The wars, treaties, and upheavals that established the boundaries and norms of the current international order.
17 articles
Architects of a Century of Peace
The 1814-1815 diplomatic settlement that redesigned Europe after Napoleon's defeat, establishing principles of great power concert and legitimacy that prevented major war for a century. The Congress created the template for multilateral diplomacy and collective security.
Thirteen Days on the Nuclear Brink
The October 1962 confrontation between the United States and Soviet Union over nuclear missiles in Cuba, the closest the world has come to nuclear war. The crisis offers enduring lessons about deterrence, crisis management, and the dangers of nuclear weapons.
The End of an Empire and Birth of a New World Order
The 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union that ended the Cold War and created the 'unipolar moment' of American dominance. The Soviet collapse and its aftermath continue to shape Russian grievances and great power competition today.
Birth of the Modern State System
The 1648 peace settlement that ended the Thirty Years War and established the foundational principles of state sovereignty that still govern international relations. Westphalia created the template for a world of independent, legally equal states.
The Catastrophe That Ended the Old Order
The 1914-1918 war that destroyed four empires, killed 20 million people, redrew the map of Europe and the Middle East, and created the unstable conditions that produced World War II. The conflict transformed warfare, diplomacy, and the international system beyond recognition.
The Conflict That Made the Modern World
The deadliest war in human history killed 70-85 million people, ended European dominance, created the American-led international order, and inaugurated the nuclear age. Every major institution, alliance, and strategic assumption of contemporary geopolitics traces its origins to this conflict.
The wave of independence movements following World War II that dismantled European colonial empires and created dozens of new nation-states. Decolonization reshaped the global political map while raising enduring questions about sovereignty, development, and neo-colonialism.
The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the subsequent global War on Terror that defined American foreign policy for two decades. The response to 9/11 transformed security practices, launched two major wars, and raised enduring questions about the balance between liberty and security.
The 2008 global financial crisis that began with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and spread worldwide, reshaping economic governance, accelerating China's rise, and planting seeds of political populism. The crisis exposed the vulnerabilities of financial globalization and transformed international economic relations.
The global competition between the United States and Soviet Union that shaped the second half of the 20th century. The Cold War established patterns of great power rivalry that remain relevant today.
The strategic competition between the British and Russian empires across Central Asia throughout the 19th century. The Great Game established patterns of great power rivalry in the region that persist to the present day.
The formal rupture between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches that divided Christianity into two distinct civilizational spheres. This schism shaped the cultural, political, and religious development of Europe and continues to influence geopolitics today.
The 1950-1953 conflict that militarized the Cold War, committed America to permanent Asian engagement, and left the Korean Peninsula divided along the world's most fortified border—a division that persists seven decades later and remains one of the most dangerous flashpoints in global security.
The rapid European colonization of Africa between 1881 and 1914, formalized at the Berlin Conference, that carved the continent into artificial territories. The scramble's arbitrary borders and extractive systems continue to shape African politics and development.
The 1956 crisis over Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal, when secret British-French-Israeli collusion to retake the waterway was halted by American and Soviet pressure—the moment that confirmed the end of European imperial power and the arrival of the superpower era.
The secret 1916 agreement between Britain and France that carved up the Ottoman Empire's Arab territories, creating borders that cut across ethnic, religious, and tribal lines—borders that have defined and destabilized the Middle East for over a century.