Notebooks

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

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Sarajevo’s fragile peace

Corruption and instability in the Balkans are chipping away at Bosnia's fragile political settlement.

Saffron Swire September 24, 2025

Image: Allegory of the 1st Partition of Poland, 1772. Credit: Prisma Archive

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The price of appeasement

From the 18th-century partition of Poland to the appeasement of Hitler, Europe's troubled history warns us that indecision and inaction only serve to embolden expansionist powers a..

Adam Zamoyski September 23, 2025

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Calvino and the machines

Italo Calvino's 'literature machine' is a prescient vision of the perils and promise of artificial intelligence.

Alexander Lee September 19, 2025

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

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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