Journal

“In war, narrative is much more than just a story.  ‘Narrative’ may sound like a fancy literary word, but it is actually the foundation of all strategy, upon which all else – policy, rhetoric and action – is built.”   This essay explores the distinctive nature of ISIS’s weaponisation of history, arguing that the profound impact of its dual approach of  productive  and  destructive weaponisation  sets it apart from other examples of weaponisation.  Productive weaponisation  in

“Historians are dangerous people, capable of turning everything topsy-turvy. They have to be watched”-Nikita Khrushchev   On 28 December 2021, the historical, commemorative organisation Memorial was dissolved by the Russian supreme court. The act conformed to Putin’s traditional attack on his political enemy; they were labelled as Russophobic, part of a Western conspiracy against the patrimony and ‘historical unity’ of Russia. Two months later, on 24 February 2022, Putin comm

The 1994 Rwandan Genocide was one of the largest genocides in modern history, with over 800,000 people, representing 12% of the Rwandan population, murdered in an episode of mass violence. This essay will explore how, in the aftermath of extraordinary violence, Rwanda has used public history to foster unity, suppress ethnic divisions between the two major conflicting ethnic groups, Hutu (85%) and Tutsi (14%), and combat denial of the genocide. This essay will analyse three ke

To firstly motivate the debate, one of the most obvious ways in which the problem of future generations matters is its implication on what is permissible for us as present generations to do, especially concerning the usage of the earth’s non-renewable resources. This essay will argue that we do owe future persons negative duties of non-harm (a duty not to leave them with a life not worth living), and our policy-making should be shaped accordingly, whereas positive duties of a

In 1776, amidst the intellectual fervour of the Scottish Enlightenment and the economic upheavals of the early Industrial Revolution, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations (1776). Commonly hailed as the foundational text of modern economics, the book is frequently acknowledged for its rejection of mercantilist orthodoxy and its embrace of liberal commercial principles. Yet this canonical status belies the complex legacy of The Wealth of Nations , which—while undeniably i

Peace means harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. Sustainable peace, rather, is defined in this essay as harmonious coexistence characterised not only by the absence of military violence, but also by the preservation of freedom of expression and the healthy exchange of diverse ideological perspectives. Ideological disharmony, stemming from conflicting objectives, is argued to not be suppressed but integrated into the broader peace-building efforts to establish a s

How does the CCP use history to justify the continuation of their one-party rule to their students?     Francis Fukuyama in his article The End of History? (1989) declared the “unabashed victory of economic and political social liberalism [...] The triumph of the West, of the Western idea [...].” He wrote at a time when the Soviet Union was weakening. In his discussion of China, a Communist nation that seemed to be thriving given an incredible 11% growth in GDP per annum in 1

“Russia turns to history to create a bellicose, heroic narrative suiting a great world power.”— Stefan Forss, “Russia’s Victim Narrative” (2020)   “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”— George Orwell, 1984   The political manipulation of historical narratives has persistently functioned as the central mechanism of Russian governance under President Vladimir Putin, serving as a tool for legitimising authority, shaping collecti

‘ The thought of historians, as of other human beings, is moulded by the environment of the time and place. ’ (E.H. Carr, What is History? ) - ‘ History is the record of what one age finds worthy of note in another. ’ (Jacob Burckhardt,  Judgements on History and on Historians )   Abstract   ‘The thought of historians, as of other human beings, is moulded by the environment of the time and place,’ wrote E.H. Carr in his 1961 What is History? . The thought of historians has be

'History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future.' -- Robert Penn Warren   "We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have already made up our minds to do." -- Margaret MacMillan   Arguably, the only purpose of the past can be to inform the present. In his book, 'The Ide