Notebooks

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Marine Le Pen’s reckoning

For decades, Marine Le Pen has called for stricter laws to tackle corruption in public life. Now, the law has caught up with her, unleashing a political earthquake that could trans..

Agnès Poirier April 1, 2025

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Shostakovich spoke truth to power

The Russian composer's evocation of the crimes of Nazism and Communism in his Babi Yar Symphony illustrates both the hallowed nature of art, and the artist's responsibility to spea..

Benjamin Poore March 31, 2025

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Erdogan’s pious generation takes to the streets

President Erdogan's incarceration of his chief political rival has united a generation of young Turks in opposition to his rule. His hold on power, eroded by economic crises and co..

Hannah Lucinda Smith March 26, 2025

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Gatsby, still great at 100

In an age of rising inequality and economic disaffection, Fitzgerald's slender satire of American East Coast society, with its evocation of the conflict between the old world and n..

Guy Stagg March 25, 2025

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The idea of Syria is worth saving

The world has spent decades brandishing arbitrarily drawn maps depicting Syrians in sectarian and separatist terms. Yet this reductive approach ignores another, deeper tradition of..

Rime Allaf March 24, 2025