Have We Learned Nothing From the 20th Century?

With Anatol Lieven, Ben Macintyre & Fintan O’Toole / Chair: Laura Tingle

Have we learned nothing from the tragedies, the waste of human life and the devastation endured during the 20th century? Our collective history contains many painful chapters – the two world wars, Hiroshima and Vietnam, to name just a few. The atrocities of war have persisted in the 21st century, as we see in the destruction in Ukraine, the price of years of conflict in the Middle East and the rise of autocrats. Anatol Lieven, Fintan O’Toole and Ben Macintyre reflect on why the international community has failed to learn the lessons of history.

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Anatol Lieven is a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and a Fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC. He worked for 12 years as a British foreign correspondent, reporting from South Asia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. His books include Ethical Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the World (with John Hulsman), Pakistan: A Hard Country, and most recently, Climate Change and the Nation State.

Ben Macintyre is the bestselling author of ten books, including Agent Sonya, SAS: Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. He is a columnist and Associate Editor at The Times, and has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. He regularly presents a BBC series based on his acclaimed books. His latest book is Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle.

Fintan O'Toole is an Irish Times columnist and writer. His books include We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958, Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain, and Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger. A member of the Royal Irish Academy, he is a winner of the European Press Prize and the Orwell Prize. He is also professor of Irish letters at Princeton University.

Laura Tingle is the chief political correspondent for nightly ABC current affairs program 7.30 and has been the President of the National Press Club since 2020. She is the author of Chasing the Future: Recession, Recovery and the New Politics in Australia and four acclaimed Quarterly Essays: Great Expectations, Political Amnesia, Follow the Leader and The High Road.

Have We Learned Nothing From the 20th Century?

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