Notebooks

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

Has the myth of Russian interference in the 2016 US election outstripped the reality of its impact? Credit: Rozenski P. / Alamy Stock Photo.
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Mirrors and myths: the role of public perception in shaping covert operations

Entering the world of covert interference is like walking into a funfair world of mirrors. When so little is truly known of the murky world of secret statecraft, our understanding ..

Rory Cormac August 18, 2022
Italian writer Beppe Fenoglio
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Beppe Fenoglio: A Complex Centenary

The Italian writer came into his own during the Second World War– but his ideas about the English-speaking world don’t necessarily connect to Western realities – or audiences – t..

Tobias Jones August 15, 2022
Flying Scotsman Poster
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Working From Anywhere — the holiday never stops

The Covid pandemic turned Working From Home into a lifestyle and a talking point — but Working From Anywhere has become popular too and has meant that working life has melded with ..

Agnès Poirier August 12, 2022
Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer, photographed in his country retreat outside Helsinki. Credit: GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
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Conducting is Finland’s soft superpower

Since the 1800s, Finns have turned to music as an expression of national identity and defiance — today that expression has come full circle.

Elisabeth Braw August 10, 2022
A newspaper front page in Taipei reporting on U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island
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Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan — for Xi, it’s personal

Xi Jinping's petulant reaction to Nancy Pelosi's visit seems likely only to encourage more international backing for Taiwan and reinforce demands for formal independence.

Michael Reilly August 5, 2022
Supporters wave England flags during the Women's Euro final 2022 in Trafalgar Square.
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Total football — from catenaccio to gegenpressing it’s about openness to ideas

Footballing philosophies are central to the national mythologies of the cultures that produce them.

Josh Mcloughlin August 3, 2022
Tghis illustration shows Xerxes at Abydos giivng orders for his army to depart across the Hellespont on the following day.
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Putin’s land war — cautionary lessons from Ancient Greece

Although his army was far larger and far better equipped than that of his opponents, the Persian King Xerxes' invasion of Greece was a disaster. Putin and other would be invaders o..

John Raine July 29, 2022
Destruction of an apartment building in Kyiv, Ukraine.
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The enemy within — the Russians filling Ukrainian homes

It’s a pattern repeated in every conflict — displaced people permanently lose their homes to occupiers. But statistics and ‘integration initiatives’ barely hint at the raw human st..

Elisabeth Braw July 27, 2022
US soldiers fire the M142 HIMRAS at Camp Buehring, Kuwait
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HIMARS permit Ukrainians to fight how they know best — a strategy of corrosion

American High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems are wreaking havoc on Russian forces in Ukraine but they are only one part of the battlefield's complicated tableau.

Mick Ryan July 21, 2022

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