In a wide-ranging conversation, Bahiyyih Nakhjavani reflects on the unsettled nature of identity, the limits of historical truth and the moral responsibility of writing about people who can no longer speak for
Sri Lankan activist Jeewaratnam Suresh was among dozens of people from the Malayaiha, or “upcountry” Tamil community who walked around 124 miles over 15 days in 2023. “I don’t see this merely as a march, but
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An ancient Greek myth tells the story of Prometheus, who, after molding humans out of clay and teaching them the fine arts of civilization, defied the Olympian Gods by stealing the secret of
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Considering whether modern states are empires tells us almost nothing useful about either modern states or empires. A better question is what policies and structures pioneered by empires are still employed by
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Empires historically possessed a unique ability to organize diversity and successfully rule over people quite different from one another. The national states that succeeded them in Europe were organized on the basis
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If a colloquium on early entrepreneurs had been convened in the early 20th century, most participants would have viewed traders as operating on their own, bartering at prices that settled at a
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FATEFUL MISREADING OF SADDAM Gideon Rose, a Senior Fellow and deputy director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations from 1995 to 2000, was appointed managing editor of Foreign
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Tourists seeking pyramid-like views now have an alternative to Egypt’s deserts in the natural formations of southwest China’s Guizhou Province. The pyramidal mountains in Anlong County have become a popular attraction among
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The title of this newsletter, ‘My heart makes my head swim’, comes from Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks (1952). In a chapter called ‘The Fact of Blackness’, Fanon writes about the despair that
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There are multiple differences between antiquity’s economic practices and those of the modern world, and these should be borne in mind when considering the changing context for enterprise through the centuries. Whereas
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Excerpts from the author’s book, published by Georgetown University Press. Translated into English for the first time by Jonathan M. Ross and İdil Karacadağ, this captivating narrative delves into the history of
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Our species devotes a singular amount of time to an utterly unserious aspect of life: play. This begs the question: what is the adaptive value of horsing around? What possible evolutionary benefit
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“Few cities in history have won so many hearts and minds as Bandung,” the late Honorary President of the People’s Republic of China, Soong Ching Ling, commented on the Indonesian city. The
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Classics and SWRD It is by no means an exaggeration to state that SWRD Bandaranaike was the most well-versed leader in his articulation, which granted him the title of the silver bell
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If there is a single false claim to “nonviolent” struggle that has most powerfully captured the imagination of the world, it is the claim that India, under Gandhi’s leadership, defeated the mighty
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A brutal conflict in Europe was fresh in people’s minds and the race for the White House turned ugly as talk of secret societies and corruption roiled the United States. It was 1800,
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