Notebooks

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The art of agent-running

Agent-running is all about people. The safety of agents – who often treat their case officers as confessional, priest-like figures – is paramount.

Marc Polymeropoulos January 6, 2026

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Strongmen of the New World

Familiarity with strong-armed tactics is one of the reasons why Latin Americans tend to understand Trump’s brand of populism.

Andreas Campomar January 5, 2026

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The authoritarian’s handbook

Examining the strategy of different authoritarian rulers reveals why, in a world of great power politics, a 'Maduro moment' may not be the fate of all despotic regimes.

Edward Howell January 5, 2026

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How Japan marks the turning of the year

New Year is the time when Japan’s Shinto underpinnings really reveal themselves, in rituals of forgetting, purification, and beginning again.

Christopher Harding December 31, 2025

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Brigitte Bardot was the face of France

She was a cultural icon who channelled the electric power of French femininity and, by extension, Frenchness itself.

Muriel Zagha December 29, 2025

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The evolving world of MI6

Technological shifts, alliance politics, and fractious great-power competition make the United Kingdom’s secret service’s work under its new Chief more complex than ever.

Gordon Corera December 29, 2025

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Christmas in exile

Even in exile, Christmas offers a glimpse of hope that today’s struggles will one day fade into memory.

Fergus Butler-Gallie December 24, 2025

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The wonders of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio

Why not turn Christmastide into a thirteen-day Bach celebration, experiencing the Christmas Oratorio as it was first performed across Leipzig’s feast days in 1734–35?

Elisabeth Braw December 22, 2025

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The Jews’ time of miracles

The story of Hanukkah inspires in both its spiritual and worldly dimensions; it is the national epic of the Jewish people.

Samuel Rubinstein December 19, 2025