CONTENTS Features

Iraqi children play in front of amural of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, 1998. This issue, we explore the reality of life under dictatorships, from Iraq to North Korea and Nazi Germany

14 THE BIG QUESTION

Has Russia always played by its own rules? J

As it makes headlines for its suspected role in poisoning a former intelligence officer in Salisbury, our panel debates Russia’s historical relations with the rest of the world 22 Life in totalitarianism J

BY KONRAD H JARAUSCH, JOHAN FRANZÉN AND HAZEL SMITH From Nazi Germany and Iraq to North Korea, we explore what dictatorships looked like from the inside

40 Japan’s growing pains J

BY CHRISTOPHER HARDING Japan’s bid to reinvent itself for the 20th century, and the unexpected consequences 50 Cleopatra: last of the pharaohs J

BY JOANN FLETCHER Beautiful, tragic – and a masterful political operator: why we need to change our view of the final ruler of Egypt’s Ptolemaic dynasty 71 The 25 global history books you must read J

Experts highlight the books you need in order to make sense of today’s world

J On the cover

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY DAVIDE BONAZZI

R E U T E R S

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