The Global Story: Are we heading for World War Three?
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s been almost a month since Israel and the US launched their war against Iran, and already there have been strikes in more than a dozen countries, with reports of over 2,000 people killed across the region. As the war drags on and more countries get involved, there are concerns this conflict could escalate into something truly global.
We speak to Emeritus Professor of International History at the University of Oxford, Margaret MacMillan, and explore how world wars start, how they end and what can be done to avoid them.
The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption. For more episodes, just search 'The Global Story' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.
Producers: Chris Benderev and Lucy Pawle
Executive producer: James Shield
Sound engineer: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: U.S. Military aircraft perform 4th of July flyover past New York City and New Jersey, 4 July 2020. Photo: credit: Reuters/Mike Segar
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.6 | American politics can sometimes feel like a different language. |
| 0:11.1 | But our podcast can help you translate. |
| 0:13.3 | Make sense of what's happening in the US, with new podcast episodes arriving throughout the week. |
| 0:18.1 | AmeriCast, listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:21.3 | Hey there, I'm Asma Khalid. |
| 0:23.0 | And I'm Tristan Redmond, and we're here with a bonus episode for you from the Global Story podcast. |
| 0:28.3 | The world order is shifting. |
| 0:30.2 | Old alliances are fraying and new ones are emerging. |
| 0:34.4 | Some of this turbulence can be traced to decisions made in the United States. But the U.S. |
| 0:39.3 | isn't just a cause of the upheaval. Its politics are also a symptom of it. |
| 0:45.0 | Every day we focus on one story, looking at how America and the world shape each other. |
| 0:50.4 | So we hope you enjoy this episode. And to find more of our show, just search for the global story wherever you get your BBC podcast. |
| 1:00.0 | You might remember from history class that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 led to the First World War. But our guest today, an expert on the history of war, says it's a lot more |
| 1:13.4 | complicated. There are masses of books and masses of articles. It's been estimated there's something like |
| 1:18.3 | 32,000 things, books in English alone on the origins of the First World War. Seriously? Wow. |
| 1:25.1 | Because we still don't know. It's still debated. |
| 1:33.4 | It turns out, wars often spiral out of control for all sorts of unexpected reasons, |
| 1:37.9 | sometimes even by accident, miscalculation and pride. |
| 1:45.7 | What started just over three weeks ago with the U.S. and Israel bombing Iran now involves more than a dozen other countries. And despite some signs that the Trump administration wants to negotiate, |
| 1:50.9 | it's not clear Israel and Iran feel the same way. And that has some people wondering if there |
| 1:56.5 | really is an off-rap here, or could this continue to ratchet up and become an even bigger conflict? |
... |
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.