Notebooks

Notebooks are snapshots from our writers, reflecting on current affairs and underappreciated aspects of culture and history.

A 1993 production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

notebook

Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia and the power of the humanities

In the late playwright’s masterpiece, the humanities remain indispensable to any vision of human flourishing.

Russ Roberts March 17, 2026

Iranian Revolutionary Guards march during an annual military parade in Tehran, Iran, in September 2013.

notebook

The IRGC’s way of war

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have a flexible command structure designed for fighting unconventional wars against superior forces, a survival strategy that goes back to the origins o..

Ashkan Hashemipour March 16, 2026

Nepal's new Prime Minister Balendra Shah waves the national flag in Jhapa, Nepal. Credit: ZUMA Press.

notebook

Nepal’s youth rebellion meets geopolitics

Nepal’s youth-driven uprising has reset the foreign policy landscape in Kathmandu, exposing the limits of China’s communist alliances and India’s long-standing influence over the N..

Ankit Tiwari March 16, 2026

Protesters hold posters during a demonstration against a Turkish military operation against Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG) forces in Syria's Afrin, outside the Kurdistan Parliament in Erbil, northern Iraq, on January 21, 2018.

notebook

Why Trump’s Kurdish gambit failed

American calls for an armed uprising among Iran's Kurds were undermined by disenchantment over the fickleness of Washington's previous support for Kurdish causes.

William Gourlay March 12, 2026

notebook

The West’s military malaise

The West’s response to new methods of warfare in Ukraine and the Middle East has been sluggish, revealing an adaptation process that is slow, risk-averse and underfunded.

Mick Ryan March 11, 2026

A community building in Protaras on the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus shows a silhouette of the island within the stars of the EU flag.

notebook

Cyprus’ geopolitical future is at stake

Two decades after joining the EU, Cyprus remains a divided island, its strategic position in the eastern Mediterranean uncertain.

Hannah Lucinda Smith March 10, 2026

A man walks past mural which connects gas masks and the Covid pandemic.

notebook

The culture of safetyism

A preoccupation with safety has transformed the West. What does it mean when fear becomes a society’s guiding principle?

Pierre Valentin March 10, 2026

Mojtaba Khamenei attends a parade marking the Islamic Republic's Al-Quds International Day in Tehran, on 22 May 2024.

notebook

The house of Khamenei lives on

Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, is a devoted son of the Islamic Republic whose rule may take the regime in an even more extreme direction.

Saeid Golkar and Jason M. Brodsky March 10, 2026

A late 19th-century illustration of John Bull and Uncle Sam.

notebook

The Special Relationship in a world of hard power

The alliance between Britain and the United States worked best when the former had leverage of its own.

Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri March 9, 2026