In the ashes of World War 2, a new international order was built. Its aim: to ensure relative peace and stability. In this series, the BBC's former Diplomatic Editor Bridget Kendall examines why all this now seems to be falling apart.

In this episode, Bridget explores how, after the revolutions of 1989, a resurgent European Community became the European Union, and absorbed the liberated states of Eastern Europe - but how, since then, the EU has been beset first by financial crisis, then migration crisis and Brexit. She asks how its founding ideals are faring in a Europe very different from the postwar world of its birth, as populist nationalism rises again.

And she examines how much Europe will matter anyway in the emerging 21st century world order, in which China looks set to play an increasingly dominant role. Can authoritarian capitalism and a rejection of the postwar vision of human rights, democracy and the rule of law really win over the world?

Speakers in this series include:
ex-Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair, ex-Foreign Minister of Poland Radek Sikorski, Deputy Leader of Alternativ fur Deutschland Beatrix von Storch, Director of the Carnegie Center Moscow Dmitri Trenin, ex-US Deputy Secretary for Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Director of the Blavatnik School of Government Ngaire Woods, head of the Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer; journalists Isabel Hilton and Peter Hitchens, and historians Dr Brigitte Leucht, Professor Piers Ludlow and Professor John Bew.

Producer: Phil Tinline Show less