Notebooks

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

Demonstrators throw stones at Soviet tanks in Berlin during the East German uprising of June 17 1953.
notebook

What the West can learn from Cold War dissidents

In an age of rising authoritarianism, those who championed democracy from behind the Iron Curtain provide an invaluable source of knowledge and courage.

Elisabeth Braw April 11, 2025
The Bronze Horseman equestrian statue of Peter the Great in St Petersburg.
notebook

A Russian nation struggles to be born

A diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine would provide an opportunity for Russia to cease being a revanchist empire and emerge as a normal European country. The geopolitical d..

Thomas Graham April 10, 2025
A Greek lithograph depicting the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.
notebook

How the Young Turks became tyrants

The course of a late-Ottoman revolution warns us that liberators can easily turn into tyrants, and that new political dawns can be deceptive.

Jack Dickens April 9, 2025
US President Donald Trump announces tariffs on all imported vehicles on March 26, 2025.
notebook

Trump’s tariff paradox

Playing the tariff game may undermine Trump’s domestic economic agenda.

Samuel Gregg April 9, 2025
A large crowd of protestors gathered in Gwangju, South Korea.
notebook

South Korea’s crisis could be a geopolitical catastrophe

Amid domestic upheaval and international tensions, South Korea's next president will have to move quickly to mend the country's relationship with the United States and counter thre..

Edward Howell April 8, 2025
A late-19th-century Puck magazine illustration of Joseph Chamberlain holding a pair of shears labelled 'Protection'.
notebook

The Edwardian assault on free trade

At the turn of the 20th century, British protectionists waged a long and unsuccessful crusade against free trade. Like President Trump’s trade policies today, their campaign for ta..

Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri April 7, 2025
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico speaking at the National Palace.
notebook

How Jewish leaders have defied the political odds

The remarkable success of Jewish leaders around the world defies easy explanation. In part, it is a result of their dedication to the national ideal, combined with a refusal to acc..

Elijah Granet April 4, 2025
A mine in Donetsk.
notebook

The new great power competition for minerals

Great powers have long coveted the resources beneath our feet. The Trump administration's quest for mineral wealth is nothing new.

Paul Josephson April 3, 2025
Oda Nobunaga, 16th century Japanese Daimyo.
notebook

Gaming Japan’s bloody past

Controversies over the latest instalment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, set during Japan’s bloody Sengoku jidai, or ‘era of warring states’ (c.1467-1600), show why the past sho..

Christopher Harding April 2, 2025

Download The Engelsberg
Ideas app

The world in your pocket. The app brings together – in one place – our essays, reviews, notebooks, and podcasts.

Download here

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play