The essays in this volume, Our Times: Essays on Current Affairs, stem from a lectures series delivered at the premises of the British Academy in London, arranged by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for public benefit, a private foundation based in Stockholm, Sweden.

The aim of publishing these essays is to highlight the importance of the contributions of the humanities to current affairs and debate. This volume takes as a starting point the issue of the role of the United States as Global Superpower and as a guarantor of security in the World with special emphasis on Europe's smaller states. The rest of the volume deals with a number of themes deemed important, characteristic and relevant to our times: Russia, political stability and rising populism, the role of diplomacy, and individualism and its role in Western culture.