Notebooks

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

Pier Paolo Pasolini in the 1960s. Credit: Cola Images

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Pasolini’s Rome

Pier Paolo Pasolini's vision of the Eternal City was far from an aesthete's fantasy. His Rome was a real place, at once poetic and squalid, which he captured with a cartographer’s ..

Ian Thomson November 20, 2025

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reviews the military guard of honour at the Presidential palace in Ankara. Credit: Associated Press.

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Erdogan’s new order

The Turkish president's ongoing crackdown against political opponents has left his challengers in disarray, giving him a free hand to continue reshaping the country in his own imag..

Hannah Lucinda Smith November 14, 2025

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The aesthetics of Ernst Jünger

The German war hero was an aesthete who sought to be heard only by those who might be willing to listen.

Jaspreet Singh Boparai November 14, 2025

Marilin Vinent holds a photo of her son Dannys Castillo with other Cubans in Russia. Vinent said that her son travelled to Russia after being promised work in a construction job but that he was one of the Cubans recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine. Credit: Ramon Espinosa

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The trafficking networks sustaining Russia’s war of attrition

As Putin seeks to avoid another politically damaging mobilisation, the temptation to draw on Moscow's extensive global trafficking networks will only grow.

Munira Mustaffa November 13, 2025

The Timor-Leste flag being installed at ASEAN.

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Why Timor-Leste joined ASEAN

With the entry of Timor-Leste, ASEAN has gained a tiny new democracy to join its diverse grouping of one-party states, absolute monarchies and military juntas.

Imran Shamsunahar November 11, 2025

View of the Martyrs Bridge and Niger River in Bamako, Mali. Credit: Thomas Cockrem

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The perils of a jihadist state in Africa

The militants on the brink of toppling Mali's junta are affiliated with Al Qaeda. But their original grievances have distinct geographic and cultural elements rooted in a deeper pa..

Tim Marshall November 10, 2025

The children's choir at Kungsholmen Church in Stockholm.

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A community of choirs

Western countries seeking to combat the modern ills of loneliness, social fragmentation and political polarisation can learn from their Scandinavian ally's remarkable choral tradit..

Elisabeth Braw November 5, 2025

Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with Yasser Arafat on the South Lawn of the White House following the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

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How the Oslo Accords unravelled

The assassination in 1995 of Yitzhak Rabin was a watershed moment in the gradual disintegration of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, paving the way for greater bloodshed in th..

Colin Shindler November 4, 2025

The Awakening of the Arts by Frans Floris (c. 1560).

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AI against the arts

Artificial Intelligence must not be weaponised to downgrade ideas of artistic excellence founded on human genius, elitism and meritocracy.

Alexandra Wilson November 3, 2025