Francis Pike

Leyte Gulf is the greatest naval battle you’ve never heard of

24 October 2024 5:00 pm

When you think of great naval engagements, the Battle of Leyte Gulf does not immediately spring to mind, despite it…

India will never join China’s anti-western alliance

23 October 2024 12:40 am

On the 15 November Xi Jinping will mark the 12th anniversary of his becoming general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party…

Tesla is in trouble if Kamala Harris wins

16 October 2024 4:00 pm

In the third century BC the city of Rhodes, in celebration of the defeat of Demetrius I of Macedonia, built…

The long-forgotten history of the Chagos Islands

7 October 2024 4:30 pm

Now that Sir Keir Starmer has unilaterally decided to give up British ownership of the Chagos Islands, the last vestige…

Why Taiwan is pulling down statues of Chiang Kai-shek

5 May 2024 4:00 pm

While the West obsesses about whether or not China’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping, is going to invade Taiwan, the Taiwanese…

Narendra Modi is unbeatable

24 April 2024 4:00 pm

Voting in India’s national elections started last Friday. It will take six weeks to complete, which is less of a…

The West’s shameful silence on Imran Khan’s imprisonment

31 January 2024 12:56 am

Donald Trump should spare a thought for Imran Khan. If the former US president feels overrun by lawsuits, he could…

The long and bloody history of tunnel warfare

5 November 2023 5:56 pm

Tunnel fighting has always been a problem. As Israel battles in Gaza against some 5,000 Hamas fighters embedded in buildings,…

The first world war wasn’t the first world war

30 September 2023 5:00 pm

For reasons that not even Czechs can explain, in the past they developed a habit of throwing their rulers out…

How an American racing driver and war in Mongolia helped to defeat Hitler

16 September 2023 8:30 pm

Of all the ‘practice’ wars that preceded the main events of the second world war, including the Spanish civil war…

The forgotten end of the second world war

2 September 2023 5:30 pm

Two weeks ago, VJ day (Victory over Japan day) celebrated the end of the Pacific War. On 15 August 1945…

What explains Taiwan’s warmth towards Imperial Japan?

13 August 2023 5:00 pm

The online TaiwanPlus news agency reported recently that a new memorial had been unveiled in southern Taiwan to commemorate the…

Britain’s nuclear test veterans are finally being remembered

31 July 2023 6:31 pm

Some wars get forgotten (viz Korea and Malaya); others are constantly refreshed in memory. As the manager of an Asian…

Why do we forget Britain’s role in the Korean War?

27 July 2023 4:30 pm

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice. Sadly, in the British media it will be forgotten that…

Britain’s war in Malaya

18 June 2023 7:53 pm

On 17 June 1948, seventy-five years ago this weekend, the British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee declared war on the ethnic…

The troubling arrest of Imran Khan

10 May 2023 8:00 pm

The saga of Imran Khan’s political career rumbles on. While on his way to the High Court in Islamabad yesterday…

China and the strange history of balloon warfare

4 February 2023 6:00 am

China’s ‘spy’ balloon, (or is it an errant weather balloon?), is currently being tracked across America. Picked up above the…

What the revisionists get wrong about America’s nuclear bombings

18 December 2022 7:00 pm

The use of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki is hardly a festive subject. But given that in recent conversations…

The remarkable conversion of the lead Pearl Harbor bomber

4 December 2022 6:30 pm

This week marks the 81st anniversary of the Japanese attack on the US fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which…

Who tried to assassinate Imran Khan? And why?

4 November 2022 8:55 pm

At the end of August I warned in The Spectator that, in Pakistan politics, ‘death by assassination is always a…

The morality of the EU’s gas grab in Azerbaijan

16 September 2022 7:58 pm

My enemy’s enemy is my friend. This ancient proverb partly describes the EU’s fast developing relationship with Muslim Azerbaijan, a…

China vs the US: who will win the chip war?

10 September 2022 9:00 am

Semiconductors are the latest battleground for China and the US

Pakistan is on the brink

26 August 2022 3:30 pm

On Tuesday I speculated that Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, now the opposition leader, was so popular that he…

Is Imran Khan Pakistan’s Donald Trump?

23 August 2022 6:05 pm

Imran Khan, the cricketing hero, legendary lothario and deposed prime minister of Pakistan, is in trouble again. His political opponents…

Nancy Pelosi went rogue in Taiwan

3 August 2022 9:10 pm

Old leaders can be among the best. Just look at Konrad Adenauer, who became German chancellor when he was 73…