The programme you are about to watch is a studio discussion between three academics,

discussing the current world crisis, or perhaps more precisely, the current crisis in international relations,

in the global system of international relations, which threatens a major rupture,

and which might potentially lead to something which many are describing as a new Cold War,

and which some fear might actually become something even worse than a Cold War.

That we are living through a time of crisis, I think is about the one thing that most people who follow international relations would generally agree about.

So this, by definition, is an essential topic for discussion.

And the three academics who are discussing this topic in this program,

which you're going to be seeing,

are three academics who are exceptionally well equipped

to discuss this topic, this topic of the world crisis.

Two, two of these academics have appeared on many programmes which we've done on the Duran.

One of course is Glenn Dyson, with whom I, a professor at the University of Oslo, with whom I regularly co-host programs interviewing all sorts of people, diplomats, economists,

military officers, former intelligence officers, diplomats, all sorts of people, which we regularly publish on the Duran.

The other, Jeff Roberts, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Cork, in my opinion, the outstanding historian on the period of

Joseph Stalin and on Joseph Stalin's personality and his history, somebody who's able to,

therefore, to provide us an outstanding understanding

of the context, the historical context, into which many of these current problems fit.

And the third, perhaps less well known to viewers of the Duran, but increasingly well known to me.

I've been reading with immense respect and admiration, various articles which I see that he has written,

places like the national interest in the United States and elsewhere.

Matthew Blackburn, who is a senior researcher

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