Notebooks

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Human behaviour will still determine who wins wars

Digitalised defence systems and new technology are important, but they do not eliminate the age old realities of warfare.

Rob Johnson April 29, 2022

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Macron’s France is remaking itself again

The French Republic had to be built but then it had to be preserved. Its very attempts to conserve itself in the face of constant instability however, is what creates the tension a..

Alastair Benn April 25, 2022

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Casting a vote for democracy

For the French, the drama of the ballot box is an almost religious ritual.

Agnès Poirier April 22, 2022

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In praise of the ellipsis

Style guides and standardisation have beaten out any creativity in punctuation. The near eradication of the multi-purposed ellipsis has been one of its greatest losses.

Henry Oliver April 20, 2022

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Fighting back against Russia — the return of propaganda

The Western alliance has got serious about coordinating its dissemination of intelligence, but it needs to avoid its pitfalls.

Jamie Gaskarth April 14, 2022

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What Putin learnt from NATO’s 1999 intervention in Kosovo

Putin took a clear lesson from NATO’s 1999 bombing of Serbia. His opponents' failure to understand this stunted their ability to plan for Putin’s most recent invasion.

Tim Marshall April 8, 2022

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Ukraine is the latest disaster in a long history of Russian military dysfunction

The Russian army has had its fair share of military disasters with its most recent in Ukraine being a clear product of a system that refuses to accept the truth and only deals in e..

Rob Johnson April 8, 2022

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Bucha atrocities are an intrinsic part of the Russian way of war

Russian concepts of collective responsibility guide how its army deals with partisan warfare with horrifying consequences.

Jack Watling April 4, 2022

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Rising from the ruins of war, Coventry Cathedral shows the power of reconciliation

Sir Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral remains an overwhelming triumph and feels just as enduring and ageless as any of Britain’s great medieval cathedrals.

James Hardie April 1, 2022