Christopher de Bellaigue

Iran: A Grand Bargain?

The conditions necessary to negotiate a new nuclear deal and revive commercial ties between Iran and the US are in sight.

Brazil: The Threat from the Right

Former president Jair Bolsonaro and his allies have brought violence into Brazilian political discourse, with consequences that will endure.

Iran Exposed

The Islamic Republic’s sordid proxy war with the West may now be leaving it open to an all-out attack as Israel attempts to eliminate its enemies throughout the region.

Elegy for a ‘Separate Civilization’

Scott Preston’s The Borrowed Hills is the strangled, savagely beautiful swan song of the world of the Cumbrian peasant farmer.

A World Off the Hinges

While climate catastrophes have been beyond our control, human choice has often made the difference between social collapse and survival.

Erdogan in the Ruins

The failure of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to prepare for and respond to Turkey’s devastating earthquake is the crowning abomination of his long misrule.

Khamenei’s Dilemma

As protests in Iran continue, the regime’s attempts to crack down on them may create an unstoppable spiral of state violence and popular fury.

A Visionary Psychopath

The Ottoman sultan Selim I is a near-perfect illustration of Machiavelli’s premise that the powerful individual is the driver of history.

The Pillage of India

William Dalrymple’s ‘The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire’ and Shashi Tharoor’s ‘Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India’

The River

The Seduction of Jihad

World Cup 2018: England

Some 20 million Britons saw the Sweden match on telly. Viewing figures of this kind belong to another era, before the Internet punctured the idea of nations’ watching the same thing at the same time. What is going on? 

The New Europeans

Europe has become more anti-Muslim as it has become more Muslim.

Half-Baked Revolt in Iran

Vengeance in Britain

For all the gestures of inter-communal solidarity that have been given much publicity since the June 18 attack outside a London mosque, the more significant and ominous sentiment has been one of vindication.

Iran: Still Waiting for Democracy

Iran's Uneasy Election

The economic miracle that was promised by the Hassan Rouhani government hasn’t happened, and as Iran’s presidential election approaches, the sense of anti-climax is palpable.

Remembering Bob Silvers

On the late editor of The New York Review

Sultan Erdoğan

In April Turks will vote in a national referendum that will, if successful, give President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan increased powers; he could stay in power until 2029.

Iran: A Private Agony

Between the lines of Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman is a malignant subtext about Iranian society, which, despite the uneven entry of egalitarian values, remains wedded to old-fashioned honor codes.