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 competition.
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 needed to repair the damage.
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.
The 19th century culminated in an extraordinary period of national jingoism as film, the popular press and photography inspired European nations to jockey for imperial dominance.
The First World War fundamentally altered our understanding of strategy – we should heed the insights of the era’s leading thinkers and generals.
Whenever societies sink into decadence and decline, the ever fascinating figure of the dandy is swift to emerge.
London’s response to its last plague epidemic involved close collaboration between crown, City and parish.
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.
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