Since the 19th Century the world order, based first on British and then American power, has been repeatedly challenged. Will it survive?

The “rules-based” international system is under threat, both from within and without. But this is not the first time it has faced challenges, or challengers.

Imperial Germany, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy and the Soviet Union—great powers or would-be great powers—as well as others, have sought to disrupt or overthrow the world order based on free trade and, to some extent at least, liberal values. Now Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea confront the United States and its allies, who are grappling with the apparent fragility of the US’s commitment to world order and a much bigger role for neutrals and the non-aligned.

Does the future lie in a world determined by relations of power, in particular between the great powers, rather than rules or values? Should the EU “make Europe great again” by pursuing true great power status? And is there still scope for the UK, Australia, Japan and other like-minded nations to carve out a space for themselves, with or without American or European support?

Watch this lecture by Brendan Simms, Professor of the History of European International Relations and Director of the influential Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge. Professor Simms writes extensively for the press and has authored numerous publications, including Europe, the struggle for supremacy, 1453 to the Present. He is currently working on a book on the Great Powers today.