Sebastian Rosato— The problem of the future is one of both access and reliability. There is simply no way for states to access firsthand information about each other’s future intentions. The reason is that the future does not yet exist. As one author points out, “No man can have in
Nina Rattner Gelbart— Biography is a curious genre, morphing over time, and writing about the lives of other individuals goes back to antiquity. Plutarch and Suetonius, both working from the first into the second centuries of the common era, were masters of the form. Plutarch wrote parallel studies of pairs,
Robinson Woodward-Burns— The federal framers signed the Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. The following July 4, Philadelphians celebrated the Constitution’s ratification with a mile-long “Grand Federal Procession,” led by a six-horse coach ornamented by a thirteen-foot gilded copy of the Constitution held by an eagle bearing the phrase
Masaaki Shirakawa— Currently, overnight interbank interest rates in many developed economies are zero or slightly negative, and long-term interest rates are also extremely low. Did policymakers and economists expect it to happen and persist, say, twenty years ago? Back then, only Japan experienced such a situation, and it was regarded
Tarleton Gillespie— Titled The Terror of War but more commonly known as “Napalm Girl,” the 1972 Pulitzer Prize–winning photo by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut is perhaps the most indelible depiction of the horrors of the Vietnam War. You’ve seen it. Several children run down a barren street fleeing a
Laura Forsberg— It is a truism, by this point, that smartphones have revolutionized our lives. In less than fifteen years, we have developed new ways of communicating with friends and family, navigating through traffic, finding information, and making purchases. Smartphones have become such an essential part of our lives that
Peter Burke— In Rome, unlike Greece, we find not only the praises of outstanding intellectual all-rounders but also recommendations to students of particular disciplines to acquire a wide knowledge, perhaps as an antidote to creeping specialization. Cicero (106–43 BC), one of the most eloquent public speakers of the Roman world,
Frauke V. Josenhans— The Rothko Chapel is a place of pilgrimage: artists and art lovers are drawn by the cycle of 14 paintings that Mark Rothko created specifically for the site; religious people are seeking out its spiritual meaning and participate in interfaith events that echo beliefs from various cultures;
James McAuley— In late December 1962, the old woman, then 86, welcomed Philippe Jullian into her apartment in the avenue Gabriel, not far from the Champs-Élysées. Lady Alice Townshend, as she was known by then, had written a letter to Jullian, renowned aesthete, art critic, and man-about-town, who had recently
Eric Van Young— Lucas Alamán (1792–1853) was one of the most eminent statesmen of nineteenth-century Mexico, and in the opinion of many the author of the greatest history of Mexico’s independence movement. His public career was played out against the chaotic backdrop of the early republican period, often called the