Chatham House podcast specials

Chatham House analysts Laurel Rapp and Dr Christopher Sabatini returned from New York saying they saw signs of optimism and the renewal of 'shoe-leather diplomacy' behind the scenes at the United Nations annual General Assembly.  The UNGA meeting was held as US President Donald Trump heads towards midterm elections, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres nears the end of his term on 31 December 2026. Laurel Rapp, a former US State Department diplomat, is director of the US and North America Programme and Dr Christopher Sabatini is director of the Latin America Programme. They were talking to Head of News and Comment Stephen Farrell in the first of a new Chatham House video interview series.

'Washington would compel its allies in Europe and in Asia and everywhere apart from China to get on board with its regulatory regime [for AI],' says Sebastian Mallaby, author of 'The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence' and the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.   He explains that regulation of AI is urgently needed, why America is likely to set the pace and that job losses of 5-10 per cent to AI will prove a huge economic challenge for governments.     Sebastian Mallaby speaks with Mike Higgins, editor of The World Today, in a wide-ranging conversation that also considers the recent hacks by 'rogue' AI models and how China might be better approached on issues of AI safety.  📖 Read the interview based on this podcast published in the autumn issue of The World Today here:   

'Europe is like faith: when you have it, nothing can shake it,' says Grégoire Roos, director of the Europe and Russia and Eurasia Programmes at Chatham House. He explains why he believes Europe should stop defining itself in relation to the United States and China, reject narratives of civilizational decline, and instead build a more confident, open and inclusive vision for its role in the world.  Grégoire Roos speaks with Mike Higgins, editor of The World Today, in a wide-ranging conversation based on his essay, 'The Open Centre: Reimagining Europe' s Offer to a Fractured World', published in the summer issue of The World Today. Read the full article: The Open Centre: Reimagining Europe's offer to a fractured world

Why did the German-French-Spanish fighter project – the Future Combat Air System – fail? Has Germany's rise to become Europe's leading defence investor profoundly shifted the balance of power on the continent? In a wide-ranging discussion about European defence ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara on 7-8 July, Dr Marion Messmer, Director of Chatham House's International Security Programme, and Grégoire Roos, Director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia Programmes take a deep dive into these questions with Stephen Farrell, head of News and Comment.

Lawrence Freedman, author and international relations authority, reflects on the 'utter chaos' of the Trump administration, America's 'catastrophic' foreign policy, the likelihood of an international shock to Britain's politics, the impact of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in his time working at Chatham House, his meetings with KGB agents, and much more, in a wide-ranging conversation with Olivia O'Sullivan, director of the UK in the World Programme, Chatham House.   For an edited version of this conversation, read the summer issue of The World Today, including:    Article | Can the deal between the US and Iran become a lasting settlement?    Article | 'Happy vassal' or 'strategic hedging'? Europe's hard choices as NATO crumbles   Article | The Open Centre: Reimagining Europe's offer to a fractured world    Lawrence Freedman's latest book is 'On Strategists and Strategy: Collected Essays 2014-2024' (Oxford University Press) and he contributed a chapter to the recently published 'Chatham House: The First Hundred Years' (Oxford University Press). He also co-authors 'Comment is Freed', a Substack newsletter.