Middle East

Beyond Balfour and Sykes-Picot

Steering clear of Orientalist fantasy and patriotic British myth, this innovative analysis brings clarity to the complexities of the Middle East in the early 20th century.

Shakespeare: the Bard Beyond Borders

Shakespeare’s approach to history and geography is often regarded as something of a joke. But his skill was in reconstructing the medieval Mediterranean for audiences whose horizons were being expanded.

Learning Lessons in the Middle East

The history of Britain’s foreign policy in the Middle East is largely a litany of failure, of self-inflicted wounds that are still felt today. Peter Mangold considers what British diplomats and politicians have failed to learn.

ISIS and the Abuse of History

The defeat of ISIS can only be achieved if we take a long view and question the Jihadists’ simplistic interpretation of the West’s troubled relationship with the Middle East.    

Yemen’s Endangered Treasures

The current conflict in southern Arabia is threatening one of the most remarkable sites of the region’s pre-Islamic civilisations.

The World We Have Lost

Too many historians and commentators view history from a western perspective. In doing so, they turn their back on the roots of our global system, argues Peter Frankopan.

Farewell to Aden

Roger Hudson details the tense situation leading up to the evacuation of British troops from Aden in 1967.

William Marshal , The Greatest Knight

The warrior and tutor-in-arms to the son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine promised his dying charge that he would complete the sacred task of crusading to the Levant. Did he succeed in his mission and fight the forces of Saladin?