Engelsberg Ideas

05/01/2026

Familiarity with strong-armed tactics is one of the reasons why Latin Americans tend to understand Trump’s brand of populism.

Strongmen of the New World | Andreas Campomar

Familiarity with strong-armed tactics is one of the reasons why Latin Americans tend to understand Trump’s brand of populism.

05/01/2026

Examining the strategy of different authoritarian rulers reveals why, in a world of great power politics, a 'Maduro moment' may not be the fate of all despotic regimes.

The authoritarian’s handbook | Edward Howell

Examining the strategy of different authoritarian rulers reveals why, in a world of great power politics, a 'Maduro moment' may not be the fate of all despotic regimes.

02/01/2026

Lux is a game-changer for Rosalía and for the relationship between popular and classical music.

The ecstasy of Saint Rosalía | Duncan Wheeler

Lux is a game-changer for Rosalía and for the relationship between popular and classical music.

02/01/2026

Responding to a taste for the tropics, wild animals, and adventure, Henri Rousseau turned his dreams into fantastical, sometimes bizarre paintings.

Henri Rousseau’s wild dreams | Michael Prodger

Responding to a taste for the tropics, wild animals, and adventure, Henri Rousseau turned his dreams into fantastical, sometimes bizarre paintings.

31/12/2025

New Year is the time when Japan’s Shinto underpinnings really reveal themselves, in rituals of forgetting, purification, and beginning again.

How Japan marks the turning of the year | Chris Harding

New Year is the time when Japan’s Shinto underpinnings really reveal themselves, in rituals of forgetting, purification, and beginning again.

31/12/2025

Here is a selection of pieces we have published over the last twelve months that highlight the biggest stories and themes of 2025 — a year in ideas.

The best of Engelsberg Ideas in 2025

Here is a selection of pieces we have published over the last twelve months that highlight the biggest stories and themes of 2025 — a year in ideas.

31/12/2025

The new US National Security Strategy exposes a fundamental contradiction between civilisational ambition and strategic retrenchment. In doing so, it sets the stage for Europe’s emergence as a rival geopolitical actor in a new age of empires.

Europe’s imperial awakening | Sumantra Maitra

The new US National Security Strategy exposes a fundamental contradiction between civilisational ambition and strategic retrenchment. In doing so, it sets the stage for Europe’s emergence as a rival geopolitical actor in a new age of empires.

30/12/2025

2025 was defined by AI exuberance and America First, as technological advances gathered momentum while the Trump administration sought to radically reshape the international order.

America’s world turned upside down | Bill Emmott

2025 was defined by AI exuberance and America First, as technological advances gathered momentum and the Trump administration sought to radically reshape the international order.

29/12/2025

Technological shifts, alliance politics, and fractious great-power competition make the United Kingdom’s secret service’s work under its new Chief more complex than ever.

Gordon Corera () on the evolving work of MI6. Click the link in bio to read.

Image: The new head of Britain’s MI6 Blaise Metreweli makes her first public speech. Credit: AP Photo / Kirsty Wigglesworth / Associated Press

29/12/2025

She was a cultural icon who channelled the electric power of French femininity and, by extension, Frenchness itself.

Muriel Zagha () on why Brigitte Bardot was the face of France. Click the link in bio to read.

Image: Brigitte Bardot in 1958. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd

29/12/2025

The EI Podcast: The instability of a multipolar era

Paul Lay is joined by Helen Thompson to discuss US–China rivalry, the growing importance of the Western Hemisphere in geopolitics, and the inherent instability of a multipolar world.

EI's Paul Lay (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/paul-lay/) is joined by Helen Thompson (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/helen-thompson/) to discuss US–China rivalry, the growing importance of the Western Hemisphere in geopolitics, and the inherent instability of a multipo...

29/12/2025

Throughout human history, commanders and warriors have adapted to waging war in the depths of winter, providing strategic lessons and cautionary tales for the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

A little history of winter warfare | Peter Caddick-Adams

Throughout human history, commanders and warriors have adapted to waging war in the depths of winter, providing strategic lessons and cautionary tales for the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.