Sublime

As a result of Austria’s defeat combined with Woodrow Wilson’s doctrine of national self-determination and democratic ideology, a plethora of states weak in structure and inadequate in resources now faced Germany in Eastern and Central Europe. Any future resurgence of German military capacity would have to be defeated by a French offensive into the

In 1973, the global system of fixed exchange rates, called the Bretton-Woods system, collapsed. The system had been launched in 1944 to prepare for rebuilding the world economy after the Second World War. At its core was a system of fixed exchange rates with the U.S. dollar as an anchor. The USD itself was tied to gold at a price of $35 per ounce o

Perhaps the most astonishing lesson of World War Two is that, in the aftermath of total war and unconditional surrender, a hard reset of two very different cultures was possible. Judging from the Allied victory over Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, it certainly seems that one can bomb ideas—by obliterating many of the people who hold them. Kill a s

The transition from Ottoman to European colonial rule was embodied in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, reached secretly in 1916 while World War I was still being fought, in which a British and a French diplomat essentially divided what had been the Ottoman-controlled Middle East into British and French spheres of influence. This European era lasted barel

The growth machine has pushed humans beyond the limits of our minds—but it is also pushing the planet beyond its ecological limits.

World War II spurred a worldwide rebellion against empire. The revolt started in Asia but spread quickly to Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. In a shockingly short period of time, colonized peoples dismantled the world’s great empires. In 1940 nearly one out of every three individuals on the planet was colonized. By 1965, it was down to o

The limited remit and strength of international governance create severe bounds on the ability to provide transnational public goods through voting and deliberation, but the almighty dollar (and yuan) is respected in most corners of the planet. Capital flows and the technology it is invested in shape lives around the world.