The EI Podcast

While at one point in time the idea that socialist economies would ultimately prevail over capitalism was quite a widespread view the fate of socialist states over the past hundred years have demonstrated that they enjoy only two possible paths: authoritarianism or anarchy. Credit: Shotshop GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

While the US remains the sole reigning super power, the rise of China adds complexity to the current world order. Geostrategic conflict is inevitable, but mutual economic interdependence can help manage that conflict and keep it from spiralling out of control.  Credit: Christian Ohde / Alamy Stock Photo

As the largest country in the world, Russia's might past and present has an inherent link to its geopolitics. But since the decline of the Soviet Union, Moscow's eyes are constantly straying beyond the national borders. In Russia, expansion is often regarded as a means of self-defence.   Credit: Tommy E Trenchard / Alamy Stock Photo

There is frequently no real reason why one person has more claim to live or even rule over a piece of land than another. A reason, however must be provided and it is often be found in a fantastical interpretation of history. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/fantasy-in-middle-eastern-nation-making/ Credit: Adobe Stock

Why do humans accumulate ideas, knowledge and technologies while other animals are seemingly stick doing the same thing over and over never getting better? Rather than being a question of raw intelligence, it is in fact largely down to luck, trial and error and copying others. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/you-are-not-as-clever-as-you-think/ Credit: Buyenlarge/Getty Images

Voltaire predicted that religion would be defunct in fifty year's time. Karl Marx called it the opium of the masses and Nietzsche declared that God is dead. Adrian Wooldridge is now saying that He's back. From the rise of Islamic extremism to American evangelism, the twenty-first century is seeing a religious renaissance. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Tuul & Bruno Morandi via Getty Images

Studying the evolution of Austria in the 20th century offers deep insight into essential Western political categories. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/austria-nation-state-or-empire/ Credit: Adobe Stock

The story of how, over the course of three generations, the royal dynasty of Wessex went from near oblivion to fashioning a kingdom that still endures today is the most remarkable and momentous in the island's history. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/aethelstan-the-king-who-forged-a-united-kingdom-of-england/ Credit: Public domain

The early modern Italian republics are often portrayed as models of bad government. But the fusion of civic humanism and Christianity they championed endures to this day. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/in-defence-of-the-city-state/ Credit: Alinari Archives/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

Nationalism is often thought of as a modern development - but its traces can be found in antiquity. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/did-nationalism-exist-in-the-classical-world/ Credit: Wiki Creative Commons

The influenza pandemic behaved much like the conflict itself - picking out the young and fit before their time. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/counting-the-cost-of-the-1918-19-pandemic/ Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Niccolo Machiavelli, Renaissance statesman and political theorist, saw factional politics as essential to the prosperity of the Roman Empire and his native Florence. Are today's partisan divisions as beneficial? Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/machiavelli-and-the-benefits-of-civil-strife/ Credit: Icom Images / Alamy Stock Photo

The Victorians saw Plato's Republic as an indispensable guide to reform of the public sphere - we should follow their lead. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/leadership-in-crisis-why-the-west-needs-plato-more-than-ever/ Credit: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Karl Marx was wrong about revolutions - in practice, they beget Caesars and Napoleons. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/history-shows-revolutions-are-a-disaster/ Credit: Andrew Maclear/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Social upheaval has often been a catalyst for artistic change - the Renaissance was no exception. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/crisis-and-the-creation-of-great-art/ Credit: Mauro Magliani for Alinari/Alinari Archives, Florence/Alinari via Getty Images

Empty city London had its harbingers in literature and history. How will it emerge from its isolation? Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/pandemics-and-the-metropolis-city-lockdown-london/ Credit: 1000 Words / Shuttersotck

Despite globalisation, the nation state retains its privileged position in world politics. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-world-of-nations-and-states-is-here-to-stay/ Credit: AMA/Corbis via Getty Images

Beijing wants to foster a world where Chinese standards replace those of the post-1945 US-led system. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/chinese-china-the-great-uncoupling/ Credit: Feng Li/Getty Images

The tension between independence and compliance is everywhere in society – but in medicine, reason must come before rules. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/covid-19-and-the-moral-case-for-personal-judgement/ Credit: DeAgostini/Getty Images

This period of turbulence could turn today's twenty-somethings into the leaders of a new liberal revolution. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/meet-the-zoomer-generation/ Credit: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

As a result of President Erdogan's embrace of two interlinked geopolitical concepts, 'Strategic Depth' and 'Blue Homeland', Turkey faces international isolation. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/new-turkeys-old-politics/ Credit: Kerem Uzel/Bloomberg via Getty Images

To argue that Margaret Thatcher attacked the post-war dream is to caricature, not illuminate, her importance to British history. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/continuity-thatcher-rescuing-a-complex-leader-from-historical-cliche/ Credit: John Downing/Getty Images

Thucydides saw plague as an opportunity to improve the health of society. But history shows that pandemics have a way of disrupting medical and social progress. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/challenging-the-great-reset-theory-of-pandemics Credit: Bettmann

Amid the tumult of the 1970s, it appeared the traditional country house had gone into irreversible decline - but it was too early to write it off. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/upstairs-downstairs-demolished-the-changing-fate-of-the-english-country-house/ Credit: The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images

The Covid-19 crisis has accentuated all the geopolitical fault lines of the past decade. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/geopolitics-pandemic-geopolitical-conflict/ Credit: Adobe Stock