While this piece is nominally a book review, that task is witheringly dispatched in the first sentence. What follows is a nuanced and compelling profile of Theresa May and her relationship with her colleagues in the Conservative Party over many years, starting from university days.
A piece positing that those who hope for the impeachment of President Trump might be missing some of the consequences.
A profile of the unique character who ploughed £7.5m into the campaign to leave the EU. He has now set his sights on a broad populist democratic movement to take on what he sees as the flawed and corrupt democratic institutions governing the UK.
Some perhaps interesting context comes from a Human Rights Watch analysis of Fidel Castro’s regime.
Tim Kaine, the first major elected politician outside Illinois to endorse Barack Obama in 2008, finds himself on the ticket eight years later.
A profile of Yousef Al Otaiba, the Ambassador for the United Arab Emirates to Washington, by many accounts a supreme political operator who has access at the highest echelons of US government.
A profile of China’s leader that makes makes an unusual comparison – to Phillip II of Spain, “on whose desk in a palace near Madrid all the problems of his 16th-century empire landed”. An insight into the very highest echelons of Chinese political life.
A thorough state of the nation piece looking at Turkey as it prepares for a critical referendum, which would allow President Recep Erdogan yet more sweeping powers if the ‘yes’ vote comes out on top.
A profile of US Senator John McCain, written in 1997 by author and journalist Michael Lewis (Lewis’s notable works include Moneyball, Flash Boys & The Big Short). He found an unusual politician, unwilling to operate like most of his peers, something that has proven both a strength and a hindrance throughout his career.
A look behind the scenes at how H.R McMaster adapted from the military into his role of National Security Adviser, and the reality of dealing with a boss who takes in little of what you say. His solution was straightforward – “If Mattis was a babysitter, then McMaster was a waiter, presenting the Commander-in-Chief with a menu, and letting him order.” What this didn’t necessarily allow for was any questioning of what was going on the menu.