Notebooks

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

A 2018 poster in the city of Rastan shows Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin as allies.

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Russia’s Cold War Redux strategy for the Middle East lies in ruins

Russia's recent engagement with Syria had marked continuities with the Soviet Union's Middle East strategy.

Ibrahim Al-Marashi December 18, 2024

Emmanuel Macron walks alone during a ceremony for late French politician and admiral, Philippe de Gaulle, the son of Charles de Gaulle

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The last days of the Fifth Republic

The Fifth Republic, forged by de Gaulle to stabilise France, teeters on the brink of collapse as its fundamental contradictions put French politics at an impasse.

Angus Brown December 13, 2024

The Shot at Dawn Memorial in Staffordshire commemorating those who were executed for desertion in the First World War.

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The pardon paradox

While the right to grant clemency originated in the divine authority of monarchs, it now resides with elected leaders whose use of it can conflict with principles of impartial just..

Adam Zamoyski December 13, 2024

Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt and Hafiz Al-Assad of Syria on a warehouse in Syria.

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The long struggle for Syria

Marked by failed coups, foreign intrigue, and stubborn tyranny, Syria’s modern history captures how political ambitions and a battle for global power have continually shaped the na..

James Barr December 12, 2024

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The hunchback of Mosul

The cathedral of Notre-Dame and the mosques of Mosul and Aleppo, were shaped by centuries of cross-cultural exchange between the Christian and Islamic worlds. Their restorations re..

Ibrahim Al-Marashi December 11, 2024

Children sit on a broken statue of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.

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Why dictators fall

The Syrian war was part of a global conflict between tyrants and their slaves, the great struggle of our time.

Edmund Stewart December 10, 2024

A protestor in Romania holds an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Calin Georgescu, the independent candidate for Romanian presidency who won the first round of elections

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Russia’s shadow war for Eastern Europe

From Romania to the Balkans, Russia is waging a hybrid war of subversion, disinformation and influence in Eastern Europe's fractured societies.

Hannah Lucinda Smith December 9, 2024

Gerald Ford announcing his decision to pardon Richard Nixon, 1974.

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The fraught history of the presidential pardon

From its founding, the United States has wrestled with the scope and limits of the presidential pardon, a power in many ways more redolent of monarchy than republicanism.

Angus Brown December 5, 2024

A TV screen at a train station shows a news report on troops entering the parliament building after South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol's declaration of martial law

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An echo of South Korea’s past

In a dramatic test of democracy, South Korea’s parliament and citizens defied President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law, turning a moment of authoritarian overreach, car..

Michael Booth December 5, 2024