Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts

It is not just politics that is beset by tribalism. The social sciences are also vulnerable to in-group bias. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Love has become widely seen as a democracy of salvation open to all. The reality is more complex. Is our religion of love doing more harm than good? Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

While there may have been striking similarities between the Gospel of Thomas and those of the four Evangelists, closer examination reveals a subtle yet crucially different perspective on salvation. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Humanity has come quite some way in the past 200,000 years but are we really anything more than primates with a few million more neurons than our closest relatives? Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by Professor Helen Thompson, Tim Marshall and Dr Daniel Yergin to discuss the global energy market. The fallout of Putin's invasion of Ukraine has overthrown energy norms in Europe. However, over the past decade the energy market has been far from stable. With concerns surrounding climate change …

What's a war without its leaders? In this week's Worldview, Adam Boulton speaks to leading historians Margaret MacMillan and Andrew Roberts on how leadership shapes both conflicts and their resolutions.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

France, like all countries, is haunted by events and mistakes of times past. These ghosts will guide modern policy until they are overridden and laid to rest. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The Lawrence legend continues to win new devotees while his pragmatic contribution to warfare is neglected. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

In our latest episode of Worldview hosted by Adam Boulton we consider the role outer space will play in the future of conflict. How soon will conflicts on Earth spill out into space? What form might these conflicts take and how can we regulate them? Adam speaks to Jacob Geer, Dr Stuart Eves and Professor von der Dunk to find out.…

Throughout the ages, oracles, journalists and political scientists have attempted to guess the course fate may take. But should they fail to take the specifics, particularly specific individuals, into account, they are doomed to fail. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Traditional geopolitical solutions (accommodation or military containment) are unlikely to work with Putin’s Russia. Instead the West should pursue a unified geo-economic strategy. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

How does the war in Ukraine look on the ground? What does the future of the battlefield hold? In this week's episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton speaks to Professor Hew Strachan and Dr Rob Johnson to discuss these issues and more.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Our new series of Worldview, presented by Adam Boulton is considering the future of warfare and geopolitics in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In this week's episode, Adam Boulton is in conversation with Vladislav Zubok and Sir Roderic Lyne, the former British Ambassador to Moscow. While both were horrified by the invasion of Ukraine last…

The condemnation of the annexation of the Crimea was unified and strong, but the sanctions that followed lacked any real bite. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Our new series of Worldview, presented by Adam Boulton is considering the future of warfare and geopolitics in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In this week's episode, Adam Boulton is in conversation with Beatrice Heuser, Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones and Frank Gavin discussing the roles of NATO, the EU and the UN today. How can these twe…

For the past sixty years, the use of nuclear weapons has become unthinkable. But with every conflict there comes a point where the unthinkable becomes possible. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

In a religious system which presupposed a covenant not just between God and the individual Jew, but between God and Israel as a nation, the sense of communal solidarity had an abiding impact, regardless of the differences between denominations. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

For more than thirty years, the US has sought to avoid deploying ground forces into protracted conflict. It has nevertheless done so in almost every single one of those years. Perhaps it is time to accept reality. Read by Leighton PughBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Islam — unlike Christianity — may not have a central motif of pain, sin and suffering, but it reveals so much about what it means to live with adversity. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

On the latest episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with Christopher Coker discussing humanity's compulsion for conflict.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

While Christianity may strive to sing in a single voice, no one modern denomination ought to claim a monopoly on the truth. The region's history is in fact far more eclectic. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The Hindu tradition of Radha and Krishna calls us to see passion as the kernel of all religion. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

As Jesuit missionaries spread further across the globe, the order’s founder wanted to ensure that its members remained connected. The result of this was an unparalleled network of knowledge which superseded religious tensions. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Portugal’s commercial dominance of large swathes of the world lasted little more than a century but the images, transmissions, and trades that it engendered left a significant and long-lasting influence. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Sea power derives from resources, a direct interest in sea-based trade, and pressure exerted by enemies. In the modern age, the importance of these factors in international affairs remains paramount. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

If a peace deal is not reached, all the key ingredients are present for Yemen to become a failed state. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Acts of extreme self-sacrifice – such as suicide bombing – are not aberrations. They tell us something about our deepest instincts for group loyalty. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

So-called civilisational states, including Russia, China and India, invoke fake histories to justify and buttress their contemporary political settlements. But those who cannot let go of the past are always at risk of finding themselves imprisoned by it. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Flags have become synonymous with nationhood, character, spirit, and power. In an age of renewed nationalism, their power should not be underestimated.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The line between disinformation, propaganda and fake news is often blurred. This is especially the case when it is unclear whether these untruths or half truths are being disseminated by the 'good' or 'bad' guys. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Once established, Roman exceptionalism and empire needed to be justified and maintained. The practical application of mythology was one way in which this was achieved. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The US once enjoyed the esteemed position of being the 'city on the hill', a beacon of hope and an example to the rest of the world. Post-9/11, however, the superpower's conduct in the Middle East has left its reputation tarnished. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Peering into the hearts and minds those living four thousand years ago is an impossible task. However, when it comes to the worship of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, it seems clear to be, quite literally, a labour of love and fear.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

While at one point in time the idea that socialist economies would ultimately prevail over capitalism was quite a widespread view the fate of socialist states over the past hundred years have demonstrated that they enjoy only two possible paths: authoritarianism or anarchy.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

On the latest episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with Katja Hoyer on the creation of the German empire, the role of Otto von Bismarck in its creation and what this period reveals about Germany today.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

While the US remains the sole reigning super power, the rise of China adds complexity to the current world order. Geostrategic conflict is inevitable, but mutual economic interdependence can help manage that conflict and keep it from spiralling out of control.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

As the largest country in the world, Russia's might past and present has an inherent link to its geopolitics. But since the decline of the Soviet Union, Moscow's eyes are constantly straying beyond the national borders. In Russia, expansion is often regarded as a means of self-defence.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

There is frequently no real reason why one person has more claim to live or even rule over a piece of land than another. A reason, however must be provided and it is often be found in a fantastical interpretation of history.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Why do humans accumulate ideas, knowledge and technologies while other animals are seemingly stick doing the same thing over and over never getting better? Rather than being a question of raw intelligence, it is in fact largely down to luck, trial and error and copying others.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Voltaire predicted that religion would be defunct in fifty year's time. Karl Marx called it the opium of the masses and Nietzsche declared that God is dead. Adrian Wooldridge is now saying that He's back. From the rise of Islamic extremism to American evangelism, the twenty-first century is seeing a religious renaissance. Read by Leighton Pugh.…

For the Worldview podcast, Iain Martin is joined by Hal Brands, the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Together, they discuss the theories of Halford Mackinder and how in 1904, he charted out a…

In this week's episode of History Lessons, Mattias speaks to Adrian Wooldridge on the history and future of meritocracy, spanning Tang dynasty China to Trump's America.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Studying the evolution of Austria in the 20th century offers deep insight into essential Western political categories. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

On the latest edition of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with historian Andrew Roberts on his mission to repair the reputation of Britain's most maligned and misunderstood monarch.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The story of how, over the course of three generations, the royal dynasty of Wessex went from near oblivion to fashioning a kingdom that still endures today is the most remarkable and momentous in the island's history. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The early modern Italian republics are often portrayed as models of bad government. But the fusion of civic humanism and Christianity they championed endures to this day. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Iain Martin is joined by leading security and international relations experts to discuss the legacy of 9/11, the future of Western-led interventions and the meaning of the NATO exit from Afghanistan. Can the West continue to shape world order or is it being replaced? This episode was recorded on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of 9/11.…

Nationalism is often thought of as a modern development - but its traces can be found in antiquity. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The influenza pandemic behaved much like the conflict itself - picking out the young and fit before their time. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Niccolo Machiavelli, Renaissance statesman and political theorist, saw factional politics as essential to the prosperity of the Roman Empire and his native Florence. Are today's partisan divisions as beneficial? Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast