A GUIDE TO OUR ARCHIVES
You'll be amazed by what we keep in them.
WELCOME
If you’re new to the Cosmopolitan Globalist, you need a guide to the hundreds of essays, investigative series, podcasts, and debates we’ve published here by writers around the world. You paid for access to these archives, so this guide is meant to help you enjoy everything to which you’re now entitled.
If you haven’t yet subscribed, here’s a glance at what we keep behind the paywall.
This is not a comprehensive index. You can find one here, organized in reverse-chronological order. There’s lots in the archives. This isn’t canonical, either. It’s just a selection that showcases what we do well.
BY THEME OR WRITER
The New Caesars
Right-wing populism, left-wing populism, illiberal democracy, hybrid democracy, empty democracy, and electoral authoritarianism.
The New Caesars Podcast
The podcast to go with the Caesar series. Dina Khapaeva, Vivek Kelkar, Monique, Camarra and Claire Berlinski talk Caesars around the world.
Tecumseh Court
WAR 101, written by US Marine combat veteran Tecumseh Court, is the most popular and practical series we’ve ever published.
WAR 101, PART I
US Marine Court veteran Tecumseh Court introduces “Warfighting,” the how-to manual for the US Marines, and its practical application in Ukraine. Part I of III.
Also by Tecumseh Court:
Understanding the collapse of the Russian Army
Russia is no longer on the offensive. Not even close.
Year Zero
Tecumseh Court asks what the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War teaches us about Ukraine.
Tecumseh Court’s popular column: Q&A with Tecumseh Court answers all of your questions about war:
FORECASTING WITH PETER ZEIHAN
A reader asked what I thought of the popular political analyst Peter Zeihan. I explained where I thought he was right and where I wasn’t so sure.
Is the old world order about to collapse?
A reader asked me whether I thought Peter Zeihan was on the right track. I have a few thoughts about that.
Is the old world order about to collapse? Let's find out.
If Peter Zeihan is correct, globalization is coming to an end.
On geopolitical forecasting
Peter Zeihan predicts, among other things, China’s collapse within the coming decade. Is he right?
On the origins of the Pax Americana
The fourth and final installment of my thoughts about Peter Zeihan and political forecasting.
THE AGE OF SPECTACLE
Adam Garfinkle’s series on the Age of Spectacle connects the dots of American political dysfunction.
The Age of Spectacle
Part I. A spectacle mentality has come to dominate our cognition and our political culture.
The Age of Spectacle, Part II
Part II. The spectacle mentality is associated with a distinct cognitive state. For many of us, this state has become our default setting.
The Neuroscience of the Spectocracy
Part III. Spending more than seven hours a day mostly alone, entertained by a screen, may well lock the brain into a vulnerable and impressionable la-la-land, ripe for any ideological entrepreneur who comes along.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
An introduction to the risks, promises, and dangers of AI, with a reading list.
How not to think about ChatGPT
Why we should dismiss the claims of people telling us to dismiss the significance of ChatGPT.
FOOM
Some believe that if we continue on our current trajectory, AI will kill us all. How good are their arguments?
Is the AI control problem insoluble?
Listen now (47 min) | Claire Berlinski speaks to the computer scientist Roman Yampolskiy.
Princes of the Realm
Claire and David Berlinski talk about artificial intelligence, and the migration of political power from classical to corporate institutions.
SOCIAL MEDIA
The last days of Twitter
The world is transfixed by the speed with which Musk is destroying Twitter.
ECONOMICS AND DEMOGRAPHICS
The Great Energy Debate
We had a week-long debate about how to create enough energy for everyone on the planet. I think this is the best discussion of the pros and cons of every possible energy source that you’ll find on the Internet:
Covid19
The next pandemic is right around the corner. Let’s keep it there.
We need a UN International Agency to regulate and control research on pathogens with pandemic potential. An open letter by Andre M. Goffinet, Helen E. Mundler, Sebastien Viret, and Roland Wiesendanger.
I look at the phenomenon of anti-vaxxers:
BY REGION
UNITED STATES
Nachtgedanken
Trump has been indicted, at last, for his most grievous crimes.
Denk ich an Amerika in der Nacht,
Dann bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht,
Ich kann nicht mehr die Augen schließen,
Und meine heißen Tränen fließen.
I look at Vivek Ramaswamy’s foreign policy ideas:
EUROPE
The Vilnius Summit
If you watched the Vilnius Summit forum, you may have noticed that the gathering took an awkward turn. The first day saw a public spat between Zelensky and NATO leaders, with both using the kind of language that diplomats call “regrettable.” By the second day, the unpleasantness had been resolved, or papered over, and everyone smiled for the cameras.
What Britain's suicide means for the world
An effective foreign policy must be backed up by a military that poses a credible threat. This requires economic heft.
A multi-part series about Hungary and the New Caesarism:
New Caesars: Hungary Edition, Part I
A journey from the Habsburg and Austro-Hungarian Empires through the Orbán Revolution.
New Caesars: Hungary Edition, Part II
A journey from the Habsburg and Austro-Hungarian Empires through the Orbán Revolution
Orbán's grotesque speech
On July 23, Viktor Orbán relieved himself of a grotesque speech, arguing that the West was now divided between racially pure countries like Hungary and those that like the US and France are “no longer nations." Cathy Young responds to Rod Dreher.
A multi-part series about France and riots:
The riots (again) in France
Yesterday’s protests in France degenerated, again, into appalling violence.
Why the French Riot
Five days of violent riots in France are now drawing to a close. The situation here is not what you might imagine. Reflections on culture, mobs, and memory.
What is a Riot?
Riots are not a phenomenon unique to France, even if they’re more common here. They seem to be rising in frequency around the world. It might be useful to ask why.
Riot Control
Claire and the Franco-American political scientist Arun Kapil exchange thoughts about mob violence, policing, and what France should do if it wants to end the rioting.
Ukraine
The Flood
With every hour, water from a lake the size of greater London destroys another Ukrainian city. The lies from Putin's Western vuvuzelas and tankies are intolerable.
Asia
Pakistan is looking down a deep, dark hole
It needs more than mere economic reform. It needs the root-and-branch overhaul of its institutions. But there's no sign anyone's capable of leading it.
China's road to hegemony?
Beijing is now setting the pace of a contest for global hegemony with the United States. The US and its allies need to catch up quickly.
Middle East
Identity politics and Israel's judicial reforms
Vivian Bercovici argues that Israel’s political crisis devolves from misdirected anger over its culture and identity wars, not well-formulated ideas about justice and democracy.
Latin America
The insurrection in Brazil
What happened on January 8 in Brasília closely resembled what happened on January 6 two years before in the US Capitol. This is not a coincidence.
Africa
Three billion Africans
By 2100, half all humans being born will be African. Ken Opalo explains the way demographics will shape Africa and the world.
Making sense of the Tigray war
A primer on the world's bloodiest conflict, with Meron Gebreananaye and Saba Mah’derom.
🌍 Making sense of the Great African War, DR Congo, and M23
Making sense of the deadliest conflict since the Second World War, with Honore Mvula Kabala.
Claire’s France
Personal reflections from the editor on her adopted country.
A fabulous Belle Époque courtesan and a bonus for our new subscribers
A secret book review, behind the paywall.
Claire’s Turkey
Personal reflections from the editor on a country she lived in for a decade and still and loves.
LETTERS FROM AN AFGHAN FAMILY
Readers of the Cosmopolitan Globalist have generously contributed to a fund to rescue this Afghan family of five girls, their parents, and their brother. Read about their journey here.
An Update from an Afghan Family
The girls haven't been to school in more than a year. They've barely gone outside. But they're still alive, and thanks to you, they have food.
Good News from Islamabad!
"I think I have been released from a cage and I am flying. I feel really good. Ms. Claire."
DAVID BERLINSKI
Essays by Claire’s father.
A Passage from India
Bland Fanatics: Liberals, Race and Empire by Pankaj Mishra Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 224 pp., $27.00 David Berlinski, Paris PANKAJ MISHRA is an Indian journalist, novelist, and travel writer; he is widely appreciated as a scold. Written between 2008 and just the other day, the sixteen essays comprising
French Toast
“France has not Said its Last Word” Ed. Rubempré, September 2021 David Berlinski, Paris Éric Zemmour is a French political journalist by profession, a long-standing contributor to Le Figaro; and if he is known at all in the United States, he is known chiefly for being well-known in France. In France, he is known for being rather like Donald Trump—strikin…
CAT STORIES
If Claire’s involved, there will be cat stories. (Once, a reader unsubscribed with a note to the effect that I wrote too much about my cats. Good riddance.)
There’s much, much more in the archive: hundreds of essays by the world’s best-informed people, from around the world—from Peter Zeihan, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Cathy Young, Vladislav Davidzon, Yuri Deigin, Arun Kapil, Iason Athanasiadis, Lawrence Krauss, Calista Gingrich, Adnan Hadad, Roman Yampolskiy, Alan Potkin, Piero Castellano, Robin Häggblom, Michael Weiss, Teklehaymanot Weldemichal, Tim Mak, Casey Handmer, Alexander Hurst, Benjamin Wolf, John Oxley, Nervana Mahmoud, Monique Camarra, Caroline Smrstik, Olga Tokariuk, Nicolas Tenzer, Gareth Lewis, Jon Nighswander, Tomaž Zaniuk, Adam Garfinkle, Tanju Yürükoğlu, Honoré Mvula Kabala, Kate Tsurkan, Shay Katiri, Joshua Treviño, Doug Koplow, Peter Ungphakorn, Akshaya Jose, Robert Wolfe, Ken Opalo, Kroum Sourov, Wim Van Hyfte, Cristy Quirk, Andre Goffinet, Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, Paul Rahe, Vivian Bercovici, Meron Gebreananaye, Paul Davies, Robert Zubrin, David Patrikarikos, Julian Lindley-French, Ron Steenblik, Judith Levy, Dina Kaphaeva, Thomas Gregg, Owen Lewis, Gabi Mitchell, Cristina Maza, Gaby Charing, Tecumseh Court, Dr. X, Vivek Kelkar, and my Pop, David Berlinski.
But start here.
Am I imagining things, or does CG have a new logo?