Notebooks

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

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin sit on the patio of Livadia Palace, Yalta, Crimea.

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Defying the lessons of history

After the failures at Yalta at the end of the Second World War, the West finally learned not to trust the word of European dictators. Negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine ri..

Keith Lowe February 15, 2025

Neville Chamberlain arrives at Heston Aerodrome, London after meeting Adolf Hitler.

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Nothing is worse than an inconclusive peace

The similarities and dissimilarities between the policy of appeasement as practised in the 1930s and that of the 2020s are a warning from history.

Tim Bouverie February 14, 2025

US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House.

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The betrayal of Ukraine

President Trump's 'plan' for Ukraine is not realpolitik, but ‘might is right’ writ large.

Antony Beevor February 14, 2025

A patch of the flag of Ukraine on a soldier's uniform.

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Russia cannot conquer Ukraine

Whatever burden Ukraine bears in resisting Russia, the alternative is unthinkable.

Nick Lloyd February 13, 2025

The Motherland monument in Kyiv illuminated with the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

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Ukraine alone

As Ukraine confronts its western partners' hesitations and appeasements, Israel offers the best lens for understanding the country's future geopolitics.

Christian Caryl February 13, 2025

The US Navy battleship USS Iowa and USS Ticonderoga transits the Suez Canal in 1988.

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How Iran’s Tanker War shaped Trump’s worldview

The American president has been a longstanding critic of US engagement in policing the Middle East's sea-lanes.

Charlie Laderman February 12, 2025

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Securonomics belongs to the world of yesterday

Securonomics was based on the fiction that the state can combine dynamic American capitalism with European-style welfarism. Trump’s return to the White House has shattered this ill..

James Vitali February 10, 2025

A depiction from a contemporary newspaper of 'The Fourth Party'.

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Reform and the long shadow of the Fourth Party

In the 1880s, Randolph Churchill’s band of rebels took on the Conservative Party leadership in the name of ‘Tory Democracy’. Through political dissension and publicity stunts, they..

Harry Cluff February 7, 2025

Cars driving past a Texaco station in 1970s Portland, Oregon.

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The roots of America’s oil anxiety

President Trump’s call for the United States to ‘Drill, baby, drill!’ is a new riff on a familiar theme. American fears about an overdependence on imported oil have a long lineage ..

Jack Dickens February 6, 2025