Essays

Long-form writing from leading scholars and commentators on history, statecraft, warfare, philosophy and culture.

Caricature of European political relations titled 'John Bull and his friends, a serio-comic map of Europe' showing the Russian Empire as an octopus with tentacles reaching into Asia, France and Spain as attractive women, while Germany and Great Britain are military commanders, 1900. Illutsration by Frederick W. Rose.

The Empire strikes back

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.

Lawrence James January 15, 2021

First World War Commanders looking at a battle plan. Painting by Francois Flameng (1856-1923), 1916. Army Museum, Paris.

essays

The forgotten lessons of First World War strategy

The First World War fundamentally altered our understanding of strategy - we should heed the insights of the era's leading thinkers and generals.

Hew Strachan January 8, 2021

Poet and novelist, Oscar Wilde, (1854-1900), in his typical costume of a velvet robe and black silk stockings. Wilde was one of the leading dandies of the Victorian era

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On dandyism

Whenever societies sink into decadence and decline, the ever fascinating figure of the dandy is swift to emerge.

Melanie Grundmann January 5, 2021

Soviet-era anti-American poster of prison bars created out of the crown of the Statue of Liberty

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Inside the disinformation forever war

Russian 'active measures', including election meddling, disinformation and influence operations, were as common throughout the Cold War as they are today.

Calder Walton December 18, 2020

A visitor walks in a formely secret air raid tunnel called Third Avenue in London. The once secret tunnels were built 100 feet under central London in 1940 as fully equipped air raid shelters and could accommodate 8000 people. They have since been used by MI6 and the Public Records Office to hold 400 tonnes of secret documents. Credit: Peter Macdiarmid

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The Spy and the State

The technological sophistication of the modern state is no substitute for human intelligence gathering.

Gill Bennett December 17, 2020

Harold ('Kim') Philby, a former British official in Washington, is shown at a press conference in London, at which he refuted charges of having been the mysterious Third Man in the Burgess-Maclean spy case. Credit: Bettmann

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On betrayal

Espionage feeds off betrayal. And yet we find it difficult to love those who betray their country even in a just cause.

Christopher Coker December 15, 2020

A photojournalist watches as Palestinians protest in the West Bank. Credit: Nidal Alwaheidi/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.

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The indispensable foreign correspondent

The communications revolution has transformed the context of war reporting. And yet the traditional role of the foreign correspondent is still essential.

Isabel Hilton December 11, 2020

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Challenging the ‘Great Reset’ theory of pandemics

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 assumption..

Mark Honigsbaum December 10, 2020

This map of Russia and surrounding countries highlights Hitler's campaign in Russia and how it went wrong.

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In search of Lebensraum

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.

Richard Overy December 4, 2020