Ideas

The New Tragic Age

The New Age of Tragedy

Great-power rivalry, resource scarcity and the crumbling of the liberal rules-based order.

By Robert D Kaplan, John Gray and Helen Thompson

Ideas

Our new financial masters

How asset managers work in the shadows – and shape all of our lives.

By Brett Christophers

The Weekend Essay

Dangerous minds

How Patrick Deneen and Yoram Hazony’s post-liberal theology went global.

By Suzanne Schneider and Yotam Hotam

The Weekend Essay

Do we really need Rawls?

Daniel Chandler’s much-hyped new book says that, in an age of polarisation, the American philosopher offers a blueprint for society.

By William Davies

Ideas

Why Tocqueville matters

Travel was a vital part of the French thinker’s political philosophy, but this has largely been forgotten in today’s secluded…

By Nick Burns

Culture

Who is criticism for?

Seth Rogen’s protest against bad reviews misunderstands the role of the critic in the fight against mediocrity.

By Lola Seaton

Books

The problem with Peter Frankopan’s theory of history

The Earth Transformed seeks to tell the story of climate change without confronting global capitalism. The result is a book…

By Geoff Mann

The Weekend Essay

Who is afraid of Martin Heidegger?

Why the most radioactive philosopher of the 20th century still speaks to us.

By Lyndsey Stonebridge

Ideas

The revolution will not be brought to you by ChatGPT

Robots never took your job, and neither will chatbots.

By Aaron Benanav

The Weekend Essay

The Washington consensus is dead

Europe, China and the US have all rejected free trade and globalisation. Protectionism is back.

By Angela Nagle

Ideas

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers redux

The 20th century’s most influential history book foresaw the collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of China. Thirty-five years…

By Paul Kennedy

Long reads

Sam Bankman-Fried and the effective altruism delusion

Will the idealist philosophy survive the trial of its crypto king?

By Sophie McBain

Ideas

Mark Fisher was not Russell Brand

The cultural theorist was far more responsive to critique than the comedian he admired.

By Matt Colquhoun

The Weekend Essay

The last days of Pax Americana

The Second Cold War is underway – can the US prevail?

By Michael Lind

Ideas

Mario Tronti’s divine comedy

How the Italian philosopher, who died last month aged 92, turned to theology in his war with the world.

By Madoc Cairns

Quickfire

This is what plutocracy looks like

We should applaud Tim Gurner for his ghoulish honesty.

By Sohrab Ahmari

Ideas

The rise of the new tech right

How the cult of IQ became a toxic ideology in Silicon Valley and beyond.

By Quinn Slobodian

Ideas

Believing in scarcity leaves us poorer

In a time of food insecurity and climate catastrophe, we mustn’t be tempted by apocalyptic Malthusian prophecies.

By Adrian Pabst

Ideas

What Putin learned from Hitler

The two dictators considered themselves engaged in a life-and-death struggle with Western imperialism – and retaliated with their own plans.

By Brendan Simms

Ideas

Churchill and the quest for greatness

Throughout his career, Britain’s wartime prime minister studied how other leaders – Roosevelt, Attlee, Stalin and Gandhi – exercised power.

By David Reynolds

Ideas

Why the West will keep losing in Africa

Neocolonialism is giving birth to a wretched authoritarianism.

By Slavoj Žižek

The Weekend Essay

The realists were right

As the much-hyped counteroffensive against Russian forces stalls, the West is asking hard questions about the war in Ukraine.

By Lily Lynch

Ideas

Can Camille Paglia save porn?

The writer can help us find a new language of desire.

By Magdalene Taylor

Ideas

15-minute cities are a working-class nightmare

A car-free lifestyle is only possible for those whose profession and income permit it.

By Michael Lind

UK Politics

The left has an England problem

A nation steeped in culture cannot be reduced to statistics and pop psychology.

By Jonathan Rutherford