History doesn’t whisper – it groans. – Peter Frankopan

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, American unipolarity – have been tested, strained, and in many cases shattered. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerated a fracturing that was already well underway, and 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 event for Intelligence Squared, Frankopan will draw on his extraordinary 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 at Union Chapel on July 16 where you will also have the chance to put your own questions to Frankopan 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.