The Americans have unwittingly given Russia a modern mythology, a historical turning point, a birth. When the conflict is over, the timeline will be divided into before and after the Ukrainian war. The difference between them →
Others have said it better than me, but it bears repeating. The US had a narrow window of opportunity to shape the world at the turn of the millennium, before Russia reasserted itself and before China →
Historians usually talk about transitional or intermediate periods. These include ancient Egypt and the time between the different kingdoms. And the period between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in Greece. Or the Middle Ages, →
It was perfectly legitimate to criticise the Vietnam War, it almost developed into a popular movement over the years. And it was also right and proper to criticise George Bush and the wars in Afghanistan and, →
Many see the conflict in eastern Ukraine as an outright Russian occupation, ignoring the possible right of ethnic Russian regions to self-rule or secession. Ukraine is seen as a normal democratic Western country, while the Russians →
Nord Stream consists of several pipelines running under the Baltic Sea, connecting Germany with Russia and supplying Europe with large quantities of natural gas. The project was both expensive and controversial because it increased the West’s →
I am amused by the myths and mysteries of the past. And today’s conspiracy theories can usefully be seen as our equivalent to these phenomena. Often there is some sort of basis for the ideas, but →
Archibald Iratus lived in an austere turn-of-the-century building along Jungfrugatan in Östermalm, Stockholm. A curious peculiarity of the address was its diffuse location. I could wander around for a long time before I found the unnumbered →
Already in January we knew about how the coronavirus (COVID-19) behaved, about how great the risk of death was for different age groups, and that a significant proportion of the sick needed intensive care, sometimes with →
