The Future of War: How Should the West Respond to its Enemies? (Sir Niall Ferguson)
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 19 June 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Leading historian Professor Sir Niall Ferguson explains how patterns from the past can help us understand the future.
Amol and Sir Niall discuss the tensions in the Middle East and why he thinks Israel’s strikes on Iran are a victory for the West. They also explore the idea that we're in a new Cold War.
And Sir Niall explains why Britain needs a leader like Argentina’s Javier Milei rather than Donald Trump.
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk
Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Grace Reeve. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davies. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | It's not a poor man's trump that we need in Britain. |
| 0:08.6 | What we need is something like a northern hemisphere Javier Malé, the Argentinian president. |
| 0:14.9 | This is radical with Amal Rajan, conversations about tomorrow from today, where I explore the deep global trends |
| 0:23.3 | changing the world and go in search of the radical ideas that might help you to win the future. |
| 0:29.4 | In this episode, a conversation with historian Professor Neil Ferguson about, well, the shape |
| 0:36.3 | of the world today. Neil is a man of strong opinions and |
| 0:39.4 | deep erudition. You're not going to like all of his opinions. You might agree with some and |
| 0:43.3 | disagree with others, but he is extremely experienced at using the patterns of the past to explain |
| 0:49.4 | where we are today. Are we living in a new Cold War? Are we living in a world that's a bit like the late |
| 0:54.8 | 19th century in the era of great power rivalry? Is Benjamin Netanyahu really Israel's Churchill? |
| 1:00.6 | Look, this is a podcast all about how the deep, deep trends of today are shaping the world of |
| 1:04.9 | tomorrow. And to understand the depth of those trends, it's useful to look across modern history. |
| 1:09.8 | And that's what Neil Ferguson |
| 1:10.9 | is particularly capable of doing. I think you're going to enjoy this. |
| 1:27.0 | Look, loads of you've been in touch to say you subscribe to the podcast after hearing that first episode with Laura Bates. |
| 1:32.9 | Thank you so much. It's absolutely wonderful to get such generous and excited feedback. |
| 1:38.6 | We really are incredibly pleased about how many of you are on this journey with us. |
| 1:42.0 | So thank you. If you want to do the same after hearing this episode, just search for Radical with a Mul Rajin on BBC Sounds and hit |
| 1:49.5 | subscribe. Also, if you do subscribe, make sure you've got your push notifications turned on and that |
| 1:54.8 | way you'll get an alert whenever we publish a new episode and you'll never, ever miss out. |
| 2:04.7 | I want to tell you that I turn down a hell of a lot of podcasts these days, but I wasn't |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.