Mounted atop a former warehouse in Hamburg’s industrial-era docklands, the billowing form of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall rises above Germany’s second-largest city like an ocean wave. The glass-panelled building crowns a new, forward-looking section of the city, a modern and …
Why JD Vance offends us
James David Vance is the epitome of what so many Europeans loathe about America: brash, insular, moralising and imperious. And yet — even more annoyingly — like America itself, he combines this with intelligence, education, wealth and, ultimately, power. Vance …
The method in Trump’s mad messaging
Ensuring that lawmakers are “on-message” — dutifully singing from the same hymn-sheet in the daily round of briefings and interviews — has long been key to political communications. In the Nineties, when New Labour began its rise to power, MPs …
Can Keir Starmer trust his generals?
On 31 March 1982 Henry Leach, the First Sea Lord and the professional head of the Royal Navy, walked into a meeting in the House of Commons in an admiral’s full uniform. Tension was rising over the Falkland Islands, and …
Trump’s reverse-Nixon manoeuvre
As the world reels from the scenes of the televised boxing match between Zelensky and Trump, with Vance egging the fight on, we are in danger of losing sight of what the encounter reveals about Trump’s priorities. Though it was …
The roots of Trump’s realpolitik
President Trump’s attempt to end the war in Ukraine has enraged liberal internationalists on both sides of the Atlantic. Dealing directly with the Kremlin and going over the heads of America’s European allies, publicly belittling Ukraine and its leader, and …
Europe’s reckless bid for victory
Donald Trump wants peace, now. Volodymyr Zelensky and his European supporters want victory, later. This is what the very public disagreement in the Oval Office on Friday was all about. Peace through victory — essentially the Second World War model …
Trump’s angry imperialism
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” observed Joan Didion. Yet politicians are different. They tell stories not so much to live, but to survive. Stories give leaders an aura of purpose and control, imbuing their decisions with great …
Pete Hegseth and the defence revolution
“It was just a fucking mess.” That’s how Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s new Defense Secretary, describes America’s post-9/11 wars. We are aboard his plane, flying home to Washington from Guantanamo Bay, where he had spent the day overseeing migrant-removal operations. …
The fantasy of British defence
British party politics has in recent decades become an exercise in evading reality, only dealing with the world — and our country’s material conditions — as our leaders would wish them to be. Westminster’s chaotic reaction to Washington’s abrupt, if …
War isn’t in Britain’s interests
Having earned MAGA’s respect for Brexit, Britain was in prime position to exploit the shift in global order heralded by Trump 2.0. After all, Brexit Britain broke with globalism long before JD Vance came to bury it at Munich. The …
How MBS won the peace talks
The picture says it all: Marco Rubio and Sergey Lavrov, America and Russia, sat about a hardwood table beneath the dripping chandeliers of Saudi Arabia’s Diriyah Palace, ready to remake Eurasia for the rest of the century. Between them sits …
Can Starmer exploit Europe’s crisis?
“The big dividing line among political leaders is between those who are conviction politicians and those who are not,” wrote Jonathan Powell, Keir Starmer’s National Security Adviser, in his 2010 book, The New Machiavelli. “Strong leaders go into meetings knowing …
Trump’s diplomacy won’t bring peace
So now we know. Washington is intent on decoupling from Europe and reconnecting with Russia. America’s stance was reaffirmed yesterday, in Brussels, by the newly minted Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, who was there primarily to discuss the Ukraine conflict. We …
Why Trump won’t end the war in Ukraine
The imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House has dramatically reframed the discussion about the Ukraine war. After years of insisting on a Ukrainian military victory at any cost, the Western political and media establishment appears to be …
