THE WEEK THAT WAS

In the summer of 1914, Europe stumbled into a war that almost none of its statesmen had wanted. Each capital believed it was reacting defensively to the mobilisations of others; each set of...

In the 1990s, the dominant story about globalisation was a story about the retreat of the state. As goods, capital and information began to move across borders at unprecedented speed, a generation...

Foreign aid is often described as generosity made visible: money, expertise and manpower crossing borders in the name of helping the world’s poor. When a drought hits, foreign aid can look like...

Politics is defined by Oxford dictionary as ‘the activities associated with the governance of acountry or area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having orhoping to...

summer roundup

When the word “authoritarianism” is mentioned, most of us would conjure up the same picture – of a Stalinist society, or societies synonymous to what we have read in many literary works.  However,...

Realism is the best theory of International Relations because it continues to provide the discipline’s fundamental ontology, is its most progressive programme, and is the most convincing...

Iran's Islamic Republic was founded by a revolution that overthrew a hereditary monarch. This week, as the country buries Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it is confronting the prospect of supreme power...

In January 2023, French troops departed Mali after nearly a decade of counterterrorism operations. They left behind a country governed by a military junta, a Russian Wagner Group presence, and a...

There is a particular cruelty in falling from a height you were specifically built for. Keir Starmer entered Downing Street in July 2024 as something close to the anti-Boris: a former Director of...