International History Now

About International History Now

At International History Now, we invite academics to explore topical questions in historical perspective, and to share their thoughts drawing on experiences and research from around the world. Co-host Dina Gusejnova is an Assistant Professor in Modern European History at the LSE’s Department of International History. She is the author of European Elites and Ideas of Empire, 1917-57 (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and works more broadly on European intellectual history and political thought in the twentieth century. Co-host George Giannakopoulos holds a PhD in Modern History from Queen Mary, University of London. His research focuses on the history and politics of Britain and Southeastern Europe since the late nineteenth century. He is teaching European history at politics at City University of London and NYU in London and is a visiting fellow at the Centre of Hellenic Studies, King’s College London.

Publisher

International History Now

Category

history

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jul 2020

Latest episode

29 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

13 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   29 Sept 2026

   Contesting Global Order: Patrick Quinton-Brown on Interventionism

   In this IHN episode, Dina and Georgios are joined by Patrick Quinton-Brown, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Singapore Management University and author of Intervention Before Interventionism: A Global Genealogy. From Carlos Calvo and the Bandung Conference to the Cold War, Libya and Ukraine, the conversation traces changing understandings of intervention, sovereignty and international solidarity. Quinton-Brown also explores economic, cultural and digital forms of intervention, ending with a question about political language.

2. 

   17 Jul 2026

   From Clausewitz to World War III? Beatrice Heuser on Strategy and Contemporary War

   In this episode we speak with historian of war and strategy Beatrice Heuser. Tracing the evolution of military thought from Clausewitz and his contemporaries to the present day, Heuser explores how ideas about doctrine, strategy and the relationship between politics and war continue to shape contemporary conflict. The discussion turns to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the blurring of peace and war in Russian strategic thought, the development of international humanitarian law, and the far-reaching consequences of conflict across the Middle East. Along the way, Heuser considers what historical strategic thought can still teach us – and where inherited concepts may obscure rather than illuminate the realities of modern warfare. The episode closes with an unsettling question: are today’s wars best understood as separate regional conflicts, or are we already living through a third world war?

3. 

   4 Jun 2026

   Antony Best on Akira Iriye's life and legacy

   On this inaugural episode of the relaunch of the International History Now Podcast we speak with Professor Antony Best about the life and legacy of Akira Iriye (1934-2026)

4. 

   16 May 2022

   Episode 10: Ukraine and Russia's war through the prism of history

   On 24 February 2022 Russia turned its military actions against Ukraine which were going on in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine since 2014 into a full-blown, total war. The language of the international media to describe the conflict is unstable: first, a Russian invasion; then, “Russian-Ukrainian war”, then “Russia’s war in Ukraine”, “Russia’s war against Ukraine”, “Ukraine’s war against Russia-backed forces” or a “fratricidal war”. In Russia itself, calling the war anything other than a mere “special operation” carries with it the risk of punishment with 10 years of prison colony. If there is a war, Russian officials say, it is with NATO and the US. How is Ukrainian identity represented on the streets of Europe, and what are the political functions of this representation? How do Ukrainians think about their past in the light of the present? In what sense have European states, especially Germany, reassessed their past alignments in Europe? And how have historians approached the subject of Ukrainian identity? In this episode we have two conversations on Russia’s war against Ukraine. First we speak to the photographer and writer Evgeniya Belorusets. She is the co-founder of “Prostory”, a journal for literature, art and politics. Her works move at the intersection of art, literature, journalism and social activism, between document and fiction. In the current war, she has become, in her own words, the “hostage of her own war diary” as she remained in Kyiv throughout the Russian attack. Now she is just back from the Venice Biennale where she has worked with the Ukrainian pavilion. Our second conversation is with Stefan Troebst, a historian and a Slavicist until recently Professor of East European Cultural History at Leipzig University. He has published widely on the modern cultural, political and legal history of Eastern Europe - editor of a book series Visual Historical Cultures. He also worked as a German member for missions of long duration for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the former Yugoslavia and former USSR. We are grateful to Lviv-based band Okean Elzy for allowing us to use their single Obiymi (2003), remixed by Dima Zago from Kramatorsk. Hosts: Dina Gusejnova, Georgios Giannakopoulos Editorial and production assistants: Thomas Walsh, Clara Castello, Louis Wong, Zaid Salam

5. 

   24 Feb 2022

   Episode 9: Dissenters and Dissent in Politics: From the Quakers to Amnesty International

   In this episode we want to find out what the early creators of the term ”prisoners of conscience” had meant by it, and what motivated them to institutionalise this status legally. In 2021, Amnesty International celebrated its 60th anniversary. Since then, the organisation has played a key role in mobilising international support for political dissenters and dissidents. This protection often revolves around the act of assigning the status of a “prisoner of conscience” to a protected individual. We also want to go all the way back to the early modern history of political Dissent, associated with such figures as the Quaker William Penn, who had been imprisoned several times in the Tower of London for his religious views but later in life founded a colony in America which was to become one of the United States - Pennsylvania. The term “Dissenter” describes the experience of religious oppression under different ‘old regimes’ in Europe. In more recent times, ‘dissent’ has been associated with the activism of political dissidents under different oppressive regimes, from the Soviet Union or modern Russia to Myanmar and China. What is the relationship between the faith of dissenters and their political dissidence? At which point does the collision of dissenters with the cultural and legal system of their societies render them from powerless victims to powerful speakers and politicians? With us to discuss the long history of Dissent in politics are Tom Buchanan, Professor in British and European History at the Dept for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford and the author of Amnesty International and Human Rights Activism in Postwar Britain, 1945–1977 which came out in 2020 with Cambridge UP. Andrew Murphy, Professor for Political Science at VIrginia Commonwealth University and just published, in 2021, the political writings of William Penn for the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. He is also the author of a biography of William Penn. A Life. (Oxford UP, 2018). The episode also features exclusive recordings by Cy Grant, with the kind permission from his family and the London Metropolitan Archives Tracks featured: Psalm 137, By the Rivers of Babylon Untitled Calypso (recorded ca. 1976) Fayo (a Haitian lullaby)

6. 

   4 Dec 2021

   Episode 8: Collapse/Free: the End of History 30 years on

   In this episode we discuss two recent takes on the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the socialist bloc. What began with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the collapse of the socialist regimes of Central Europe and the Balkans (from Czechoslovakia to Romania), led, in 1990, to the end of Europe's last Stalinist regime in Albania and culminated, in 1991, in the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union. Vladislav Zubok’s Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union (Yale U Press, 2021) “rethinks the inevitability of the Soviet collapse” by carefully reconstructing the political landscape of the Gorbachev years. Lea Ypi’s Free: Coming of Age at the End of History (Penguin/Allen Lane, 2021) is a deeply political but also autobiographical account of ideas and experiences of freedom in socialist and post-socialist Albania. Music The Internationale, in Albanian Felicitá, a citation of Al Bano and Romina Power´s classic by Strannye Igry (1985)

7. 

   25 Mar 2021

   Episode 7: The Greek Revolution of 1821: reflections on the bicentenary

   25 March 1821 is celebrated annually in Greece as Greek independence day; a day marking the birth of what some have seen as the first nation-state in Europe after post-revolutionary France. A series of localised revolts against Ottoman rule gave rise to a broad revolutionary wave that swept parts of the country. By the end of the 1820s, interventions by different European powers and the rise of philhellenic sentiment secured the state's autonomous existence from the Ottomans. This came at the price of greater dependence upon the so-called Great Powers: Britain, France, and Russia. As Greece prepares to celebrate the bicentennial of the events of 1821, we want to examine the dimensions of Greek dependence and independence from different angles. Was the war of independence a standalone event or part of a transnational process of revolutionary activity? How did the heterogeneous populations (Jews, Muslims) within what became the Greek nation-state experience the revolution and its aftermath? What kinds of sovereignty did Greece gain and how did its place in the world change over time? Finally, how is the revolution remembered in Greece today? With Mark Mazower, Ira D Wallach Professor of History at Columbia University and founding director of the new Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination Katherine E. Fleming, Provost of New York University, Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at NYU Effi Gazi, Professor of History at the University of the Peloponnese and a member of the editorial board of the journal Historein Music by Κυριάκος Τζωρτζινάκης, "4 Δημοτικές Εικόνες - 3ο μέρος: Του Βουνού" ("Four Folk Images - part 3: Of the Mountain") (1975), recording by Andreas Vlachos (2021)

8. 

   19 Dec 2020

   Episode 6: Nagorno-Karabakh in History

   Nagorno-Karabakh in history Against the backdrop of a new war in Nagorno-Karabakh, in this episode we explore the region’s history through the lenses of political conflict as well as cultural interactions. Since 1994, Nagorno-Karabakh brokered an existence as an autonomous region, and the fortunes of its population were supposedly entrusted to international intermediaries, the so-called Minsk group. While the UN Security Council had ruled to restore the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, de facto throughout this period Nagorno-Karabakh was controlled by Armenia. In the autumn of 2020, Azerbaijan carried out a military operation, which resulted in the transfer of a large part of Nagorno-Karabakh, previously controlled by Armenia, to Azerbaijan. Now Armenian refugees have fled from here to Armenia or to Russia, while the Azerbaijani population expelled from Karabakh in the early 1990s is preparing to return. Among the ruins of towns and villages are both Armenian and Azerbaijani cultural monuments, some of which document a kind of coexistence that now seems unimaginable. Our guests speak about the region in relation to the Russian Civil War, Soviet culture of the 1960s, the role of the diasporas, and the impact of Soviet collapse on the Caucasus as a whole. The episode features music by composers and performers from the region. With Zaur Gasimov, Senior Research Fellow, Department of History, University of Bonn Ronald G. Suny, William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan. Music Grikor Suni, Ov Dook Sarer (1997 recording, with Armena Marderosian, piano, and Henrik Mihranian, tenor, words by 19th c poet Ghazaros Aghayan) suniproject.org Bülbül (Murtuza Mammadov), Sevgili canan (1975, Melodiya, words by 12th c poet Nizami) Grikor Suni, Yete mi Oor (1997 recording, words by 19th c poet Hovhannes Toumanian) Rashid Beibutov, Armenian folk song (Bulbul- Nightingale) (1971, Melodiya)

9. 

   19 Nov 2020

   Episode 5: Democracy in America

   Hosts Georgios Giannakopoulos and Dina Gusejnova in discussion with Jeanne Morefield, Senior Lecturer in political theory at the University of Birmingham, Co-President of the Association for Political Theory and fellow at the Quincy institute for responsible statecraft Sam Moyn, Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and Professor of History at Yale University. Charles Smith, Distinguished Professor of Playwriting, Ohio University Presidential Research Scholar in the Arts and Humanities, and head of the Professional Playwriting Program at Ohio University The American election has created a closely watched spectacle across the world. The interests of those watching are as widely divergent as those of the American electorate itself. For the past four years, the words and gestures coming from America’s now departing president have made for a horrible show of dehumanisation, farce, and contempt. And yet the election is also a passing moment in a much more protracted crisis revolving around the state of American democracy as well as its status worldwide. Music by Buster Ezell, 'Bottle up and go' (1941), from the Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/item/ftvbib000036/ Extracts from the play by Charles Smith, Knock me a Kiss, productions at Jubilee Theatre in Fort Worth, TX (2013).

10. 

    4 Oct 2020

    Episode 4: Belarus: Colonies, Borderlands, Memory and Security in Eastern Europe

    Georgios Giannakopoulos and Dina Gusejnova in conversation with Alexander Etkind, Professor of History at the European University Institute at Florence, and Maria Mälksoo, Senior Lecturer in International Security at the Brussels School of International Studies, University of Kent. Taking the protests in Belarus which began in August 2020 as a cue, this episode reexamines some of the pivotal scholarship in Eastern European history and international relations through conversations about ways in which the past comes alive in present crises. The episode aims to contextualise the past of Belarus and the region of Kresy in the light of an open future, centring around issues of the cultural and economic histories of borderlands, memory and security, forgotten and obliterated groups. We also discuss how interdisciplinary groups using new media could foster new insights into the history and memory of this region.

11. 

    31 Jul 2020

    Episode 3: Cultural Crises in the Pandemic: Hagia Sophia as a Mosque

    Hosts: Dina Gusejnova, Georgios Giannakopoulos Guests: Cemil Aydin, Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Marc David Baer, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics Music: Yavuz Akyazıcı, Renkli Rüyalar Oteli, from his Album Turkish Standards, vol. 2 https://archive.org/details/yavuzakyazicisendendahaguzel/Yavuz+Akyaz%C4%B1c%C4%B1+-+Renkli+R%C3%BCyalar+Oteli.mp3 Hacı Arif Bey (1831-1885), ‘Güzel Gün Görmedi Avare Gönlüm’, performed by Ahmet Özhan, at Community Audio https://archive.org/details/huzzam/Guzel+gun+gormedi+avare+gonlum.mp3 Erdogan waves goodbye to Kemalism--the end of the post-9/11 moment in Turkey’s relations with Europe and the West -the revived legacies of the Ottoman past – Mehmet II’s place in Kemalist and conservative Turkish imaginaries -- Mehmet II in the eyes of Nizami Hikmet – Mehmet II´s love poems to Greek youth-- the ambiguous legacies of Ottoman tolerance - the legacies of the Ottoman empire in the modern world – the theme of contested endowment – modern Turkey´s claim on the post-Ottoman world – the reactions from Greek and Russian Orthodox Church representatives – the turn to the right in the regions associated with the ‘antemurale Christianitatis’ – the divisions between the Russian state and the Orthodox Church in assessing the incident

12. 

    23 Jul 2020

    Episode 2: The Monument Crisis: Decommunisation and Decolonisation

    Hosts: Dina Gusejnova, Georgios Giannakopoulos In this series, we will be inviting guests to explore topical questions in historical perspective, and to share their thoughts drawing on experiences and research from around the world.

13. 

    16 Jul 2020

    Episode 1: The Monument Crisis: Democracy and Violence

    Hosts: Dina Gusejnova, Georgios Giannakopoulos In this series, we will be inviting guests to explore topical questions in historical perspective, and to share their thoughts drawing on experiences and research from around the world. The Monument Crisis. Episode 1: Democracy and Violence Episode 1: Carlo Invernizzi Accetti, Associate Professor of Political Theory at CUNY, New York Nausikaa El-Mecky, Professor of Art History at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona Episode 2: Michal Murawski, Lecturer in Critical Area Studies, UCL SSEES, London Alma Simba, UG student in International History at LSE, London, and Editor of Lacuna Lit literary magazine

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