Why subscribe?
This is a place for Sam and Lawrence Freedman to share ideas and reactions to events. We both write for other publications and will continue to do so but this Substack is an opportunity to develop themes more consistently than can be done in occasional commissioned pieces.
Our aim is to cover the big trends that really matter at home and abroad, while trying to avoid the day-to-day ephemera which fills so much space in newspapers. We try to make posts as informative as possible, with lots of links and data, so that even if you don’t agree with our assessment they can still be useful.
Sam mainly writes about policy and politics – ranging pretty widely. This includes rapid analyses of Government announcements; thematic pieces on trends; and policy analysis. He will also use policy issues to explore his interests in behavioural psychology, psephology and forecasting. He mainly writes about the UK but also writes about US and European domestic politics.
Lawrence focuses primarily on foreign affairs, focusing on the background history and strategic judgements lying behind international news stories. At the moment he’s writing a lot about the Russo-Ukraine War and the Middle East. But he also covers others conflicts, such as those in East Africa and the Sahel, and big international relations questions on issues like China and Taiwan.
What’s the deal?
Everyone signing up will get at least three free posts a month. Paid subscribers will get at least five additional pieces, usually more. We usually do two posts a week, but sometimes more if there’s a lot to write about. We also publish a monthly guest post for paid subscribers from experts on topics we’re interested in but can’t do justice to. And we run regular Q+As for paid subscribers.
We’ve set the price at just £4.50 a month - less than the cost of a pint. We appreciate that this disaggregated form of comment could get pretty expensive if you want to sign up to a few different writers, and that many people won’t have tried substack before and will be taking a bit of a punt.
You can also get an annual subscription for £45. If you’re feeling really generous (or are expensing the cost) and want to be encouraging there’s a founder member rate set at £100 – though you can use it to pay anything between the £45 minimum and £100. We can’t offer you much extra for being a founding member, beyond gratitude and the opportunity to suggest post topics.
Who are we?
Sam is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. From 2010-2013 he was a Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary of State at the UK Department for Education. After that he worked at the UK’s largest teacher training charity, Teach First, ending up as the Executive Director in charge of recruitment and teacher training. In 2018 he became CEO of Education Partnerships Group – an international charity providing policy support to Governments in sub-Saharan Africa. Following an extended stay in hospital in Spring 2021 (which you can read about here) he stepped down from that role and spends most of his time doing political commentary for various outlets. He also has a podcast and has written a Sunday Times bestelling book “Failed State: Why Nothing Works And How We Fix It”. You can follow him on Bluesky @samfr.bsky.social
Lawrence is Sam’s Dad. But in addition to that he is Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, and former Vice-Principal. He is the author of numerous books including the bestselling Strategy: A History, The Future of War: A History, the two-volume Official History of the Falklands War. He was a member of the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War, was knighted 2003 and appointed to the Privy Council in 2009. His latest book “Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine” was published in September 2022. You can follow him on Bluesky @ldfreedman.bsky.social
