The Return of the Great Powers with Brendan Simms (Basic Books, 2026)

About this episode

From the dawn of the modern era to the end of the Cold War, global history was defined by rivalries between Great Powers. In the West, this meant the struggle for supremacy in Europe and the Americas, while in the East, it encompassed those vying for control over the successor states to Genghis Khan’s empire. Between 1989 and the year 2000, Great Power rivalry temporarily gave way to globalization, with liberal democracy on the march and national chauvinism seemingly in retreat. But events of the past decade have made one thing abundantly clear: The Great Powers are back. In The Return of the Great Powers (Basic Books, 2026), renowned historian Brendan Simms offers a new history of the…