Helen Thompson, professor of political economy: A new era of global power politics
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“Regardless of whether it's Trump or anybody else in the White House, we should expect something quite significant to be going on in terms of the United States’ relationship with the rest of the world.”
Amol Rajan speaks to Helen Thompson, professor of political economy at Cambridge University, about a new era of global power play.
In this conversation, she traces the roots of the re-birth of US expansionism back to the 19th century, and America’s early presidents. She also explains how the dynamics of geopolitics are tied to the control of resources, in particular oil.
Professor Thompson is an expert on the history of globalisation who has taught at Britain’s Cambridge University for more than 30 years. Her current research looks at the geopolitics of energy, and the long history of this century’s global disruptions.
Thank you to the Radical team for its help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with the Colombian president Gustavo Petro, New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Amol Rajan Producers: Anna Budd, Lucy Sheppard Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Helen Thompson Credit: Anna Budd/BBC)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello, I'm a Mulrajan, BBC presenter, and this is the interview from the BBC World Service, |
| 0:11.4 | the best conversations coming out of the BBC, people shaping our world from all over the world. |
| 0:17.5 | If you're not a little bit afraid, then you're not paying attention. |
| 0:22.2 | We have never seen a people so united. |
| 0:25.7 | Do not make that boat crossing. Do not make that journey. |
| 0:28.4 | Being born in America, feeling American, having people treat me like I'm not. |
| 0:32.5 | We're more popular than populism. |
| 0:35.5 | Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University, an expert on globalisation, |
| 0:41.5 | the geopolitics of energy, and the democratic and economic upheavals of the 21st century. |
| 0:48.0 | We discussed whether the world is entering a new era of power politics, from the rebirth of |
| 0:53.5 | American expansionism to the dynamics of global competition played out through the control of resources, in particular oil. |
| 1:01.8 | She tells me about the New World Order that is emerging through the changing relationships between nations. |
| 1:07.7 | China is no longer anything like weak, but China is also asserting itself, at least commercially, |
| 1:15.0 | in the Western Hemisphere across the Pacific. |
| 1:17.7 | And that is existential for the United States, because the United States then as a geopolitical |
| 1:24.1 | power, has never been in this position before. |
| 1:27.1 | The only United States geopolitically |
| 1:28.9 | that we know is the one that emerged out of the 1890s in a world in which China was |
| 1:35.1 | incredibly weak. That world simply does not exist anymore. So we should, I think, regardless of |
| 1:40.8 | whether it's Trump or anybody else in the White House, expect something quite significant to be going on |
| 1:45.9 | in terms of the United States' relationship with the West of the world, |
... |
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