Notebooks

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

General George Washington says farewell to his officers after the Revolution at Fraunces Tavern, New York City. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives

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A return to the classical foundations of American statecraft

Trump's coup in Caracas exemplifies a form of statecraft rooted in antiquity – and in America's founding.

Joshua Treviño January 8, 2026

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After the Eighth Great Power

Each communications revolution rewrites the political order. Democracies will not survive by clinging to broadcast certainties or chasing every viral falsehood.

Lisa Klaassen January 7, 2026

Iranians protesting against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police, in Tehran, 1 October, 2022.

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Iran’s new age of revolutions

Iran's protests are part of a new phase of unrest in the Islamic Republic that began in 2017, when calls for reform were displaced by demands for regime change.

Kasra Aarabi and Saeid Golkar January 6, 2026

Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 1965.

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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

A supporter of Argentinian President Javier Milei wears a Donald Trump mask at a rally.

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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

A pedestrian walks past a mural of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Sunday, 4 January, 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

A Japanese family cleans the home in advance of New Year celebrations.

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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

The new head of Britain's MI6 Blaise Metreweli makes her first public speech.

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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