Behind the Times

A new treaty on the governance of Antarctica, signed in 1959, became a trailblazing model for the world. But the future of the ‘white continent’ remains contentious.

Over the last 30 years, the UK’s political class has swapped ideology for values and sleepwalked into major constitutional and political change. What can it learn from the last time it faced a crisis of such magnitude?

Hong Kong’s current extradition law crisis is not the first that the territory has faced.

Public monuments have become sites of historical conflict, revealing bitter divisions over interpretations of the past.

During the Cold War, nearly a quarter of all the world’s nuclear testing took place in Kazakhstan, in secret. In 1986, a high-profile disaster in Ukraine changed that.

The revolt against President Omar al-Bashir is not the first in Sudan’s history, but it is the first since Africa’s former largest country split in two.

The Labour Party’s recent entanglement with antisemitism came as a shock to many. At its root is the issue of nationalism. 

Who cares whether China stops buying soy from the United States? History suggests we all should.

The Iraq War has damned the former British Prime Minister in the eyes of many. But his support for regime change was widely shared at the time.

History suggests that Britain’s relationship with Europe may never truly be resolved.