I am delighted to announce that my chapter on espionage in Central Asia and the Great Game has been published as part of this wonderful collection, ‘Spies in History’. It will be up on @engelsbergideas.bsky.social soon. A big thank you to @paullay.bsky.social and Lars Molin for the opportunity.

The key to grand strategy | @wdjames.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-k...

Joseph Wright’s age of enlightenment | @paullay.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/jose...

I've written a piece for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social on the sources of grand strategic ideas. Best enjoyed over the weekend with a brew ☕ Thanks to @jackfdickens.bsky.social, @paullay.bsky.social, and the EI team for publishing.

How the Oslo Accords unravelled | Colin Shindler engelsbergideas.com/notebook/how...

I am very keen to read this book of @georgiosvarouxakis.bsky.social, because as I discussed some months ago with @paullay.bsky.social, it’s up against a tide of fashionable academic critique (of which I am deeply sceptical)—including 1 of David Graeber’s (who I did greatly admire) last essays—

The Blitz club’s influence on eighties fashion proved to be far greater than its influence on music. Blitz, the victory of style over substance | @paullay.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/blit...

The 18th-century philosopher Thomas Day, a fanatical believer in the virtues of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's educational methods, tested his theories to destruction. The madness in Rousseau’s method | Nigel Andrew engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

Josephine Tey's early death denied her a rightful place among the pantheon of crime writers. The forgotten queen of crime fiction | @alecmarsh.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/portraits/th...

The West's political institutions should strive to do less, but better. Why politicians need to show, not tell | Eliot Wilson engelsbergideas.com/notebook/why...

Werner Herzog’s truth | Bryan Appleyard engelsbergideas.com/reviews/wern...

From Stalin’s 1941 May Day parade in Moscow to Xi’s Tiananmen Square display, military spectacles have long been used to project power and mask vulnerability. The politics of a military parade | Peter Caddick-Adams engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

On time and on budget? Whaaat? Make this man prime minister immediately www.ft.com/content/639a...

The end of Pax Britannica | Graeme Thompson engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-e...

Black Ribbon Day, which commemorates the millions of victims who suffered under Nazism and Stalinism, could serve as a poignant reminder of the dangers of totalitarianism. Black Ribbon Day’s new urgency | Keith Lowe engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bla...

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the great @paullay.bsky.social.

The industrialist Henry J. Kaiser played a pivotal role in the lightning mobilisation of American industry that took place after Pearl Harbor, a contribution that deserves wider recognition. Who remembers Henry J. Kaiser? | Gordon F. Sander engelsbergideas.com/portraits/wh...

Syria’s Druze have often been caught between their commitment to national independence and a wariness of Sunni domination. The Druze, no friends but the mountains | @jackfdickens.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

A window into Hitler’s soul | Samuel Rubinstein engelsbergideas.com/notebook/a-w...

A paean to the Paris Métro | @agnescpoirier.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/a-p...

Top marks to @paullay.bsky.social for suggesting putting Bede on a bank note.

This is a sharp, incisive & learned BBCRadio4 Moral Maze discussion of a classic culture war topic: *heroes*. Responses from witnesses @paullay.bsky.social @maddyfryabides.bsky.social Simon Goldhill @elliscashmore.bsky.social I’m with PL. 🙂 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Weekend listen: Cogent and entertaining review of the English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate by “Providence Lost” author @paullay.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Nietzsche’s manifesto for reading | @chountisdefabbri.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/nie...

The composer Erik Satie would have understood our era of atrophied attention spans and mass-produced music. Erik Satie, prophet of the aurally overloaded world | Richard Bratby engelsbergideas.com/notebook/eri...

The unravelling of the rock festival | @paullay.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

Under the spell of William Blake | Michael Prodger engelsbergideas.com/reviews/unde...

“Trump is a bit sympathetic to the idea of ‘nuclear zero’. He would, if he could, abolish nuclear weapons and get rid of them all.” Fiona Hill on Donald Trump’s nuclear nightmares | EI in conversation engelsbergideas.com/essays/in-co...

How monks shaped Christendom | @mathewlyons.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/how-...

China and America, the great decoupling | Michael Sheridan engelsbergideas.com/notebook/chi...

John Law, the man who blew up the French economy | Gerald Malone engelsbergideas.com/essays/john-...

South Korea’s crisis could be a geopolitical catastrophe | Edward Howell engelsbergideas.com/notebook/sou...

Marine Le Pen’s reckoning | @agnescpoirier.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/mar...

Really enjoyed doing this for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social. Many thanks to @alastairbenn.bsky.social and @paullay.bsky.social for the invite! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e...

What will geopolitics look like in 2050? Paul Kennedy says that we should prepare for a tripolar world run by America, China and India. Make sure to read this fascinating conversation between @paullay.bsky.social, Charlie Laderman and the great British historian Paul Kennedy:

The Statue of Liberty’s Egyptian origins | Maria Golia engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

An empire of ivory and inhumanity | Franklin Nelson engelsbergideas.com/reviews/an-e...

Those who seek to carve up Syria should know that partitions never work. The divisions they create are at best arbitrary and must be enforced with violence. The perils of partition | James Snell engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

The Genocide Convention and its discontents | Christopher Hale engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

This by @alastairbenn.bsky.social is a lovely hymn to how we joke. It's oddly plangent too. I remember watching Mitchell & Webb in Edinburgh, and DM reading Betjeman's A Subaltern's Love Song at a friend's wedding. And temping in a boring office trying to write a sitcom about it, then hearing...

The making of an 18th-century peace deal | George Owers engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-m...

Technology has become a convenient scapegoat for the decline of literacy. The real problem lies in our society’s approach to reading as a mode of self-expression rather than as a tool of self-improvement. How to revive our reading culture | Tiffany Jenkins engelsbergideas.com/notebook/how...

How to revive our reading culture | @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/how...

The Trump effect | Samuel Rubinstein engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

My journey to a defiant Ukraine | Brendan Simms engelsbergideas.com/notebook/my-...

The end of the Atlanticist Era | Robert Lyman engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

Exploring the landscapes of Shakespeare’s childhood open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...

The idea of the party has a long lineage in the history of the opera. Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen is the latest contribution. Partygoing at the opera | Benjamin Poore engelsbergideas.com/reviews/part...

History provides an illuminating insight into past and present events, but employing false analogies divorced from historical context can have disastrous consequences. The pitfalls of hindsight | Gill Bennett engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

Here is @ianleslie.bsky.social on corporate America’s retreat from DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) www.ian-leslie.com/p/the-end-of...