Introduction

In 1974, when the predecessor of our current Journal was conceived, the world was arguably as tumultuous a place as it is now. In the absence of social media and the internet, it is fair to say that not as many people actually knew the extent of worldwide chaos in which they were living, but tumult there was, and also an amazing number of ‘firsts’.1

The Parliamentary archives of the UK described 1974 as a “year like no other”.2 In the UK, for example, a devastating coal miners’ strike which, accompanied by a severe oil shortage, pushed the UK into its first recession since World War II, and necessitated the three-day working week (to save on electricity) until the strike was settled. But not before there were two parliamentary elections in the same year, also a real rarity. Many readers will remember the cold winter endured that year by many in the UK; the result of the combined shortages created by the coal miners’ strike and an oil embargo aimed at the USA, the UK and Europe. The latter was the result of an embargo enacted by Arab members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in connection with the 1973 Yom Kippur War in the Middle East. Although that war ultimately resulted in an enduring peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, 50 years later we find ourselves in the midst of another Middle Eastern conflict for which, at the time of writing, we can only hope for a ceasefire and enduring peace.

In the USA, President Nixon resigned from the presidency in disgrace because of a cover-up in connection with the Watergate break-in (who remembers “What did he know, and when did he know it”?), the first president in history so to do. As a …