Engelsberg Ideas

08/12/2025

The French filmmaker's My Night at Maud’s is a festive film like no other.

Éric Rohmer’s Christmas classic for adults | Guy Stagg

The French filmmaker's My Night at Maud’s is a festive film like no other.

08/12/2025

Taiwan need not be a repeat for the United States of the British imperial overreach that ended with the Suez Crisis.

Avoiding an American Suez | Nikolas Neos

Taiwan need not trigger a crisis of imperial overreach for the United States along the lines of Britain's Suez Crisis. Yet defending the island will require strong alliances, strategic prioritisation and fiscal reform to align America's ends with her means.

05/12/2025

His Czech and Jewish pasts haunted his plays.

Tom Stoppard: Englishman, Czech, Jew | Samuel Rubinstein

His Czech and Jewish pasts haunted his plays.

05/12/2025

As the world returns to 19th-century multipolarity, George Canning’s approach to British foreign policy offers timeless lessons. Great powers must protect the interests of small nations in order to hold sway.

The Canningite tradition | David Cowan

As the world returns to 19th-century multipolarity, George Canning’s approach to British foreign policy offers timeless lessons. Great powers must protect the interests of small nations in order to hold sway.

05/12/2025

Intertwined themes of ecstasy, love, fantasy and flight shaped the composer’s world, his music a monument to a man who could not abide permanence.

Alexander Voltz on the restless passion of Arnold Bax. Click the link in bio to read.

Image: The title page of Arnold Bax’s score for Symphony No 1 in E Flat. Credit: Lebrecht Music & Arts

04/12/2025

Intertwined themes of ecstasy, love, fantasy and flight shaped the composer's world, his music a monument to a man who could not abide permanence.

The restless passion of Arnold Bax | Alexander Voltz

Intertwined themes of ecstasy, love, fantasy and flight shaped the composer's world, his music a monument to a man who could not abide permanence.

04/12/2025

When it comes to nuclear weapons, the concerns that West Germany's first chancellor wrestled with during the Cold War have not disappeared – they have simply re-emerged in new forms.

Germany’s new old nuclear dilemma | Marina E. Henke

When it comes to nuclear weapons, the concerns that West Germany's first chancellor wrestled with during the Cold War have not disappeared – they have simply re-emerged in new forms.

03/12/2025

Squeezed between the mercantilist policies of the United States and China, Europe's governments must confront the economic paradox that threatens to undermine the foundations of the European project.

How Europe can harness its economic power | Michael Pettis & Enrico Fardella

Squeezed between the mercantilist policies of the United States and China, Europe's governments must confront the economic paradox that threatens to undermine the foundations of the European project.

03/12/2025

The conclusion of Fletcher’s life might conjure the image of an embittered quasi-exile who had heroically fought for the lost cause of Scottish sovereignty. Yet he was also a political thinker, a respected parliamentarian, and a lifelong adventurer.

Andrew Fletcher: modern patriot, tragic hero | Barnabás Szabó

The conclusion of Fletcher’s life might conjure the image of an embittered quasi-exile who had heroically fought for the lost cause of Scottish sovereignty. Yet he was also a political thinker, a respected parliamentarian, and a lifelong adventurer.

02/12/2025

The Choral shows how music-making can bind together a community, forging connections between people of different backgrounds, occupations and generations.

Classical music across the classes | Alexandra Wilson

The Choral shows how music-making can bind together a community, forging connections between people of different backgrounds, occupations and generations.

02/12/2025

The Republican calendar crystallised a French dream of rationality and symmetry, which echoes in everything from the geometry of garden design to the metric system.

The invention of Year Zero | Muriel Zagha

The Republican calendar crystallised a French dream of rationality and symmetry, which echoes in everything from the geometry of garden design to the metric system.

02/12/2025

The playwright was a master craftsman of the stage, yet his knowing intellectualism sometimes got in the way of true understanding.

Stoppard’s brilliant surfaces | Armand D'Angour

The playwright was a master craftsman of the stage, yet his knowing intellectualism sometimes got in the way of true understanding.