Catherine of Siena, saint and stateswoman
Best known as a saint and mystic, Catherine of Siena was also an influential political thinker who sought to reshape civic life in the Italian city states.
Shared bundle
Geopolitics Ideas
This bundle is temporarily unavailable.
Updated 1h ago7 Sources
What you unlock in the app
- Follow this bundle
- Customize it with your own sources
- Keep personal overrides when the bundle changes
Article Layout
180 Stories
No items found for this source.
Star Wars and the dawning techno-empire
A neglected storyline in ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ offers a glimpse of our future: imperial, technologically advanced and undemocratic.
Engelsberg ideas • Sumantra MaitraThe Real Lesson of the Iran War
When airpower wins, and when it doesn’t.
Foreign Affairs • Justin BronkRecent strikes on Saudi airports show that the kingdom still has a way to go when it comes to security
Saudi Arabia’s airports are under renewed Houthi bombardment, forcing the kingdom to test its global alliances and re-evaluate whether its
Monocle • Chloe LakeAnne Carson’s roaming imagination
The new Nobel laureate has made a virtue of crossing boundaries and expanding the reach of the lyric sensibility.
Engelsberg ideas • Jared Marcel PollenThe Kremlin’s problem with plague is nothing new
Russia’s rulers have long met outbreaks of disease with secrecy, at catastrophic cost to their own citizens. The official response to a plague researcher’s death in Siberia follows the same pattern.
Engelsberg ideas • Paul JosephsonAmerica Shouldn’t Let Go of the Middle East
Why disengagement is not the answer.
Foreign Affairs • Philip H. GordonChinese Robots Could Decide the AI Race
Scott Singer and Pavlo Zvenyhorodsky, researchers at Carnegie’s China AI Initiative, argue that China is betting that AI dominance will come from combining hardware and software, or AI-powered robots. By focusing only on software such as AI models, they argue, Washington and Silicon Valley risk falling behind.
Foreign Affairs • Scott Singer, Pavlo ZvenyhorodskyiSwedish listeners are changing their tune – and ‘Aftonbladet’ has launched a radio station to stay on their wavelength
Sweden’s media market, whose influence lies in a small, concentrated group of commercial media houses such as Bauer Group, Viaplay, Bonnier News and Schibsted, is undergoing a transformation. What’s making things interesting, however, is that within these organisations, individual outlets are growing and diversifying to reach an audience base that gets their media through a variety of platforms.
Monocle • Tabitha SippFor some, this week’s national holiday is a bright display of Spanish pride. For others, it’s something darker
There is a lot that you can infer about those sporting red-and-yellow bracelets today – but what is the strength
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsTom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ is dividing critics – but for most, it has dug its own grave
With the exception of the Danes, reviewers worldwide have been critical of the satirical film. Who is right?
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsMonocle’s autumn quiz winners: Some pencils are sharper than others
Good morning, bom dia from sunny, balmy Lisbon, where the parrots have returned for their early morning coffee visit, the
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsThe secret to a long, purposeful life might be to delete the word ‘retire’ from our vocabulary
At the start of this year my brother-in-law, Phil, placed a bet with our dog Macy. I allowed this to
Monocle • Kate LuceyA tour of the world’s best autumn/winter menswear collections and collaborations
Here, we reveal the best pieces for layered looks, the essentials for a wardrobe refresh and the coats to take
Monocle • Jack SimpsonThe director of the National Museum of Korea wants the world to see the ‘true colour’ of Korean art and culture
With the global boom of K-pop and K-drama, more eyes are on South Korea than ever – something that NMK
Monocle • Chloe LakeHow the Omni-Cause Swallowed Amnesty International
In July, Amnesty International UK published a report called “A Growing Threat: The Anti-Rights Movement in the UK.” Written by Chiara Capraro, Amnesty’s gender justice director, the document prompted complaints from the organizations it had labelled “anti-rights,” among them feminist, lesbian, and gay groups (including the Lesbian Project, which I co-founded with Kathleen Stock) as well as a number of other bona fide human rights organizations. The report’s principal charge was “transphobia.”
Compact • Julie BindelTrump Is Gutting America’s Core Geopolitical Advantage
Robert Zoellick, an expert on the global economy who served as U.S. trade representative and World Bank president, makes the authoritative case that President Donald Trump’s antagonism toward Canada and Mexico is destroying an economic and security partnership that that enables the United States to project power globally.
Foreign Affairs • Robert B. ZoellickIran’s Theory of Victory
Tehran’s fight for great-power status in the post-American Middle East.
Foreign Affairs • Narges Bajoghli, Vali NasrUkraine’s experiment with foreign reformers
Kyiv’s unorthodox approach to reforming its public institutions has been to bring in experts from outside. But they will only have an impact if given the right powers.
Engelsberg ideas • Kseniya SotnikovaWhy settled Vikings deserve our attention
Though the Vikings are famous for their long sea journeys, most of them lived settled lives as farmers. The archaeologist Neil Price believes their stories are just as interesting.
Engelsberg ideas • Katherine HarveyBangkok might be shrouded by stormy skies – but its economy could become a bright spot
As Bangkok prays for the rain to clear ahead of next week’s global finance meeting, here’s how the country could
Monocle • Kate Lucey‘I can’t take it anymore’: School blockades spark national crisis as French students continue to protest
France’s youth is making the education crisis impossible to ignore but only time will tell whether the protests will lead
Monocle • Chloe LakeThe Great Feminization Comes to Cornell
New York Governor Kathy Hochul emphasized her gender when asked on October 3 about her appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate a possible rape at a fraternity house at Cornell University in 2024. Hochul is the first woman to serve as New York’s governor. Letitia James, the woman she appointed as special prosecutor, is the state’s first female attorney general. Seeing these two women take on the Cornell case has a special symbolism, Hochul explained. “I’ve heard from a lot of people,” she said.
Compact • Helen AndrewsFrance’s riots: revolution without utopia
France’s riots may carry echoes of 1789 and 1968, and of a long tradition of taking to the streets, but they are also the product of a stranger, more troubling side of contemporary France.
Engelsberg ideas • Muriel ZaghaEva Marie Saint’s stolen glances
Her performance as Eve Kendall in ‘North by Northwest’, Alfred Hitchcock’s unique, surreal masterpiece, will never be forgotten.
Engelsberg ideas • David ThomsonThe Case for Economic Espionage
America should spy on foreign companies to help its own.
Foreign Affairs • David S. CohenTolkien for the unconverted
DJ Taylor's meditation on the author of 'The Lord of the Rings' is incisive and thoughtful, even for those left cold by Middle-earth.
Engelsberg ideas • Paul LayThere Is No ‘Nordic Model’
Nordic cultural capital is at an all-time high. But the “Nordic” export is more of a vibe than a specific flavor profile or iconography.
Compact • Felice BasbøllWill AI really turn us into paperclips?
Thought experiments such as Nick Bostrom's 'paperclip maximiser' tell us less about artificial intelligence than about our own intuitions and fears.
Engelsberg ideas • Erik J. LarsonRussia’s Hybrid War Has Entered a Dangerous New Phase
Julianne Smith, who represented the United States at NATO during the Biden administration, argues that Russian hybrid warfare in Europe is escalating quickly, and NATO is not doing enough to deter it. Putin is attempting to discourage support for Ukraine and undermine faith in Article 5, and NATO is responding with an outdated playbook.
Foreign Affairs • Julianne SmithNext year’s Salone del Mobile is set to be a tour de force
An ambitious new addition to Milan’s 2027 design event will expand its reach by bringing together businesses and makers from
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsWith its ethereal looks and featherlight fabrics, Paris Fashion Week offered some much-needed levity
Translucent, weightless pieces were a common thread on the runways of Paris last week, revealing a fresh approach among heritage
Monocle • Kate LuceyThe 10 best shows from Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2027
Shows from some of the industry’s best-known brands and up-and-coming designers set the tone for a bright seasonal showcase in
Monocle • Kate LuceySustainable designer Maria McManus offers a glimpse into the making of her latest collection
From Texas’s retail scene to the runaways of Paris, Maria McManus tells the story behind her brand’s latest collection –
Monocle • Kate LuceyMoscow is watching Latvia. Is Washington?
A record victory for Latvia’s pro-Ukraine prime minister was accompanied by a surge for populist parties in the country’s lowest-ever general election turnout.
Engelsberg ideas • Gordon F. SanderHow ‘Woke 1’ Radicalized the GOP
On May 30, 2020, five days after the death of George Floyd, the head of a prominent DC-area think tank issued a stentorian condemnation of the killing and the bigotry she said had enabled it. Echoing The New York Times’s 1619 Project, which sought to “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery…at the very center of our national narrative,” Kay C. James described racism as a “fatal wound” that had permanently bloodied the American project.
Compact • Gregory ContiRenoir’s endless promenade
No painter took the passing pleasures of Parisian life more seriously than Renoir.
Engelsberg ideas • Alexandra WilsonThe Myth of Military Victory
The dangerous idea driving today’s wars of choice.
Foreign Affairs • Stephen Biddle, Sam Winter-Levy, Yuri ZhukovThe New Red Sea Wars
Conflicts in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa have become inseparable.
Foreign Affairs • Alan BoswellSpain’s summer of protest is the political lifeline that could save Pedro Sánchez
After months of anger over immigration, housing and tourism, Spaniards are pushing these issues up the political agenda. Now, with
Monocle • Jack SimpsonAgainst the odds, will Flávio Bolsonaro steer Brazil back to the right?
The Brazilian left needs a rebrand that speaks to a new generation. But what else do Sunday’s election results tell
Monocle • Jack SimpsonBritain and Germany: Europe’s original special relationship
Jan Rüger’s erudite study makes a compelling case for seeing the bond between Britain and Germany as a driving force in European history.
Engelsberg ideas • Brendan SimmsThe Bleak Truth Behind France’s Riots
Hegel said that a tragic situation is one in which both sides are right. The violence that has recently broken out at French high schools comfortably fits this definition. On the one hand, a movement supported by leftists—notably Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, La France insoumise (Unbowed France) or LFI—is protesting against inadequate resources and the dire state of many lycées (high schools).
Compact • Michael C. BehrentWhy AI translation is no substitute for learning a language
AI-powered earbuds that translate in real time are remarkable tools. But doing the hard work of learning a new language – especially one far removed from your own – offers something more: a liberating new way of seeing the world.
Engelsberg ideas • Caitlin AllenChina’s Long Twilight
Demographic decline, political paralysis, and the fate of great powers.
Foreign Affairs • Carl MinznerThe Triumph of Tech-Fueled Propaganda
America isn’t ready for the next wave of foreign influence operations.
Foreign Affairs • Renée DiResta, Josh A. GoldsteinDemocratic socialists are on a winning streak – and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could lead them
There has never been a more golden opportunity for the US politician to campaign for senator – or president.
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsAre you one of Monocle’s brightest sparks?
Bonjour from sunny Paris, where fashion week is in full swing, a postponed Pride parade is snaking through the streets, students are burning bins and smashing windows, the riot trucks and muscular cops are out in full force and there’s a hit of tear gas in the air. Yes, dear reader, Parisians are in their normal groove, doing what they do best: going to elegant events while looking chic, getting wound up over a multitude of topics while looking effortlessly cool and simply striding from A to B while looking super hot.
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsPets on a plane: The speciality airline making travel possible with your furry companion
Airlines such as Retrievair, Bark Air and ITA Airways are finding out that the sky’s the limit when it comes
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsIf your Pilates class sends you a red chilli-pepper emoji as a warning, listen to it
There’s some over-ambitious packing that occurs on the eve of a work trip. Running shoes, gym kit, swimming trunks, canoe:
Monocle • Kate Lucey‘Abu Dhabi will always surprise you.’ Mohammed Ali al Shorafa, Department of Municipalities and Transport chairman, sets out the city’s ambition
At the UAE’s inaugural Livex, Al Shorafa explains how he wants the emirate to become the world’s most liveable destination.
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsHow Anti-Corruption Politics Destroyed Brazil
Brazil’s upcoming election pits President Lula da Silva, eighty, against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, forty-five. If he wins, Lula will serve a record fourth (non-consecutive) term.
Compact • Alex HochuliIs Latin America’s pink tide ebbing in Brazil?
The Brazilian election is being viewed as a referendum on Donald Trump’s ability to reel in Latin America’s largest economy and last major left-wing holdout.
Engelsberg ideas • Stephen G. BloomWatching Steve Reich watch Steve Reich
As Steve Reich turns 90, a chance encounter with the composer shows why his genre-hopping music holds such enduring appeal.
Engelsberg ideas • James HardiePalestinians Want a Two-State Solution
A new majority—even in Gaza—support compromise with Israel.
Foreign Affairs • Michael Robbins, Amaney A. Jamal, Mark TesslerBrazil’s Election Won’t Fix What’s Broken
Reckoning with the country’s real crisis.
Foreign Affairs • Matias SpektorShibuya is changing – but in Tokyo’s trend capital, disruption is the only constant
This week Seibu department store, an institution emblematic of Shibuya’s culture and retail scene, closed its doors after nearly six
Monocle • Kate LuceyWe Must Become Gods
When I was a kid, there were long periods when we didn’t have television. Bored senseless, I read all the books on my shelf.
Compact • Ashley FrawleyLosing faith in New Atheism: ‘The God Delusion’ 20 years on
Richard Dawkins’s bestseller defined New Atheism, an intellectual fashion whose conclusions look increasingly irrelevant.
Engelsberg ideas • Guy Stagg‘The greatest adventure of US foreign policy in a generation’: The Americans have left Iraq. What comes next?
As the US military leaves Iraq after 20 years, Renad Mansour of Chatham House sheds light on the continued turmoil
Monocle • Tabitha SippValentine Lawford, the hidden hand behind Britain’s wartime diplomacy
The socialite and civil servant was a devoted assistant to three very different foreign secretaries during the Second World War and its aftermath.
Engelsberg ideas • Peter RickettsWhy Iran Escalates
Tehran’s strategy to drive America out of the Middle East.
Foreign Affairs • Mohammad Ayatollahi TabaarThe AI Autocrat
How technology empowers—and imperils—dictators.
Foreign Affairs • Seva Gunitsky , Bruce SchneierWestern Europe has more scope for soft power – in the form of plush mascots
Japan has understood the power of a good mascot. An unlikely gathering in Frankfurt shows why Western cities might want
Monocle • Jack SimpsonOur Entrepreneurs special proves why starting a business is always worth the risk
Establishing and running a business comes with many challenges but, here at Monocle, we like to focus on the rewards.
Monocle • Kate Lucey‘Everything exists in the mind of the masters’: At Norway’s Boatbuilder Guild of Os, ancient craft is preserved through hands-on instruction
In this exacting Norwegian workshop, master boatmakers pass down their skills without the help of drawings.
Monocle • Kate LuceyWhat makes a healthy workspace? At Novolife’s Bangkok HQ, blurring the line between office and outdoors goes a long way
When creating the new concrete HQ for the natural pharmaceutical company, Thai design firm Studio Krubka chose to look beyond
Monocle • Kate LuceyWhy private equity’s fashion bet failed and what founders are doing instead
Venture capital saw a chance to make big returns in fashion. So what went wrong? A lot. But there’s a
Monocle • Kate LuceyVasily Grossman’s account of humanity’s darkest hours
Essential reading, viewing, and listening from the EI editors. Vasily Grossman, best known for his Tolstoyan novel Life and Fate, served as a correspondent for the Red Army’s daily newspaper, Red Star, after being deemed unfit for military service following the German invasion of the Soviet Union. A host of his reports are collected in From the Front Line: Stalingrad-Treblinka-Berlin, 1941–45. As the title suggests, it is not easy reading.
Engelsberg ideas • Paul Lay‘My perspective changes constantly’: Tucker Carlson on trust in media and the Iran war
Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson shares his fears for Western Europe amid the US-Iran war – and the limited
Monocle • Kate LuceyThe Jury Trial Is Under Attack
After a Massachusetts judge announced a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy case on September 4, it didn’t take long for the media to turn its focus from the trial to the jurors. We learned that the jury was hung by a single holdout juror who wanted to convict Clancy. We also soon discovered that the jury deliberations had been heated.
Compact • Erin HagoodHezbollah’s Venezuelan money machine
Drug trafficking, money laundering and a compliant regime have sustained Hezbollah's presence in Venezuela for two decades. Since Maduro's fall, that haven is no longer secure.
Engelsberg ideas • Magnus RanstorpThe Two Shocks Upending Latin America
Why the region must brace for a new wave of turbulence.
Foreign Affairs • Dan Restrepo, Ricardo ZunigaLooking to refuel after an evening at the theatre? Here’s where to find dinner in London
From the Barbican and the National Theatre to the Tate, our playgoer’s guide to drinking and dining after curtain call
Monocle • Chloe LakeTales of existential danger from tech bosses have a provenance problem. What if the real risk is the AI bubble bursting?
Tech titans warn us of an AI apocalypse. But behind the sci-fi scare tactics lies a technology struggling to prove
Monocle • Jack SimpsonErgun Çağatay, bridge to the vast Turkic world
In capturing the threads of shared culture and profound differences among a far-flung people, the photojournalist Ergun Çağatay shed light on what it means to be Turkic.
Engelsberg ideas • Caroline EdenWhat Democratic Socialists Want
The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World By Mike Beggs, Ben Burgis, and Bhaskar Sunkara Verso, 432 pages, $29.95The surprising electoral success of avowedly socialist candidates in big-city mayoral campaigns and some congressional races has raised the profile of the Democratic Socialists of America, forcing people to ponder what the term “democratic socialism” actually means.
Compact • Fred BlockBritain’s information war against Nazi Germany
During the Second World War, Britain learnt that a propaganda campaign can only be won with accurate and credible reporting.
Engelsberg ideas • Steven Casey‘We have to rethink the way that we’re designing department stores.’ Olivier Bron on the future of Bloomingdale’s
Forget the death of the department store. Bloomingdale’s is redesigning the experience to win shoppers back.
Monocle • Kate LuceyBrazilian cuisine is having its time in the sun thanks to these São Paulo restaurants
Brazil’s largest city has long been a culinary hub but its food scene used to centre around French or Italian
Monocle • Chloe LakeZohran Mamdani’s opera scheme is a more highbrow policy than politicians’ typical cultural clout chasing
City Hall’s progressive accessibility initiative could help to diversify the Metropolitan Opera’s crowd and improve dwindling audience numbers.
Monocle • Jack SimpsonBest in show: The top 10 collections from Milan Fashion Week
From Prada to Moschino and Jil Sander, here are the best shows from Milan’s spring/summer 2027 runways.
Monocle • Tabitha SippHow wine conquered the globe
From the crude wines of the ancient world to the refined commercial product of the 21st century, the story of wine has always been intimately bound with that of human civilisation.
Engelsberg ideas • Henry JeffreysThe Man Reviving Left Antisemitism
LFI: Anatomie d’une perversion Edited by Pierre-André Taguieff David Reinharc, 424 pages, $26We live in an age of inversions. With class inversion, college-educated professionals have moved inexorably leftwards, while once left-leaning blue-collar workers have veered to the right. A few years ago, there was also talk of a demographic inversion, as affluent populations that used to be drawn to the suburbs moved back to cities. However, few inversions have been as striking as the shifting political valences of antisemitism.
Compact • Michael C. BehrentJapan and South Korea must master transactional diplomacy
At a time when the United States is retrenching its military commitments in East Asia, Seoul and Tokyo must learn to compete for Washington’s support within a rebalanced alliance system.
Engelsberg ideas • Edward HowellJapan Is Giving the United States a Chance in Asia
But Washington risks missing out.
Foreign Affairs • David Sacks, Nick SnyderRewiring the Arsenal of Democracy
America and its allies must scale together for a new era of war.
Foreign Affairs • Dan DriscollAs fashion struggles in today’s economic realities, it’s time for brands to cultivate a true following
Few cities generate a quasi-religious fervour for fashion quite like Milan. In the Lombard capital, brands tack billboards onto scaffolding
Monocle • Kate LuceyMilan isn’t Italian design’s only hot spot. You’ll also find it on the sunny banks of Lake Como
It’s easy to assume that Italy’s design world is made up of Milan – and Milan alone. The city is
Monocle • Amelia Edwards‘We don’t need to shout to reach the right people.’ Agnona’s CEO and creative director on the luxury brand’s next chapter
We speak to Stefano Aimone, who shares the inspiration behind the label’s latest collection, how to choose the right market
Monocle • Tabitha SippThe next UN secretary-general will face a daunting task: to restore trust in the faltering institution
The UN is in urgent need of reform but will the opaque selection process to appoint its new secretary-general allow
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsFledgling reporters are sparking up Japan’s news channels – but where have they gone in the West?
Tokyo, early Monday morning, I was flipping between Japan’s news shows. Typhoon Dujuan dominated all the networks and there was so much happening on-screen that you’d be forgiven for thinking that the feed into the hotel’s cable system had somehow merged a gameshow and an air traffic control screen, with a side helping of mid-80s TV home shopping. Japan’s morning news shows have little to do with the sofas and news desks of the Australian and US versions of Today, Good Morning America or anything on the UK’s breakfast telly buffet.
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsRiviera renaissance: Inside the revamped, historic Monte-Carlo Beach hotel
Some of the world’s most exciting creative names, from chef Simone Zanoni to designer Simone Porte Jacquemus and architect India
Monocle • Chloe LakeHave you broken this posh dinner-party rule?
Now I’m not sure what happens where you reside but in London it’s still deemed polite to pick up a
Monocle • Kate LuceyWhy I Call It ‘Assisted Suicide’
One sunny day in June, I opened up my university email, which I only do occasionally now that I am retired, to see an email marked “confidential” in my inbox.
Compact • Kevin YuillThe wrong prescription for liberal democracy’s ills
Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu’s call for a ‘working-class liberalism’ fails to address the underlying cause of liberal democracy’s woes: a lack of productivity.
Engelsberg ideas • Marc LevinsonRobert Molesworth, denouncer of Danish tyranny
The Irish-born Whig's time as envoy formed his view of Denmark as a lost cause, but a cautionary tale for the English: of how a country descends into absolutism.
Engelsberg ideas • Felice BasbøllThe Coming Taiwan Crisis
Use today’s calm to prepare for the next perfect storm.
Foreign Affairs • Jonathan A. CzinThe recent White House ban risks alienating traditional media
The White House’s decision to muffle the voices of certain news channels has shone a light on the importance of
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsCan a megacity with no history have culture? Shenzhen certainly thinks so
The Róng Museum of Art is one of the most anticipated additions to Shenzhen’s cultural landscape. Here founding director Pi
Monocle • Chloe LakeTruman’s impossible atomic calculus
Historian James M. Scott describes America’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in harrowing detail, while highlighting Japan’s obduracy, even when faced with the prospect of total annihilation.
Engelsberg ideas • David VaianiThe Grand New Films About Charles de Gaulle
The future world statesman, in full military uniform, leaps athletically on to the table. Then he reaches up into the ceiling lamp of his hotel room and pulls out a concealed microphone. It has been placed there by his American allies, or perhaps by the perfidious British. Or possibly by both at once. There are a lot of wires. If there is one brief scene which encapsulates the two vast new films about Charles de Gaulle, I think this is it. They recount the astonishing melodrama of the rebirth of France after humiliation and defeat.
Compact • Peter HitchensWhat if the Baltic states had resisted Stalin?
Finland's Winter War has become a national legend, while the Baltic states' surrender to Stalin in 1940 is remembered as a humiliation. But the story of Baltic submission is a myth.
Engelsberg ideas • Gordon F. SanderThe Price of Arctic Ambition
The Greenland deal proves self-reliance is not an option.
Foreign Affairs • Iris FergusonHow Putin Escalates
A new stage in Russia's confrontation with Ukraine—and the West.
Foreign Affairs • Andrei KolesnikovLooking good and feeling great: Our October issue examines the rewards of a sharp appearance beyond mere aesthetics
Introducing this month’s Style Special, our editor in chief, Andrew Tuck, contemplates the impact of beauty in the things we
Monocle • Kate LuceyFor Lina Ghotmeh, museums aren’t mausoleums but stages for debate and repair
A series of new commissions has confirmed Lina Ghotmeh as one of the world’s great architects. Here, she tells us
Monocle • Kate Lucey‘Our main goal is to bring people out on the water.’ A bright new chapter for the iconic Danieli hotel
A subtle yet ambitious revamp has breathed new life into one of Venice’s first grand hotels. Now under Four Seasons,
Monocle • Kate LuceyWhen the saints go marching in: Inside Lisbon’s night of sardines and spectacle
The Portuguese capital comes alive as it hosts an annual exuberant and colourful street party that combines a pagan past,
Monocle • Kate LuceyHow Zürich’s rich visual history made it a poster child for graphic design
As you walk through Zürich’s Kreis 5 this week, it’s almost impossible to miss the large-format posters displayed throughout the
Monocle • Kate LuceyTroutbeck’s secluded cottages in the Hudson Valley are perfect for a late-season escape
The Hudson Valley is home to an abundance of reinvented barns and design-forward inns. But Troutbeck – an estate hotel
Monocle • Kate LuceyThe rise and fall of Rome’s first family
Essential reading, viewing, and listening from the EI editors. It has been 50 years since I, Claudius, the BBC’s acclaimed adaptation of Robert Graves’ novels of Roman elite intrigue and excess, first aired.
Engelsberg ideas • Paul LayHow ‘Boys Love’ Conquered Asia
In the last week of July, two incidents involving disruptive Chinese fans of a genre of Asian media triggered something close to a crisis in international relations. Security personnel had forcibly removed a Chinese woman from an event in Bangkok. Patrons of this type of event, known as a “fan
Compact • R. Taggart MurphyColtrane, the acceptable face of the avant-garde
John Coltrane was a spiritual searcher whose shimmering, joyful music pushed jazz to its limits.
Engelsberg ideas • Max MitchellSMRs: a short history of a nuclear pipe dream
Small modular reactors (SMRs) were first conceived for military use and deployed on polar bases. Seventy years on, their record remains dismal.
Engelsberg ideas • Paul JosephsonThe Stalemate With Iran Is Not Sustainable
A diplomatic strategy to end the war.
Foreign Affairs • Richard Haass, Carolyn KissaneEurope Can’t Get Out of Its Own Way
The real barriers to competitiveness and innovation are still in place.
Foreign Affairs • Andrew McAfeeThe UN General Assembly’s true value lies in the encounters that it facilitates
As New York hosts this year’s UNGA, you’ll hear all of the familiar gripes. But the forum can still be
Monocle • Kate LuceyWealth Taxes Could Kill Privately-Owned Companies
Governance Futurism
Palladium • Christian AngelopoulosThe Middle East’s coalitions of convenience
The Mecca Agreement could work as part of a web of narrower, overlapping alliances better suited to the region than any grand alliance.
Engelsberg ideas • Ibrahim Al-Marashi and Tanya GoudsouzianThe Truth About Indian Americans
On September 13, Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, wrote on X, “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it,” referring to a photograph that showed a few dozen Indian American students celebrating the University of Texas’s football win over Ohio State. This resulted in a massive online debate, pitting Indian Americans and their defenders against the group’s critics.
Compact • Razib KhanThe absurd theatre of Russia’s choice-free election
The only anti-war party was struck off the ballot and online votes were counted by mysterious means. In Russia's latest exercise in democracy, the ruling party's landslide was never in doubt.
Engelsberg ideas • Egor SokolovSyria’s Imperiled Transition
How shock therapy threatens the post-Assad peace.
Foreign Affairs • Sam HellerA tale of two cities: What can London learn from a New York dinner service?
While London keeps falling in and out of love with formal service, New York proves that there’s a less neurotic
Monocle • Jack SimpsonHow the Middle East boiled over
Simon Sebag Montefiore's wildly ambitious history of the region since 1900 is a richly illustrated guide to the law of unintended consequences.
Engelsberg ideas • James Barr‘We don’t really care about Sudan’: The chairman of Euronews on the role of the media during global conflict
Speaking to Monocle Radio at Dubai’s Arab Media Summit, Euronews chairman Pedro Vargas David makes the case for more curious
Monocle • Anne MoffatHow Effective Altruism Took Over the World
The resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who warns that AI could “kill us all by the end of the decade,” has prompted a new wave of attention to existential risk from AI, while drawing scrutiny to what the people working at frontier AI companies really believe about the technology they are developing. Many of those who continue to work at Anthropic and OpenAI share Coxon’s fears.
Compact • Conor McGlynnProust’s quarrel with ‘accessible’ art
For Proust, serious art assumes its audience can acquire capacities it does not yet possess.
Engelsberg ideas • Lola SalemChina Still Has What America Needs
The Trump-Xi summit gives Washington a chance to buy time.
Foreign Affairs • Adam S. PosenThe perfect lobby can be many things but a buzzing, multi-purpose room is not one of them
The hotel lobby might be the most misunderstood space in hospitality. Everyone agrees that it matters but nobody seems to agree on what it should be. In recent years, the lobby has been asked to shoulder an exhausting number of roles at once: reception desk, living room, co-working hub, cocktail bar, social condenser, pop-up retail floor and, increasingly, an upholstered waiting room for guests to take Zoom calls.
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsAn ode to the chaotic euphoria of algorithm-free shopping at Paris’s grand flea market
In the seven hectares of the inconvenient but irreverent Marché aux Puces, you can still shop like it’s 1957.
Monocle • Anne MoffatIn Wenzhou, a culinary bookshop is serving up new connections
As a younger generation begins to re-embrace time in the kitchen, Dish Books is serving up community through food, culture
Monocle • Chloe LakeThe UAE’s cybersecurity head on adapting to digital warfare and the promise of AI
Mohamed Al Kuwaiti recognises the dangers that AI poses in the sphere of cybersecurity. But its potential benefits, he argues,
Monocle • Chloe LakeA five-city tour from a future neighbourhood in Lisbon to a Parisian afterparty
Lisbon About three blocks from my apartment, a new district is on the rise and my goodness, it’s going up fast.
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsTwenty-somethings’ CVs have to sparkle more than ever before. Would mine have made the star pile?
I marvel at the CVs that land on my desk. People in their twenties who have had more life experiences
Monocle • Kate Lucey15 brilliant books to gift your friend who has ‘read everything’
A selection of beautifully written and lovingly designed books that we would gladly unwrap at any time of year.
Monocle • Lizzie CoxLive better: Behind-the-scenes snapshots of Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference in Lisbon
This year, Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference returned to Lisbon, the host city of the first event in 2015.
Monocle • Kate LuceyThe Death of the Professional-Managerial Class
In the wake of Kamala Harris’s defeat in 2024, one heard often that Democrats needed to focus on class rather than identity. But what exactly does it mean to focus on class?
Compact • John B. JudisConcord’s second revolution
Transcendentalism, the visionary philosophy championed by figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, is the yin of the American Revolution.
Engelsberg ideas • Richard MarrancaThe grandeur of Verona’s open-air opera
Opera in Verona's ancient amphitheatre, open to the night sky, is a spectacle to be savoured.
Engelsberg ideas • Katherine PangonisEbola Is Only the Beginning
Congo’s warning for the global health system.
Foreign Affairs • Stephanie PsakiAmerica’s Attrition Trap
The U.S. military needs to build up its endurance.
Foreign Affairs • Nadia SchadlowLuxury fashion has taken a hit – but global conflict is not cramping Turkey’s style
As luxury markets around the world flounder, Turkey is seizing the opportunity to expand its global consumer base.
Monocle • Jack SimpsonThe UAE is rethinking its approach to foreign affairs without bearing grudges
In light of the conflict with Iran, the Emirates is ‘recalibrating’ its relationships with nations across the world.
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsHow Britain Defeated ‘Assisted Dying’
Every developed country faces a deeply uncomfortable problem: People are getting older. This means a fiscal crisis sometime in the coming decades, because it results in more dependents on the welfare state and fewer taxpayers. Equally, it means a cultural crisis, because the habits of mutual dependence and reverence for age are being eaten away by the culture of Now. Simply put, we don’t know what to do with the dependent and unproductive people in our midst.
Compact • Dan HitchensHow Sweden’s Social Democrats survived in the capital of capital
The once-dominant centre-left party has just recorded its worst result in more than a century, but its relative endurance owes much to a pragmatic accommodation with markets.
Engelsberg ideas • Rikard WesterbergThe wisdom of not knowing
The physicist Carlo Rovelli has written one book to make you feel better, and another to make you feel much worse.
Engelsberg ideas • Bryan AppleyardCuba’s Point of No Return
The country is collapsing even as its regime survives.
Foreign Affairs • Will FreemanChina’s Purges Are Working as Designed
A unique discipline system has helped the party endure.
Foreign Affairs • Andrew MerthaIf Paris is luxury and Milan is heritage, what is London Fashion Week?
Paris and Milan have been outshining London’s fashion scene and taking UK designers with them. Is it time for British
Monocle • Jack SimpsonMourning the old Israel: Fauda after 7 October
Essential reading, viewing, and listening from the EI editors. The latest series of Fauda is driven by the theme of tha’r, the Arabic for ‘blood revenge’ – here, revenge for 7 October. The cast and crew of the hit Israeli drama, whose five series focus on the fates of a group of undercover counter-terror operatives, were directly involved – Lior Raz, who plays the main character, Doron, helped rescue families from Sderot in the days after the attack.
Engelsberg ideas • Alastair BennDon’t Blame Phones for Teen Sadness
Young people are unhappy, and many observers think they know what is to blame: technology. The most influential argument in this direction comes from the psychologist Jonathan Haidt. In his 2024 book The Anxious Generation, Haidt argued that giving young people smartphones in the early 2010s “rewired” childhood, which led to large upticks in anxiety, depression, and related ailments.
Compact • Dario MarinoThe case for climate realism in an age of soaring energy demand
The conventional narrative assumes economies can grow while using less energy. The opposite is happening. It is time for climate realism.
Engelsberg ideas • Dieter HelmTrump and Xi Can’t Stop the U.S.-China Spiral
The delusions of summitry and the limits of personalist diplomacy.
Foreign Affairs • Orville SchellNew design festival Currents adds a fresh spark to Berlin Art Week
Mid-September is a vernissage-packed time in the German capital, with almost every art gallery in the city opening its autumn show during the annual Berlin Art Week. And, thanks to Currents – a new festival that presented the work of local designers and manufacturers across more than 60 venues last weekend – another industry has crashed the party.
Monocle • Kate LuceyMeet the best dressed at Monocle’s Quality of Life Conference
Though temperatures in Lisbon rose to 37C, our delegates still came dressed to impress with sharp linen jackets and polished
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsThree neighbourhoods perfect for laying low and recharging in the Hamptons
Three of the most beautiful Hamptons neighbourhoods offer luxurious hotels, shopping, eating and drinking within easy reach of New York.
Monocle • Tabitha SippGermany’s China Shock Will Push Voters Right
The German political establishment’s so-called firewall against the far right is crumbling. This month, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) secured 44 percent of the vote in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt.
Compact • Peer IllnerAristotle: a biography without a life
Philip Freeman's brisk life of Aristotle confirms how little the surviving record can tell us about the workings of the philosopher's mind.
Engelsberg ideas • Armand D'AngourThe BRICS+: rebels without a common cause
The BRICS+ summit in New Delhi revealed an enlarged forum pulled in three directions by China, Russia and India.
Engelsberg ideas • Ved ShindeThe Crumbling Defense of Europe
Trump has already undermined NATO and allied deterrence.
Foreign Affairs • Franklin C. Miller, Eric Edelman, Walter B. SlocombeThe New Chinese Way of Cyberwar
How Beijing will weaponize digital chokepoints.
Foreign Affairs • Anne NeubergerWhat lies beneath sea-loving Italians’ deep suspicion of lakes?
A dip in the water has always been an Italian summer ritual – as long as it’s salty. Here, we
Monocle • Jack SimpsonAn illustrated day in the life of a Lisbon ‘quiosque’
We celebrate the charming structures that dot Lisbon’s parks and praças. These monuments of art nouveau might be small but
Monocle • Kate LuceyThe AI trade is too big not to fail
More than $3.1 trillion has gone into American AI, much of it financed by debt pinned to unproven revenues. The industry may find that the only road to its prosperity runs through a crisis.
Engelsberg ideas • David RochePutin Will Not Yield
Pressure and pain won’t sap Russia’s resolve in Ukraine.
Foreign Affairs • Michael Kimmage, Maria LipmanBehind MAGA’s Anti-Colonial Turn
Not long after he arrived in Ireland over the weekend, President Donald Trump declared that it would be “fantastic” and a “cool thing” if the island were to be politically unified, offering an unexpected boost to the Irish republican cause. This came just a few weeks after the administration announced it was “reviewing” its position on the British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, long claimed by Argentina.
Compact • Geoff ShullenbergerTennis and the decline of Russian soft power
They would have been celebrating heartily in the Kremlin. This year’s US Open women’s finalists were from Moscow and from Minsk. The men’s champion was an ethnic Russian, a Sasha, no less, who got there by defeating a Muscovite in the semi-final. It would seem as though the Soviet and then Russian sports machine had been paying off handsomely.
Engelsberg ideas • Daniel PerisMarco Rubio has cannily swerved the world’s most divisive issues – but he can only avoid them for so long
The US secretary of state has been focused on easy wins in Latin America, disappearing at the first sign of
Monocle • Amelia EdwardsIf Canada’s airports want to get up to speed, they’re going to need to provide a smoother landing
1. The coming 24 hours are going to be one of the busiest periods for Toronto’s private aviation handlers. With the Toronto International Film Festival in full swing, the city’s hotel lobbies, restaurants and screening venues have been clogged with oversized SUVs fresh from Pearson Airport celebrity pick-ups. Come early Monday morning, the tempo will increase as scores of hand-selected CEOs, entrepreneurs and sovereign-wealth-fund honchos touch down for the start of the Canada Investment Summit.
Monocle • Amelia Edwards
Shared bundle
Open this bundle in Fiper
Follow it in the app, keep your own changes, and come back to this exact bundle later.