Notebooks

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

A vintage map from 1907 showing maritime trade routes through the Turkish Straits.
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How to manage a geopolitical chokepoint

The successful 1936 Montreux Convention, a grand diplomatic bargain over the Turkish Straits, shows why geopolitical chokepoints need a strong and reliable status quo power to act ..

Ziyi Wang April 2, 2026
Cranes of a shipyard in Shanghai.
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Why the war in Iran is not a gift to China

The notion that Beijing is the chief beneficiary of the US-Iran conflict is a long way wide of the mark.

George Magnus April 2, 2026
US Marines conduct a reconnaissance and surveillance rehearsal mission, part of a simulated amphibious assault exercise, March 24, 2026, in Diego Garcia, Chagos Islands.
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Trump’s unwinnable war

Mired in an open-ended confrontation with the Islamic Republic, President Trump is faced with a painful choice between launching a new forever war or accepting a humiliating defeat..

Eldad Shavit and Jesse R. Weinberg April 1, 2026
The V&A East Storehouse museum in the former Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
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When museums become storehouses

Museums now invite visitors behind the scenes. The result is a new kind of historical sublime: human creativity measured by volume.

Tim Abrahams March 31, 2026
A 1996 production of 'The Fortunes And Misfortunes Of Moll Flanders' starring Alex Kingston.
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Moll Flanders and the invention of modern life

In his picaresque novel 'Moll Flanders', Daniel Defoe presents experience as the true measure of character.

David Patrikarakos March 31, 2026
A Japanese poster for the film Metropolis.
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The age of Me is over. The age of Them has begun

It is half a century since Tom Wolfe coined the phrase the 'Me Decade'. Yet Me, We and You no longer capture a world increasingly shaped by 'Them', the systems and machines that no..

Bryan Appleyard March 30, 2026
Satellite view of the Strait of Hormuz with white shipping lanes showing maritime traffic between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
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America’s fatal chokepoint

US grand strategy was once guided by a sound understanding of the importance of chokepoints, a vital aspect of geopolitics that the Trump administration has neglected at its own pe..

Phil Tinline March 28, 2026
A student holds an Iran flag during a rally marking the 32nd anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US Embassy in downtown Tehran, Iran, 4 November, 2011.
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Iran and America’s long war

The roots of the current conflict between the United States and Iran go back to the origins of the Islamic Republic and the seismic shockwaves it unleashed across the Middle East.

Ibrahim Al-Marashi and Tanya Goudsouzian March 27, 2026
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkey, on 4 February, 2025.
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Turkey and Syria’s Iran crisis

In the war between the US and Iran, the leaders of both Turkey and Syria face the challenge of maintaining close relations with President Trump, concerns about overt alignment with..

Hannah Lucinda Smith March 25, 2026

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