Notebooks

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

notebook

The secrets of Erdogan’s staying power

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's enduring, pragmatic grasp of power has put Turkey in pole position to shape the future of a turbulent Middle East.

Hannah Lucinda Smith June 25, 2025

Members of Syria's security forces deploy in the town of Sahnaya.

notebook

The battle for Syria isn’t over

As Israel eyes Damascus and Iran stirs unrest, can Syria avoid becoming the region's next battleground?

James Snell June 24, 2025

A wall painting depicting an American F-117 Stealth Fighter Jet flying over Belgrade during the Kosovo War in 1999.

notebook

Lessons in the limits of airpower

Airpower advocates have long claimed that modern wars can be won from above, rendering ground troops obsolete. But from NATO’s campaign in Kosovo to the US strikes on Iran, strateg..

Peter Caddick-Adams June 23, 2025

A portrait of Sören Kierkegaard (1813-1855).

notebook

Kierkegaard’s philosophy of love

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard believed that despair could be transformed into hope, under the influence of love, a message that resonates in an age of pessimism.

Zachary Hardman June 20, 2025

Poster advertising the inaugural conference of the United Nations in San Francisco.

notebook

Hamstrung by history: the United Nations 80 years on

All are agreed that the UN is in desperate need of reform, but nobody can agree on what that should look like.

Keith Lowe June 19, 2025

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visiting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Achievement Exhibition at Ashura Aerospace Science and Technology University (2023).

notebook

How Iran’s grand strategy collapsed

Since 7 October 2023, the pillars of Iran's military doctrine have collapsed one by one, paving the way for Israel's lightning strike on the country's military facilities and the p..

Kasra Aarabi June 18, 2025

The bust of the British-French Special Operations Executive (SOE) spy Violette Szabo on top of the SOE memorial in London, United Kingdom.

notebook

The rise of the female spymaster

Blaise Metreweli, set to become the first female chief of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, stands on the shoulders of generations of British women who spied with courage and d..

Helen Fry June 17, 2025