Land is the silent, steady, partner in the messy realm of politics and national divides between monarchs. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Mount Bromo (Gunung Bromo) seen at dawn on 11th June 2018, East Java, Indonesia. The active volcano is park of the Bromo Tengger National Park, sitting on a plain called the sea of sand, it is possible to look into the crater of the volcano to see the smoke and steam emerging from it, lava is not visible. (photo by Phil Clarke Hill/In Pictures via Getty Images)

As hostilities with Russia increase, we must again ask ourselves what drives human beings to conflict, especially after an era of peace. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Eddie Gerald / Alamy Stock Photo

While the Islamic State’s savvy media presence may have overshadowed that of al-Qaeda over the past decade, the efforts of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operating in war-torn Yemen show the group remains a long-term threat. Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo

During the Cold War, the British Joint Intelligence Committee was charged with forecasting the actions of states behind the Iron Curtain and the rest of the world. Its record was patchy – the Brits were repeatedly taken by surprise throughout the 20th century. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: The Central Intelligence Agency via Wikipedia Commons

Demagogues thrive if moderate politicians flatter citizens into an unrealistic sense of their own greatness. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

It is not just politics that is beset by tribalism. The social sciences are also vulnerable to in-group bias. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: melita / Alamy Stock Photo

Love has become widely seen as a democracy of salvation open to all. The reality is more complex. Is our religion of love doing more harm than good? Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

While there may have been striking similarities between the Gospel of Thomas and those of the four Evangelists, closer examination reveals a subtle yet crucially different perspective on salvation. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo

Humanity has come quite some way in the past 200,000 years but are we really anything more than primates with a few million more neurons than our closest relatives? Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Martin Harvey via Getty Images

France, like all countries, is haunted by events and mistakes of times past. These ghosts will guide modern policy until they are overridden and laid to rest. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Guillaume Louyot / Alamy Stock Photo protests

The Lawrence legend continues to win new devotees while his pragmatic contribution to warfare is neglected. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Throughout the ages, oracles, journalists and political scientists have attempted to guess the course fate may take. But should they fail to take the specifics, particularly specific individuals, into account, they are doomed to fail. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: CBW / Alamy Stock Photo

Traditional geopolitical solutions (accommodation or military containment) are unlikely to work with Putin’s Russia. Instead the West should pursue a unified geo-economic strategy. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Klaus Oskar Bromberg / Alamy Stock Photo

The condemnation of the annexation of the Crimea was unified and strong, but the sanctions that followed lacked any real bite. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Nikolay Vinokurov / Alamy Stock Photo

For the past sixty years, the use of nuclear weapons has become unthinkable. But with every conflict there comes a point where the unthinkable becomes possible. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: RBM Vintage Images / Alamy Stock Photo

In a religious system which presupposed a covenant not just between God and the individual Jew, but between God and Israel as a nation, the sense of communal solidarity had an abiding impact, regardless of the differences between denominations. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Maraike Hofer / Alamy Stock Photo

For more than thirty years, the US has sought to avoid deploying ground forces into protracted conflict. It has nevertheless done so in almost every single one of those years. Perhaps it is time to accept reality. Read by Leighton Pugh Credit: Bumble Dee / Alamy Stock Photo

Islam — unlike Christianity — may not have a central motif of pain, sin and suffering, but it reveals so much about what it means to live with adversity. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Dmitrii Melnikov / Alamy Stock Photo

While Christianity may strive to sing in a single voice, no one modern denomination ought to claim a monopoly on the truth. The region's history is in fact far more eclectic. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Yogi Black / Alamy Stock Photo

As Jesuit missionaries spread further across the globe, the order’s founder wanted to ensure that its members remained connected. The result of this was an unparalleled network of knowledge which superseded religious tensions. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/jesuit/ Credit: Wikipedia Commons/ Bibliothèque Universtaire Moretus Plantin

Portugal’s commercial dominance of large swathes of the world lasted little more than a century but the images, transmissions, and trades that it engendered left a significant and long-lasting influence. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Jacques Pavlovsky/Sygma via Getty Images Update Description

Sea power derives from resources, a direct interest in sea-based trade, and pressure exerted by enemies. In the modern age, the importance of these factors in international affairs remains paramount. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Lev FedoseyevTASS via Getty Images

If a peace deal is not reached, all the key ingredients are present for Yemen to become a failed state. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP via Getty Images

Acts of extreme self-sacrifice – such as suicide bombing – are not aberrations. They tell us something about our deepest instincts for group loyalty. Read by Leighton Pugh.  Credit: TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP via Getty Images

So-called civilisational states, including Russia, China and India, invoke fake histories to justify and buttress their contemporary political settlements. But those who cannot let go of the past are always at risk of finding themselves imprisoned by it. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images

Flags have become synonymous with nationhood, character, spirit, and power. In an age of renewed nationalism, their power should not be underestimated. Credit: Anthony WALLACE / AFP via Getty Images

The line between disinformation, propaganda and fake news is often blurred. This is especially the case when it is unclear whether these untruths or half truths are being disseminated by the 'good' or 'bad' guys. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Franz Aberham via Getty Images

Once established, Roman exceptionalism and empire needed to be justified and maintained. The practical application of mythology was one way in which this was achieved. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Fred de Noyelle via Getty

The US once enjoyed the esteemed position of being the 'city on the hill', a beacon of hope and an example to the rest of the world. Post-9/11, however, the superpower's conduct in the Middle East has left its reputation tarnished. Read by Leighton Pugh.  Credit: James May/Alamy

Peering into the hearts and minds those living four thousand years ago is an impossible task. However, when it comes to the worship of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, it seems clear to be, quite literally, a labour of love and fear. Credit: Print Collector via Getty Images

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Credit: Mauro Magliani for Alinari/Alinari Archives, Florence/Alinari via Getty Images

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. 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. Credit: Adobe Stock

Empty city London had its harbingers in literature and history. How will it emerge from its isolation? Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: 1000 Words / Shuttersotck

Despite globalisation, the nation state retains its privileged position in world politics. Read by Leighton Pugh. 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. Credit: Feng Li/Getty Images