Peter Frankopan - How History Explains Our World

In this live, interactive show at Richmond Theatre, Frankopan will draw on his depth of knowledge to show how the rise of the East isn't a rupture with the past but a return to it and why grasping that changes everything about how we understand the present moment.

Twenty-five years on from the pivotal events of September 11, 2001, the world looks almost unrecognisable. The assumptions that defined the post-Cold War order –Western primacy, the spread of liberal democracy, the era of US-led alliances and western strategic and economic leadership – have been tested, strained, and in many cases shattered. Russia's invasion of Ukraine accelerated a fracturing that was already well underway, as have large-scale attacks on Iran.

Today we live in a multipolar world - one where China's Belt and Road Initiative is reshaping global infrastructure, where artificial intelligence is becoming the defining contest of great power rivalry, and where the centre of gravity is shifting decisively eastward. But for Peter Frankopan – author of the landmark bestseller The Silk Roads and Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford –none of this is without precedent. History, he argues, has been pointing in this direction all along.

In this live, interactive show at Richmond Theatre, Frankopan will draw on his depth of knowledge to show how the rise of the East isn't a rupture with the past but a return to it and why grasping that changes everything about how we understand the present moment.

Join Frankopan live on July 13 where you will also have the chance to put your own questions to him directly in the Q&A. Whether you're a history enthusiast, a current affairs obsessive, or simply someone trying to make sense of a world that feels like it's shifting beneath your feet, this is an evening that will leave you thinking differently.

Peter Frankopan - Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford. His books include The Silk Roads: A New History of the World and The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World, both of which are global bestsellers. He has been Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford since 2000. His latest book is The Earth Transformed: An Untold Story.