Alexander the Great is one of the best-known figures in world history. He only lived until age 32, dying in Babylon. But ...

Great powers rely on military, diplomatic and economic dominance. But in a multipolar world, power has been duluted.

“Something miraculous burns in music,” wrote the Ukrainian poet Anna Akhmatova in a poem in tribute to Shostakovich, who understood well the cost of annihilation; “as you watch, its edges crystallize.