The strange death of the CDU
The decline of Angela Merkel’s party may return Germany to a Weimar-style splintered parliament
David Graeber (1961-2020)
A requiem for the radical anthropologist
Grace under pressure?
How effective have high-risk media events been for French foreign policy?
Two Cheers for Nuclear Proliferation
An obsession with the dangers of proliferation overlooks its positive effects
NATO’s at war with itself
Russia looks set to enjoy the fragility of its great adversary, the Atlantic Alliance
Erdogan’s Hagia Sophia move
Turkey has gone from darling of the EU, to Germany’s worst nightmare
A fully-packed bookcase
Three books that each offer a traditional holiday-reading pleasure
The undiscovered country
Ian McKellen’s Hamlet meets impossibly high expectations
Trans ideologues hide books to hide reality
They know their theories can’t withstand the cold light of real scholarship
Land of his birth
Little of the Hungarian aristocrats’ world remains, except a few crumbling buildings — and Count Bánffy’s stories
The perils of a speaker unchained
Bercow remains a grim warning about what a politician can still do in the chair, if he puts his mind to it
Celebrity crime novelists: the latest literary fashion
Crime and thriller titles have replaced Strictly Come Dancing as the new craze for celebrities
Out of Africa
To get a handle on African cinema, watch Mandabi
Can countries ever really be friends?
Are we witnessing the usual ups and downs in the anglosphere relationship or do countries really only act in self interest?
Going nowhere
Covid-19 travel laws “may change with little warning”, so why plan ahead?
Self-made demoniacs
Beware of pointing the finger, even at the devil