Analysis

Realism and Liberalism in International Relations

Realism and liberalism are the two theoretical traditions that have shaped the academic study of international relations more than any others. Each offers an account of why states behave as they do, what makes conflict and cooperation more or less likely and what can reasonably be expected of the international system. They are taught as...

The Authoritarian Character

There is a pattern that keeps resurfacing across the political and cultural landscape of European and Neo-European societies, one that is difficult to name but impossible to ignore. The same individuals who express fierce admiration for strongmen and self-made millionaires and billionaires tend to reserve an equally fierce contempt for those they perceive as weak,...

Inside NATO, Outside the New Europe? Türkiye and the Risk of Strategic Exclusion

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (hereinafter: the NATO) Summit held in Ankara on 7-8 July 2026 projected institutional confidence. Allied leaders reaffirmed their commitment to Article 5, announced more than $50 billion in new defence procurements and presented greater European and Canadian responsibility as the foundation of a modernised Alliance. Formally, therefore, NATO did not...

Financial Freedom: A Fallacy to Flee from Modernity’s Constraints

The core discipline of sociology emerged through its engagement with the social problems that surfaced in modernity. Not because prior social formations were closer to some ideal, but because human beings began to perceive themselves as subjects separated from their environment. This separation gave rise to ideals such as humanism and individualism, and enabled people...

This Time It Is Different: Civilisational Life Cycles, Societal Decline And Renewal

Humans are historically arrogant. The present, to us, is the most precious and important time, driven by interests, which, in turn, are based on our immediate needs. “Especially, these days…” is the motto of how we look at our times of living, thinking that today is the time where something has been the most, least,...

The Cultural Revolution in China, 1966–1976

The cultural revolution was a political movement in the People’s Republic of China that lasted, by the official reckoning later adopted by the Chinese state, from 1966 until 1976. Its full name in the documents of the period was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Launched by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Communist Party of...