Michael Baker

Multi-Ethnic Empires One reason why both world wars proved to be such complex affairs was because the major combatant powers were not just nation states but empires, that's to say, either they formally possessed multi-ethnic territories far beyond their own national borders or they could claim widespread foreign interests and allegiances. In this sense, WW1 and WW2 were conflicts fuelled as much by inter-ethnic and ideological civil strife as by great power rivalries. For the ordinary...

If you're familiar with the Anne Frank story, you may recall that on July 6, 1942 she and her family went into hiding for the first time in the secret annexe that her father Otto had prepared at his business premises in Amsterdam. What triggered this dramatic move was Anne's older sister Margot receiving a summons the previous day from the German occupying authorities to report for deportation to a labour camp in Germany. At the time such deportations of Jews were becoming systematic in the...

Stalemate in Ukraine In three weeks' time, the war in Ukraine will have lasted as long as the First World War. The two conflicts have often been compared. As on the Western front from the end of 1914 onwards, in Ukraine too the war has settled into a trench-bound stalemate of attritional ferocity in which, on both sides, advances are minimal and casualties heavy. At least, that was true until more recently when Ukraine's adroit use of innovative drone technology began to tip the balance,...