Over a long career, John Hardman has specialised to great effect in teasing out, from speeches, decrees, minutes, memoranda, letters, diaries and unsent drafts, the varied moods of French political de

The arts sector has long been unthinkingly in thrall to the supposedly “progressive” left but a coherent, coordinated, conservative strategy could, and should, shift the consensus

When General Francisco Franco died on 20 November 1975 – 39 years after the start of the brutal civil war that brought him to power – the prospect of a bloodless transition to democracy in Spain appea

In the 21st century, we have moved into an era of performative covert action. Leaders such as Vladimir Putin have used the shadow of death to coerce their enemies overseas and to reinforce their warri

The troubled history of US-China relations

The evidence is clear: the Tory Party’s plight can be blamed on the Liz Truss U-turn that exploded its claim to hard-headed competence