Mamdani and the new challenge for nation states

The metropolis and the heartland provoke each other into extremes, as the New York mayoral race shows

06.11.2025 20

Janan Ganesh

Europe and the curse of geography

A lack of rare earths is just one way in which nature disadvantages the continent

30.10.2025 20

Janan Ganesh

Politics not tech makes the world go round

The future, like the recent past, will be shaped in the public realm

23.10.2025 7

Janan Ganesh

Why the US could not shake off the Middle East

Lessons from a pivot to Asia that never comes

16.10.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

How the Tories might live again

It will take buyer’s remorse about Labour and fear of the economic consequences of Nigel Farage

02.10.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Europe’s necessary appeasement of Donald Trump

Surrendering on trade is worth it to keep America engaged in the continent’s security

25.09.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Won’t the British right stand up for sovereignty?

A hatred of interference in national affairs disappears when American conservatives are doing it

18.09.2025 4

Janan Ganesh

Farage’s self-defeating embrace of Trump

There is nothing to gain for the Reform UK leader, so why does he do it?

11.09.2025 6

Janan Ganesh

The historical necessity of Starmer’s failure

If another government disappoints, voters might accept that painful reform of the state is needed

04.09.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Winning elections is the only curb against strongmen

Liberals focus too much on constitutions and too little on politics

27.08.2025 4

Janan Ganesh

Trump’s ambiguity is the worst of all worlds

He supports Europe enough to make it complacent but not enough to make it safe

21.08.2025 30

Janan Ganesh

Why bad ideas are always with us

Tariffs, Nimbyism, high debt — the victims of these things don’t even know what they’re losing

14.08.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

The high summer of Donald Trump

In all likelihood, it is downhill for the US president from here

07.08.2025 8

Janan Ganesh

Britain is not a broken society

The country has serious problems but the right’s vision of it has become hysterical

30.07.2025 50

Janan Ganesh

The world is run by old men in a hurry

The advanced age of leaders is a destabilising force in international politics

24.07.2025 40

Janan Ganesh

Trump and Maga are no longer the same thing

A summer of splits shows what post-Trump conservatism will look like

17.07.2025 20

Janan Ganesh

Britain, France and the necessary relationship

In a war-footing Europe, London-Paris might become what Paris-Berlin was in the era of peace

10.07.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Keir Starmer is preferable to his party

The UK prime minister is weak but Labour MPs are deluded about fiscal reality

02.07.2025 4

Janan Ganesh

America’s retreat from the world stalls again

The bombing of Iran suggests that a global role is a hard thing to give up

26.06.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Only a crisis will wean the west off debt

The British state in particular is unreformable without pressure from the bond markets

13.06.2025 20

Janan Ganesh

Biden has become a scapegoat for the Democrats

The party’s real problem is a consistent tolerance of obvious losers

04.06.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

The myth of Maga’s isolationism

From South Africa to Europe, the movement is absolutely obsessed with foreign countries

28.05.2025 7

Janan Ganesh

Britain will be negotiating with Europe forever

Like a poorer Switzerland, the UK will never find a happy balance of independence and access

21.05.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Labour has given up its growth mission

Having said it was paramount, the UK government now has half a dozen ‘number one’ priorities

14.05.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Take no comfort from America’s Trump backlash

The revolt against him isn’t huge, and it isn’t about constitutional principle

07.05.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Wanted: a mean liberal

Mark Carney shows how to be moderate in substance and populist in style

04.05.2025 40

Janan Ganesh

Canada is a warning to Britain’s Trump-loving Tories

The Conservatives must choose between their US obsession and their electoral viability

30.04.2025 20

Janan Ganesh

There is no such thing as a Trump whisperer

Western leaders who are said to be on special terms with the US president have nothing to show for it

23.04.2025 3

Janan Ganesh

Donald Trump’s gift to globalisation

Not since the crash of 2008 has free trade held the moral and intellectual high ground

16.04.2025 20

Janan Ganesh

The hopeless search for Trump’s cunning plan

Attempts to read grand strategy into the US president’s doings have run their course

09.04.2025 5

Janan Ganesh

Europe is only half-awake from its long sleep

Talk of Donald Trump bringing the continent together is absurdly premature

19.03.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Recession will not make Trump change course

A president who can’t run again is freer from public opinion than business seems to realise

12.03.2025 5

Janan Ganesh

Europe must trim its welfare state to build a warfare state

There is no way of defending the continent without cuts to social spending

05.03.2025 20

Janan Ganesh

The Tories discover that Britain is located in Europe

The lesson of this world-changing month is that geography matters — despite what the Brexit campaign claimed

26.02.2025 50

Janan Ganesh

Tariffs won’t bring back America’s unipolar moment

Trade is wrongly blamed for the relative decline of the US

12.02.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

The deceptively negotiable Donald Trump

The tariff row is further indication that he is quick to quarrel but also quick to settle

05.02.2025 8

Janan Ganesh

American and European populism don’t mix

Elon Musk will find the European right more statist than some progressives at home

29.01.2025 8

Janan Ganesh

The strange liberal nonchalance about Trump’s return

Having supposedly worried too much about him last time, people are overcorrecting

22.01.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Britain should stop pretending it wants more economic growth

Almost everyone in politics has something they prioritise over it

15.01.2025 30

Janan Ganesh

Pity the middle-sized nations of the world

Small countries have the best outcomes, while the few giants shape the globe

08.01.2025 40

Janan Ganesh

Things have to get worse to get better

Voters can’t be sold on change until their nation is in acute trouble

01.01.2025 10

Janan Ganesh

Economics can’t explain all the anger of voters

If it did, the US should have much healthier politics than Europe

18.12.2024 8

Janan Ganesh

The western myth of the ‘guy we can do business with’

Assad, Putin, Gaddafi — the free world too often gets its hopes up about despots

11.12.2024 5

Janan Ganesh

America’s nightmare is two feral parties

The Democrats might decide that playing by the rules has got them nowhere

04.12.2024 20

Janan Ganesh

Musk is the right man in the wrong continent

Europe’s bloated governments need his efficiency revolution much more than Washington does

27.11.2024 4

Janan Ganesh

How Britain squandered the best hand in the world

Having had three friends in high places — the US, the EU and China — the UK contemplates life with none

20.11.2024 10

Janan Ganesh

How the Democrats can win in 2028

If the party changes, the US rightwing realignment won’t last

13.11.2024 10

Janan Ganesh

The Democrats threw away a winnable election

Harris was the wrong candidate, and the consequences could be global

06.11.2024 4

Janan Ganesh

How Trump learnt to love big business

Nothing separates the man from his 2016 self more than his disappearing qualms about capitalism

30.10.2024 3

Janan Ganesh

The tragedy of a 50-50 America

The era of western stability relied on dominant parties, and the US has none

23.10.2024 10

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Mamdani and the new challenge for nation states

Janan Ganesh

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Why the US could not shake off the Middle East

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How the Tories might live again

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Europe’s necessary appeasement of Donald Trump

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Won’t the British right stand up for sovereignty?

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Farage’s self-defeating embrace of Trump

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The historical necessity of Starmer’s failure

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Winning elections is the only curb against strongmen

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Trump’s ambiguity is the worst of all worlds

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Britain is not a broken society

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The world is run by old men in a hurry

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Trump and Maga are no longer the same thing

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Britain, France and the necessary relationship

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Keir Starmer is preferable to his party

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America’s retreat from the world stalls again

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Only a crisis will wean the west off debt

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Biden has become a scapegoat for the Democrats

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The myth of Maga’s isolationism

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Britain will be negotiating with Europe forever

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Labour has given up its growth mission

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Take no comfort from America’s Trump backlash

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Wanted: a mean liberal

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Canada is a warning to Britain’s Trump-loving Tories

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There is no such thing as a Trump whisperer

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Donald Trump’s gift to globalisation

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The hopeless search for Trump’s cunning plan

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Europe is only half-awake from its long sleep

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Recession will not make Trump change course

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Europe must trim its welfare state to build a warfare state

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The Tories discover that Britain is located in Europe

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Tariffs won’t bring back America’s unipolar moment

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The deceptively negotiable Donald Trump

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American and European populism don’t mix

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