Thomas Flichy de La Neuville

It has been much debated whether Utopia’s peculiar chapter on war expressed the naivety of Sir Thomas or his cynicism. The discussions on this topic have been uninterrupted since 1516 and were particularly fierce in the 1930’s, dividing British scholars from German academics.

The recent events in Catalonia, as well as the desire of several Central European countries to regain control of their borders, remind us of a similar historical episode: that of the great crisis of the third century which shook the Roman Empire between 235 and 284 AD.

In recent months, the United States and North Korea have seemed poised for full-on warfare. The issue at hand is whether the United States can live with a nuclear-armed North Korea.

The last German elections will have impact on the positioning of the armed forces. For several years now, Germany has been under pressure to increase the involvement of the Bundeswehr into NATO operations. These pressures were confronted with institutional obstacles, in particular the fact that the Bundeswehr is the army of the Parliament in order to prevent the constitution…

The strength of an extended military confederation lies much less in its accumulated power than in the clarity of its strategic line. Unable to agree on a common strategy, the Holy League, created on 25 May 1571, was plagued by rivalry until Pius V clarified its limited goals while rationalizing its military command. Now, we…

I was seized on the descent of my plane by an acrid smell that reminded me that I was in Teheran, that miserable city with its oily breath. After having waited for an hour in the company of an Italian carpet buyer and a German on a commercial mission, I headed to the street, entertained…