Is the world heading towards a new major war?
According to Yale professor Odd Arne Westad, there are a worrying number of parallels between our own time and the decades leading up to the First World War: great-power rivalry, nationalism, protectionism, trade conflicts and growing resistance to globalization.
Before 1914, the world was closely interconnected, economies were interdependent, and the European great powers had strong interests in avoiding war. Yet it still went wrong.
Today, the international order is once again under strain. The United States and China are competing for power and technological supremacy. Russia is waging war in Europe. NATO is being challenged on several fronts. Trade wars and protectionism have returned, while nationalist populism is growing and trust in the liberal world order is weakening.
Odd Arne Westad is one of the world’s leading experts on geopolitics and a prominent scholar of modern international history. He has been a professor at LSE and Harvard and is currently Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. He has written 18 books on topics including the Cold War, China, empires and global power politics. His book The Global Cold War won the prestigious Bancroft Prize.
Drawing on this vast historical perspective, Westad examines our own time. He joins us digitally from Beijing.
Please note that this event will be conducted in Norwegian.
