy in the new age of great power com..
Enduring debates about rights, freedom and individualism take us back to rival interpretations of what went on in the 1770s and 1780s.
Political, economic and cultural power is concentrated in a new national oligarchy that creates resentment. Responsible leadership, of the kind seen in the mid-20th century, is nee..
A land of promise, economic might, uncouth citizens and brutal slavery - there was no one image of America in 19th and early 20th century Britain.
George Blake, who died last month at the age of 98, was a Soviet double agent defined by his dangerous loyalty not to money, nor homeland, but to ideological principle.