Iran has learned from the 2025 war and from the US how to leverage its strength. From Trump’s forced “takeover” of the Panama Canal from…
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Tag: History & Theory of Politics
Embassies to the Qing court—Part 3
Most people wrongly assume the Macartney Embassy of 1792-94 gave the Western world its first glimpse of the secretive Middle Kingdom. In fact, there were…
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Embassies to the Qing court—Part 2
Most people wrongly assume the Macartney Embassy of 1792-94 gave the Western world its first glimpse of the secretive Middle Kingdom. Why? Such an erroneous…
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Embassies to the Qing court—Part 1
Most people are familiar with the Macartney Embassy of 1792-94 for two reasons. First, the response by Emperor Qianlong to the British request to open…
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China and Japan – Part 1
Emperor Hirohito’s surrender speech, delivered on August 15, 1945, over the radio, was in classical Japanese that was heavily influenced by classical Chinese, especially in…
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Gunboat Justice v Soft Power
Douglas Clark’s magnum opus 3-volume history of Britain and American Law Courts in China and Japan is an exploration of gunboat hard power and the…
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Hirohito’s Controversial Legacy
The Tokyo War Criminals Trial tried Tojo and 27 top Japanese wartime leaders who waged WW2. The man responsible was not indicted. Hirohito was allowed…
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Challenges in Palestine: Truman’s Role Revisited
The British Mandate over Palestine was a disaster for all inhabitants of this ancient land. The attitude of those in charge is best summed up…
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Truman and Global Conflicts
Vice President Truman played an outsize role in world history due to the untimely demise of FDR towards the end of WWII. Unfortunately, he was…
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Dialogues of Plato
“The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates. This is a famous saying apparently uttered by Socrates at his trial for impiety and corrupting…
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