Kori Schake is the Vice President of the International Instiute for Strategic Studies think tank and previously worked for President George W. Bush. In talks with Iain Martin, Schake argues that the United States, even though it looks dark at the moment, is the country with the best conditions to defend the liberal-democratic world order from China's and Russia's power claims.

John Bew is Professor of History and International Politics at Kings College London. He is researching the idea of a functioning world order and its historical roots. Ever since the late 1800s, world leaders have been thinking about how the interests of the great powers can be balanced to create global stability.But in addition to the political arguments, there have also been deep ideological impetus for a functioning world order that has shaped the West's view of international relations in our time, Bew says in conversation with Iain Martin.

The injustices of ancient times are central to modern Chinese history writing, Rana Mitter says in conversation with Thomas Gür. By constantly returning to the British abuse during the opium war and the Japanese atrocities during the Second World War, the Communist Party is trying to justify its own country's aggressive foreign policy. This insight is becoming increasingly important to understand as China's global influence grows.

In the late 1980s, it seemed that liberal market democracy had outperformed all other social systems once and for all. But since the financial crisis in 2008, capitalism must once again defend itself from both right and left criticism, historian Niall Ferguson says. If the liberal market economy is to survive, it must be combined with sound public finances, functioning institutions and a strong civil society, Ferguson explains in a conversation with Mattias Hesserus.

Adam Smith is one of the most important thinkers of economics, and his significance for our understanding of the modern economy cannot be underestimated. Jesse Norman, author and member of the British House of Commons talks with Mattias Hessérus about the idea heritage of Smith and how his thoughts should be understood by our time.

Spies, election manipulation, cyber espionage, disinformation... These are some of the cornerstones of the Russian regime's toolbox in the fight against the West. Calder Walton of Harvard Kennedy School believes that the methods may have changed over time, but that Russia has conducted this type of business since ancient times.In the history books, however, the importance of disinformation and intelligence gathering for political decisions is ignored, which is a problem, Walton says in conversation with Iain Martin.

Lord Peter Ricketts, crisis manager, former diplomat and Britain's ambassador to France 2012-2016, thinks that three "ghosts" have come to shape modern France: 1940, 1962 and 1968. In conversation with Fraser Nelson, he explains how these three years can help us to understand the attitude of the French establishment to the US and NATO, Brexit and the Yellow West.

When Germany reunited in 1990, there were fears that the country would once again become too powerful with the risk of new major conflicts on the continent. Fortunately, that was not the case. Fraser Nelson talks with Josef Joffe, editor-in-chief of Die Zeit, who believes that the historical legacy prevents Germany from assuming responsibility as a de facto great power. Today, ironically, it is the reluctance to arm the defense that creates tension in Europe. Can Germany free itself from its past?

The war in Yemen has harvested tens of thousands of lives, forced millions of people to starve, and involves regional and global superpowers. Despite this, the war is relatively unsupervised in the West. Elisabeth Kendall, postdoctoral fellow in Arabic and Islamic studies at Oxford University and expert on radical Islamist movements, talks with Thomas Gür about why Yemen matters, what the conflict is based on and possible ways forward.

The architects of the Iraqi war predicted that Saddam Hussein's dictatorship would be replaced with a thriving democracy, which would eventually stabilize the entire Middle East and strengthen the bond with the only democracy in the region.

The Thucydides trap describes the dangers associated with the meeting between an aspiring and a dominant superpower. Based on that idea, the historian Graham Allison talks with Thomas Gür about the risk of a military confrontation between China and the United States. Studying history is not a guarantee of continued peace between the two superpowers, but it is the best method given the other alternatives available, Allison says.