PRINCETON  —  Rich Western industrialised countries appear to be caught in a time loop, with unexpectedly higher inflation bringing back not just memories of the 1970s but also that era’s policy debates and the political insecurities.

PRINCETON  —  Russia’s attack on Ukraine is coming to resemble many previous geopolitical crises. Throughout history, episodes that initially seemed like temporary disruptions have become prolonged affairs.

PRINCETON  —  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has challenged the international order, but so has the response from large industrial countries.

PRINCETON  —  Historian Samuel Huntington’s famous thesis that the post-Cold War world would be defined by a “clash of civilisations” turned out to be quite wrong.

PRINCETON — One clear lesson from last month’s damp squib of a climate summit in Glasgow is that multilateralism is difficult to pull off. This has always been the case.

PRINCETON — Economic and financial policymaking tends to move like a pendulum. Euphoria about the potential of government action is usually followed by backlash, disillusion and lowered ambitions. “Can-do” rhetoric gives way to “mustn’t-do” restrictions and rules.

PRINCETON — The razor-thin outcome of the German election marks a watershed in the history of the Federal Republic, signaling the final disintegration of the near-two-party system that long characterised the politics of West Germany and then of reunified Germany after 1990.Togeth

PRINCETON — This year includes big anniversaries in the history of the international monetary order.

PRINCETON — We are approaching the 50th anniversary of the so-called Nixon Shock, one the most decisive ruptures in monetary history. On August 15, 1971, US president Richard Nixon announced in a televised address that he was “closing the gold window”.