From Napoleon to the Nazis, Europe's would-be masters have sought to harness the power of the medieval masterpiece. The Bayeux Tapestry and the quest for Europe | Caitlin Allen engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

Bengal's 200-year-old tradition of cosmopolitan liberalism – shaped by British imperialism – is coming to an end, giving way to a reactionary political imagination. The death of Bengali liberalism | Sumantra Maitra engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-d...

🎧Audio essay: Agent Zo, the spy who saved Poland Elżbieta Zawacka, who played a key role in the Home Army’s resistance efforts, was one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history, writes Clare Mulley. audioboom.com/posts/890483...

From Napoleon to the Nazis, Europe's would-be masters have sought to harness the power of the medieval masterpiece. The Bayeux Tapestry and the quest for Europe | Caitlin Allen engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

The smartphone inherits anxieties about distraction that have haunted every new technology. My latest for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social: engelsbergideas.com/notebook/in-...

The smartphone inherits anxieties about distraction that have haunted every new technology. In defence of distraction | @alastairbenn.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/in-...

Just found this and wish I'd written it but @duncanweldon.bsky.social got in first

The Laskett in Herefordshire is a testament to Strong’s almost Proustian devotion to memory, a highly personalised landscape full of ideas and follies that evoke sentiments or places. Roy Strong, the man for all seasons | Clive Aslet engelsbergideas.com/essays/roy-s...

My latest, with @engelsbergideas.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/how...

Singapore's success story was built on the promise that globalisation, economic integration and the rules-based order would endure indefinitely. The Chinese threat to Singapore | Alexander Still engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

🎧The EI Podcast: Lewis and Clark’s American Odyssey Ahead of the 250th anniversary of America’s independence, Craig Fehrman speaks to Max Mitchell about one of the nation’s foundational myths. audioboom.com/posts/890342...

In the early 1990s, President Clinton drew on US diplomatic and financial power to bring about a Russian withdrawal from the Baltic States. How Clinton brought Russia to the table | Andris Banka & Alexander Noyes engelsbergideas.com/notebook/how...

Throughout its history, the Syrian state has been viewed by Arab nationalists, Baathists and Islamists alike as a stepping stone towards a grander political destiny. Syria’s political destiny | Asser Khattab engelsbergideas.com/notebook/syr...

At the heart of John A. Macdonald’s vision for Canada was the realisation that national power depended on productive capacity, a lesson European leaders would do well to remember. Canada’s story and the art of middle-power politics | David Cowan engelsbergideas.com/essays/canad...

The cult of athleisure is outlasting the brands that created it. The athleisure revolution eats its children | Zoe Strimpel engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

President Trump will want Xi Jinping to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran, but not at any price. Trump’s cards to play in China | @george17.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/tru...

President Trump will want Xi Jinping to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran, but not at any price. Trump’s cards to play in China | @george17.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/tru...

Rhoda Power’s remarkable eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution’s descent into chaos deserves a new generation of readers. Russia 1917-18: what Rhoda Power saw | Jeremy Jennings engelsbergideas.com/reviews/russ...

Rhoda Power’s remarkable eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution’s descent into chaos deserves a new generation of readers. Russia 1917-18: what Rhoda Power saw | Jeremy Jennings engelsbergideas.com/reviews/russ...

🎧Audio essay: Why powerful individuals are dominating politics From Xi Jinping in China to Narendra Modi in India and Donald Trump in the US, Nicholas Wright explores how powerful leaders are reshaping the rules of the global great game. audioboom.com/posts/890192...

The case for an Asian NATO | Edward Howell engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

In classical India, Bharata’s 'Natyashastra' conceived of art as sacred knowledge, in stark contrast to the diminished role aesthetic experience occupies today. The fifth Veda and the ancient essence of art | Garima Garg engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

Moscow is marking Victory Day with little cause for celebration. Modern Russia has no coherent ideology to export and Putin's attempt to revive Soviet-era global influence is visibly collapsing. Putin’s Potemkin empire | Owen Matthews engelsbergideas.com/notebook/put...

External actors often imagine Iran as a collection of detachable ethnic blocs. Yet its communities are so historically intertwined that separatism is almost inconceivable. Why Iran will not fracture along ethnic lines | Ibrahim al-Marashi and Tanya Goudsouzian engelsbergideas.com/notebook/why...

Curated by historian Simon Schama, the Mauritshuis's 'BIRDS' brings together five centuries of art exploring mankind's relationship with the avian world. The art of birds | Cath Pound engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...

The Trump administration brought military supremacy to a geo-economic fight. The 21st century now has its own logic of mutually assured destruction. Geo-economics and the new logic of MAD | Katharina J. Klotz engelsbergideas.com/notebook/geo...

🎧The EI Podcast: Weimar’s descent into darkness How did Weimar, the town of Goethe and Schiller, become the crucible of Germany’s moral collapse? Katja Hoyer speaks to EI's Alastair Benn about the town's role in the rise of the Third Reich. audioboom.com/posts/890048...

Under the guise of selling images of a simple if picturesque reality, both Venetian artists were painters of the ideal. Canaletto and Bellotto: painters of the ideal | Michael Prodger engelsbergideas.com/reviews/cana...

With Ukraine adapting faster than its invader, several early indicators suggest that the war's trajectory is shifting in Kyiv's favour. Ukraine is mastering 21st-century warfare | Mick Ryan (@warinthefuture.bsky.social) engelsbergideas.com/essays/ukrai...

For Oxbridge dons of old, learning was worn lightly, style mattered almost as much as substance, and a certain effortless amateurism was prized. The golden age of the don | David Vaiani engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...

The postwar world was built on a quintet of myths – the end of the world, the hero, the monster, the martyr and the final resurrection. They were the glue that held the international system together. The myths that built the postwar world | Keith Lowe engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

🎧Audio essay: The civilising wonders of wine Henry Jeffreys argues that the decline in alcohol consumption in Western societies suggests a gradual weakening of a shared civilisational inheritance. audioboom.com/posts/889936...

The renowned medievalist Christopher de Hamel reflects on the alluring power of manuscripts, and how they allow us to illuminate both the past and the present in surprising ways. The enchanting world of medieval manuscripts | Derek Turner engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...

Expelling hereditary peers comes at a cost to Britain's constitutional and cultural fabric. Elegy for the hereditary peers | Gerald Warner engelsbergideas.com/essays/elegy...

Trump's erratic use of tariffs may ultimately undermine the alliances that have allowed the United States to project its power around the globe. From America First to America Alone | Samuel Gregg engelsbergideas.com/essays/from-...

As he travels the country uncovering decay at almost every turn, Tom Feiling proves a superb guide – not only to Japan, but to the uncertain future of every ageing society. Japan: the world’s demographic canary | Caroline Eden (@edentravels.bsky.social) engelsbergideas.com/reviews/japa...

🎧The EI Podcast: Can Europe thrive in a multipolar world? Mark Leonard, co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, speaks to EI’s Jack Dickens about Europe’s place in a changing world order. audioboom.com/posts/889741...

The National Gallery's absorbing exhibition confirms the greatness of Francisco de Zurbaràn, a Spanish master of extraordinary range whose reputation continues to grow. Zurbarán: the mysteries of a singular talent | @paullay.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/zurb...

The chaos of the Trump administration and an intergenerational transfer of wealth to millennials may revive Obama-style technocracy, but shorn of progressive excess. The return of Obama nationalism | Sumantra Maitra engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

Once a sacred duty, hospitality was also a test of how societies welcomed strangers. Hospitality’s ancient origins | @zachdh.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/hos...

Despite the United States' resplendent origin myths, the motivations for the complex and confused events of 1775-83 now appear as diverse as their participants. The unintended consequences of the American Revolution | J.C.D. Clark engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-u...

For all its elevated sense of history and institutional self-worth, the modern British civil service owes its origins, in part, to China. Britain’s modern civil service: an idea borrowed from China | @drchrisharding.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bri...

Despite the United States' resplendent origin myths, the motivations for the complex and confused events of 1775-83 now appear as diverse as their participants. The unintended consequences of the American Revolution | J.C.D. Clark engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-u...

Once a sacred duty, hospitality was also a test of how societies welcomed strangers. Hospitality’s ancient origins | @zachdh.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/hos...

The chaos of the Trump administration and an intergenerational transfer of wealth to millennials may revive Obama-style technocracy, but shorn of progressive excess. The return of Obama nationalism | Sumantra Maitra engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

The desire to avoid death has grown into a vast industry. Yet the truth is, we have already created a form of immortality. It just isn't human. Humanity’s undying quest for immortality | Bryan Appleyard engelsbergideas.com/notebook/hum...

For the excellent @engelsbergideas.bsky.social I wrote about the tradition of French gardens, their mad geometry, and the ideas that lie beneath the parterres and topiary. engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

Against a backdrop of war in Europe and the Middle East, and fraying Anglo-American relations, Charles would do well to emulate the canny diplomacy of his predecessor. What King James can teach Charles III about diplomacy | @eloisedavies.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/wha...

Under Louis XIV, the jardin à la française, with its straight lines, geometric shapes and clear boundaries, made nature subordinate to man. The ideal garden of the Ancien Régime | Muriel Zagha engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

🎧Audio essay: The long shadow of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials In the courtrooms of Nuremberg and Tokyo, the victorious Allies declared that civilisation must not merely win wars but also judge them. Iain MacGregor explores that legal and moral legacy. audioboom.com/posts/889587...