The EI Podcast

Saudi Arabia’s expensive investment in its future has come with a concurrent focus on its archaeological past but its ambitions risk eradicating the remnants of pre-Islamic history. Read by Leighton Pugh. 
Read the essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-struggle-for-saudi-arabias-buried-past/.
Image: The Qasr Al Farid tomb in Saudi Arabia. Credit: Alamy

Peter Ricketts, Britain’s former ambassador to France, speaks with Paul Lay about a golden age of diplomacy. 
Image: Archibald Clark Kerr (Britain’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union) and Alexander Cadogan (Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) at the Potsdam Conference, 1945. Credit: Alamy.

In war and diplomacy, personal relationships between leaders can shape the course of events in unpredictable ways. Read by Leighton Pugh. 
Read the essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the-political-power-of-knowing-your-enemy/.
Image: Cartoon from Punch showing from Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Credit: Alamy

Brendan Simms talks to EI’s Jack Dickens about a new age of geopolitical rivalry.
Image: Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. Credit: Alamy

When it comes to nuclear weapons, the concerns that West Germany’s first chancellor wrestled with during the Cold War have not disappeared. In this audio essay, Marina E. Henke suggests that they have simply re-emerged in new forms. Read by Leighton Pugh. 
Read it here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/germanys-new-old-nuclear-dilemma/
Image: A nuclear power plant in Bavaria, circa 1985. Credit: INTERFOTO