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

Paul Lay speaks to Phil Tinline, author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax that Duped America and its Sinister Legacy, about the variety and violence of a country built on high ideals and low conspiracies.Image: The interior of the United States Capitol. Credit: Alamy

Russia is a Near Eastern country now subordinated to East Asia. But Stephen Kotkin argues that historically it has prospered most when tied closely to Europe.Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/where-is-russias-place-in-the-world/.Image: Map of Russia, 1562. Credit: Alamy

What does Christ’s Kingdom owe to the culture of the Roman Empire? Tim Whitmarsh speaks to EI’s Alastair Benn about his new book, Rome’s Age of Revolution: Augustus, Empire and the Making of Christianity.Image: A statue of Augustus Caesar in Turin. Credit: Alamy

The filmmaker Jean Eustache’s interest in rural France and his sardonic scepticism about the May ’68 ideologues mark him out from his Nouvelle Vague contemporaries. Read by Leighton Pugh.Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/portraits/jean-eustache-the-outsider-who-reshaped-french-cinema/. Image: The film director Jean Eustache. Credit: Alamy

Margaret MacMillan speaks to EI’s Jack Dickens about how wars – and attempts to bring about peace – have shaped every era of human history. Image: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference, 1945. Credit: Alamy

The old media has failed to rise to the challenge of tech, but we'll miss it when it's gone.Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/testament-to-doomed-media/. Image: Woman reading a newspaper. Credit: Alamy