Notebooks

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

A newspaper French election results in the late 19th century.
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How to classify the French Right

The French Right has been shaped by prolonged struggle for the balance of power between three consistent, if evolving, tendencies: the Legitimists, the Orléanists, and the Bonapart..

Henry Hill September 19, 2025
Hannah Arendt.
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Arendt’s free-speech manifesto

The political philosopher Hannah Arendt believed that open dialogue and debate were vital to the health of democracy.

Marc Le Chevallier September 16, 2025
President Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II.
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When Royals do geopolitics

In recent times, the Royal Family has played a canny hand to advance Britain's interests with the country's most important ally, the United States.

Hugo Vickers September 16, 2025
Christoph von Dohnanyi conducts the NDR Symphony Orchestra.
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Christoph von Dohnányi’s triumphant life

The son of a Nazi-resistance fighter executed at Sachsenhausen, Christoph von Dohnányi became one of the world’s most revered conductors.

Elisabeth Braw September 15, 2025
Chinese yuan surrounded by US dollar bills.
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Trade imbalances are stalking the global order

Global imbalances are unsustainable, and always unwind. The circumstances under which they do herald moments of crisis.

George Magnus September 15, 2025
Flags from the Scandinavian countries Denmark, Norway and Sweden waving from flagpoles together with the EU flag.
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Norway’s European destiny

In today's hostile geopolitical environment, there is a growing belief that the Nordic nation should join the European Union. Yet the muddle of Norwegian coalition politics continu..

Janne Haaland Matláry September 12, 2025
Sébastien Lecornu and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris, France, 19 June 2023.
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Macron goes back to Gaullism

Sébastien Lecornu, France's new prime minister, belongs to a French Right that does not exist anymore: Gaullist and social minded. Can he appease his country's fractious parliament..

Agnès Poirier September 11, 2025
Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro protest against his Supreme Court trial in Sao Paulo on Sunday, September 7, 2025.
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Brazil’s moment of truth

As the trial of the country's former president, Jair Bolsonaro, reaches its final stages, Donald Trump has raised the spectre of US interference in Brazilian politics.

Stephen G. Bloom September 11, 2025
Washington delivering his inaugural address April 1789, in the old city hall, New York City.
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America’s addiction to intrigue

Bitter partisan battles over intelligence, and accusations of collusion with foreign powers, have a long history in the United States.

Jeffrey Rogg September 11, 2025

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