Notebooks

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

Members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) holding up flags on trucks during a military parade held in front of Tiananmen Gate on September 3, 2025 in Beijing, China.
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The politics of a military parade

From Stalin’s 1941 May Day parade in Moscow to Xi’s Tiananmen Square display, military spectacles have long been used to project power and mask vulnerability.

Peter Caddick-Adams September 10, 2025
A Baghdad street scene captured in 1955. Credit: INTERFOTO
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Journeys in modernist Baghdad

In the 1950s, monarchists and revolutionaries sought to transform Baghdad’s urban landscape, bringing the city’s ancient past into contact with futuristic modernism.

Adam Sami Kydd September 9, 2025
Royal Scots Guards military pipers playing bagpipes in kilt uniforms at Edinburgh Castle in a military ceremony, Scotland, UK.
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Iran’s strange Scottish obsession

The Islamic Republic's curious obsession with the cause of Scottish independence provides a fascinating insight into the worldview of Iran's paranoid leaders.

Rob Macaire September 8, 2025
General Douglas MacArthur arrives in Japan in 1945.
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General MacArthur, maker of postwar Japan

Douglas MacArthur's legacy remains complex – part liberator, part censor, part architect – but undeniably, he was a builder of the Japan we know today.

Iain MacGregor September 3, 2025
Painting of the Romanian Army crossing the Danube to enter Dobrogea in 1878 by Henryk Dembitzky. Credit: The Picture Art Collection
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Romania’s long return to the West

While Romania's attitude towards NATO is primarily driven by a fear of Russian aggression, it is also shaped by the country's pride in its Latin heritage, and a long tradition of l..

Mara Balasa September 2, 2025
Pro-Iranian Hezbollah supporters commemorate Ashura in Beirut, Lebanon. 6 July, 2025.
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Hezbollah is running out of options

The Lebanese Government’s plan to disarm a militarily weakened Hezbollah revives the spectre of civil conflict. The stage is set for a battle between competing visions of Lebanon's..

John Raine September 2, 2025
The Christian Science Church, located in Springfield.
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Christian Science and the American Dream

Christian Science's remarkable history shows that, in America, orthodoxy of belief is less important than compatibility with the civic religion and ethnic, cultural, and economic a..

Elijah Granet September 1, 2025
Arab soldiers carrying the flag of the Independent Kingdom of Hejaz, during the Arab Revolt, in 1917.
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When Britain promised Arab independence

Britain's ambiguous support in 1915 for Arab national aspirations is a reminder that abstract promises, hastily made, can only generate discontent – a vital lesson for the current ..

James Barr August 28, 2025
A North Korean propaganda painting depicts North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung liberating his country during the Korean War
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The use and abuse of Korea’s past

Seventy-five years after the outbreak of the Korean War, competing accounts of the conflict continue to animate tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Edward Howell August 27, 2025

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