Welcome to the
website of Bill Emmott
I am a writer and consultant best known for my 13 years as editor-in-chief of The Economist (1993-2006) as well as for my books and films on Japan and Italy. My latest book, Deterrence, Diplomacy and the Risk of Conflict Over Taiwan was published by IISS/Routledge in July 2024 and in Japanese translation by Fusosha under the title “How to Stop World War Three”. These days, I am a “Brexile” living in Ireland, though I also spend time in Oxford, and am chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the International Trade Institute, an Irish educational body, as well as acting as Senior Adviser, Geopolitics for Montrose Associates, a London-based strategic intelligence consultancy. This site carries a range of articles, conference papers, videos, speeches and books, as well as my 2050 Index that in 2017 looked at what data told us about the long-term strengths and prospects of western societies. For my regular articles, please subscribe to my free Substack service, Bill Emmott’s Global View, at https://billemmott.
Featured ArticleSee all
The West’s Year of Living Anxiously
30.12.24
Years often look easier to define in advance than as they end, for pre-fixed events can offer a framework that unreliable memory may not. And so it was that,...
Read moreLatest ArticlesSee all
What we know, and don’t know, about the new geopolitical and geoeconomic order
05.10.22
If ever an era confirmed why it is both right and important to be a classical liberal – or at the very least to understand and learn from classical...
Read moreReflections, 20 years on
10.09.21 Publication: Substack
This beautiful, poignant image from the September 10th cover of The Economist took me back to that terrible day 20 years ago in more ways than most, for it...
Read more“Three Myths about Afghanistan”
05.09.21 Publication: Mainichi
There’s no denying that August was a terrible month both for President Joe Biden and for the reputation of the United States. But the disastrously handled...
Read moreThe 2050 Index
In too many countries, politics and policy making is addicted to the short term. To help foster the longer-term thinking we all need, in 2017 I worked out this index, together with James Fransham of The Economist, which ranks 35 advanced western countries according to 25 different measures, grouped under the themes of demography, knowledge, innovation, globalization and resilience.
See the 2050 Index