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Towards a Gender-Critical Nationalism
Peter Ramsay reviews a new book that explains the transnational character of queer politics and the national character of gay and women’s rights. Book Review: Alexander Stoffel, Eros and Empire: The Transnational Struggle for Sexual Freedom in the United States (Stanford University Press, 2025) (Long read) The revelation earlier this year that the gender ideologists…
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Ethnonationalism: Last Refuge of Globalism
Philip Cunliffe thinks we have no national interest in ethnonationalism. (Long read) Ethnonationalism has reared its head in British politics, sowing division on the Right and providing vindication once again for the Left’s perennial prophecy of a looming fascist menace. It is an unsurprising development. As the electorate has grown increasingly frustrated by the failure…
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Britain Against the Yookay: Nation Against Empire
Philip Cunliffe identifies the source of the increasing fragmentation of British politics and society in the imperial structures of the state, and its long experience of relying on devolved government and sectarianism to frustrate the national self-determination of the colonised. We live in the Yookay. Everyone instantly recognises their lives and surroundings in the social…
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Geopolitics at the End of the End of History
Lee Jones recently spoke to a conference of logistics professionals about the rapid changes in global politics. He argued that the current chaos is the result of the continuing decay of the old neoliberal order, and that this is leading to the militarisation of international relations, regionalisation of the world economy, and the redundancy of…
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Changing the Regime, Building the Nation
Philip Cunliffe explains why nation-building is the solution to the impasse in Western politics identified by Perry Anderson as the Regime. In a recent essay for the London Review of Books, Perry Anderson plots out the deadlock confronting political parties of both left and right across Western states, and notes that this deadlock paralyses both…
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Death Warmed Up
Peter Ramsay argues that the British right’s proposal for a Great Repeal Act only reveals the futility of its approach to the nation. An online Anglofuturist put out a video last week weaving together the words of the Tory politician Robert Jenrick, ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe and conservative historian David Starkey, each promoting the proposal…
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The Politics of Planning
Aaron Wells explains how Labour’s new Planning and Infrastructure Bill is unlikely to untangle the political problems in the planning process that plays such a large part in Britain’s building crisis. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner MP talks a big game about ‘taking on the blockers’ who stand in the way of development, but NIMBYism and…
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Trump’s Tool: The Limits of Bannon’s Postmodern Nationalism
In Washington, the struggle within Trump’s coalition between MAGA and Musk is picking up steam. Alex Gourevitch thinks MAGA’s fascist-saluting champion Steve Bannon is likely to be on the losing end. It has been strange watching Steve Bannon not just stalking DC but having nearly reclaimed his place on stage. Even for a culture that…
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Munich 2025: Trump, Vance and the end of Anti-Fascism
Philip Cunliffe asks whether Trump 2.0 marks not only the decisive end of the post-Cold War era, but also the end of an ideological framework that has dominated global politics since the 1940s. As European leaders were arriving for the Munich Security Conference 2025, Donald Trump was on the phone to Vladimir Putin talking peace…
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Vance Widens the Horizon
Peter Ramsay on JD Vance’s era-ending Munich speech. I knew I was far from alone as I gasped with astonishment listening to JD Vance speak at the Munich Security Conference last week. It may be a low bar, but this was the most powerful and enjoyable political speech I can recall. There was no soaring…
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Multipolar Neoconservatism
Alex Gourevitch assesses Donald Trump’s rapid and disruptive intervention into global politics, and exposes the evasion of domestic renewal that lurks in Trump’s apparent territorial ambitions. Is there anything to celebrate about Trump’s national security policy? There is no doubt that he has checked off a number of items that would be on any real…
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Is Trump 2 the End of ‘Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome’?
Lee Jones asks why the liberal expert class may be changing its tune in the wake of Trump’s re-election. Doesn’t this time feel different? Is it possible that the liberal establishment is finally winding down its eight-year temper tantrum and coming to terms with reality? While it may be too soon to tell, reactions to…
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Now Trump is Out of Excuses
Peter Ramsay argues that the American election is not only a stunning defeat for the world’s authoritarian liberal elites, but also a victory for democracy, albeit a temporary and equivocal one. Above all, the result means that Trump’s brand of populism is out of political excuses, and we are about to find out if it…
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Two Cheers for the Chagos Deal
Philip Cunliffe argues that the deal with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands is in the national interest, even if it was done for the wrong reasons. The British government has finally relinquished its sovereign claim over the Chagos Islands, Britain’s last African colony. Although an international treaty has yet to be finalised Britain has in…
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Reconstituting the Nations: Britain and Ireland after Brexit
This is the text of a talk given by Peter Ramsay to the Desmond Greaves Summer School 2024 in Dublin. He argues that the reconstitution of a sovereign nation-state in Britain depends on the achievement of Irish national sovereignty, and that the relation of the two nations exemplifies the inherent internationalism of the politics of…
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The Heart of Starmer’s Government
As the war in Eastern Europe escalates with Ukraine’s raid on Russia, Tara McCormack asks why Keir Starmer has pledged to put Ukraine at the heart of everything his government does. Britain’s new Labour government can be accused of vagueness and even dishonesty in its campaign to get elected. However, in one area at least…
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The Far-Right Excuse
Peter Ramsay argues that the official reaction to the recent riots in England is an ideological distortion that seeks to deflect responsibility for national disintegration. The riots and disorder that spread across Britain last week involved outright racial violence and intimidation, criminal damage and looting. They were widely condemned, and prosecutors are rightly taking action…
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Why Britain needs PR+
In the wake of the general election, Peter Ramsay considers the strongest argument for Britain’s existing electoral system, and explains why it no longer works. He argues that we now need proportional representation, but that won’t be enough to reinvigorate democratic participation in government unless it is part of a larger reform to the electoral…
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Rule of the Void
The UK’s general election result might seem like a restoration of the old pre-2016 political order. A bland technocrat has won a sweeping majority. However, Peter Ramsay and Philip Cunliffe argue that Labour’s massive victory is hollow and leaves the state in a weaker position than ever. The election results are a dramatic manifestation of…
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Why the Nation Matters
With a General Election looming, Peter Ramsay spoke last week at the London School of Economics about why the survival of the British nation is in doubt and why the politics of culture war are an evasion of the problem rather than a solution. Here is an edited version of what he said. Benedict Anderson…
The Northern Star 