East Germany’s quest to overtake the West ('without catching up'!) prompted some remarkable technological innovations, but some of those also helped expand its mass surveillance apparatus.
My essay in Engelsberg Ideas
engelsbergideas.com/essays/how-eas…

🎙️EI Portraits — Heinrich Biber: composer of rapture and ravings

✍️ James Hardie on the violinist-composer who mixed the sacred and profane in his fantastical music, a lost genius of the 17th century.

👉 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ei-…

'Beneath the ocean waves, over 700,000 nautical miles of undersea cables link the far reaches of the world... forming the information backbone of modern society.'

Undersea cables and the vulnerability of American power | Aaron Bateman
engelsbergideas.com/essays/underse…

Celebrating a century of the red telephone box | Clive Aslet

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/celeb…

My review of Anthony Kaldellis’ The New Roman Empire

The story of The Martyrdom of St Ursula, the great Renaissance master's last painting, is almost as remarkable as the artist who painted it.

Caravaggio’s last stand | Paul Lay

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/carava…

The secret to Byzantium’s success | Peter Sarris

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-se…

A new book, published in Russian, delves into the history and operations of the Wagner Group and its role in modern Russia.

The true history of the Wagner Group | Sergey Radchenko

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-wa…

In this Engelsberg Ideas article I explore the vulnerabilities of submarine cables and how their security can be enhanced. Since submarine cables carry ~99% of global message traffic, their insecurity is an increasingly urgent issue.

engelsbergideas.com/essays/underse…

Undersea cables and the vulnerability of American power | Aaron Bateman
engelsbergideas.com/essays/underse…

'snapshots offer troubling insights into...Russia, w/ its lamentably generous supply of youthful dychkos willing to torture, rape, mutilate & murder (if paid in cash)...a diagnosis of a painful & probably fatal illness, of which Wagner is just one symptom' engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-wa…

The true history of the Wagner Group | Sergey Radchenko

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-wa…

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-wa…. Engelsberg Ideas has published my review of the new history of Wagner by Илья Барабанов and Denis Korotkov.

EI Weekly Listen — Lawrence James on the invention of jingoism
engelsbergideas.com/podcast/ei-wee…

'The ‘how’ is the ‘craft’ in statecraft. It is the true source of practical leadership. Yet this dimension is not well understood, infrequently studied and rarely taught.'

How to do statecraft | Philip Zelikow

engelsbergideas.com/essays/how-to-…

The study of statecraft would profit by spending less time on ‘should’ and more time on ‘how’.

How to do statecraft | Philip Zelikow

engelsbergideas.com/essays/how-to-…

The portrait of a master through a single painting. Great conversation ⁦Paul Lay⁩ ⁦Alastair Benn⁩ I enjoyed every minute. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/eng…

'Arafat went through the names of those he'd met – de Gaulle, Khrushchev, Castro – while picking over a plate of broccoli that he ate with his fingers. When he started handing me morsels, I felt I had made it.'

EI's Angus Reilly speaks to Norma Percy:
engelsbergideas.com/essays/in-conv…