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The World in 2024 with Niall Ferguson: Crisis, Conflict and Consequences

Politics &
Economics

How can the West deal with the geopolitical and ideological threats posed by what Ferguson calls the axis of ill will – Russia, China and Iran?

‘The point of studying the past is to understand our present predicament’ – Niall Ferguson

There are few big thinkers better placed to explain global events than historian Niall Ferguson. He has not just a profound understanding of past crises, but also an exceptional ability to map out the longer term impact that present crises will have on world affairs.

InApril 2024 Ferguson joined us on the Intelligence Squared stage to discuss the predicaments we are currently facing. How can the West deal with the geopolitical and ideological threats posed by what Ferguson calls the axis of ill will – Russia, China and Iran? With localised wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and the threat of a crisis over Taiwan, are we sleepwalking towards a Third World War? And what are the likely consequences of the ongoing conflicts for the world economy?

Ferguson explored these pressing questions and shares his insights into the fast-changing global landscape.

Speakers for the motion

  • Niall Ferguson

    One of the UK’s most renowned historians and his latest book is Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe

Chair

  • Ritula Shah

    Journalist and Broadcaster

Speakers are subject to change.

Speakers

Speaker

Niall Ferguson

One of the UK’s most renowned historians and his latest book is Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe

Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. He is the author of sixteen books, including The Pity of War, The House of Rothschild, Empire, Civilization and Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, which won the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Prize. He is an award-winning filmmaker, too, having received an international Emmy for his PBS series The Ascent of Money. His 2018 book, The Square and the Tower, was a New York Times bestseller and was also adapted for television by PBS as Niall Ferguson’s Networld. In 2020 he joined Bloomberg Opinion as a columnist. In addition, he is the founder and managing director of Greenmantle LLC, a New York-based advisory firm, a co-founder of Ualá (a Latin American financial technology company), and a trustee of the New York Historical Society, the London-based Centre for Policy Studies, and the newly founded University of Austin. His latest book, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, was published in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize. He is currently writing Kissinger, 1969-2023: The Player and is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics.
Chair

Ritula Shah

Journalist and Broadcaster

Presenter of Calm Classics on Classic FM. She was previously the main presenter of the World Tonight, BBC Radio 4’s main evening news programme.