Switzerland with Tom Switzer

Mary Dejevsky spent decades at the heart of British journalism, including many years as a columnist for The Independent. But in June she stepped down from her weekly column, in part because she had become increasingly frustrated by the shrinking space for dissenting views on Russia and Ukraine in Britain’s mainstream media.

On this episode of Switzerland, she tells Tom Switzer why she believes it has become extraordinarily difficult for British journalists to question the prevailing narrative about the war — and what happened when she suggested the conflict might be more complicated than the conventional wisdom allowed. She says she lost a significant part of her freelance income as a result, while also finding herself in the peculiar position in which writing outside the mainstream could itself be used as evidence that her views were beyond the bounds of respectable debate.

Why has Britain become less tolerant of dissent on Russia and Ukraine than other Western democracies? Is there still greater pluralism in the United States? And what does her experience tell us about the state of journalism, free expression and intellectual debate in Britain?

Mary Dejevsky is a former columnist with The Guardian and The Independent and a former foreign correspondent in Moscow, Paris and Washington.

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Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (international), The Australian, and across ABC and News24 (formerly Sky News), where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. Since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world.

On this episode of Switzerland, Tom Switzer is joined by Sir Max Hastings, one of the world's leading journalists and historians, to ask what a lifetime of studying war and history can tell us about the extraordinarily unsettled world of 2026.

They discuss Donald Trump and the future of the Western alliance, the war in Ukraine, Iran and the Middle East, China, and the significance of the recent US decision to abruptly withdraw B-1 bombers from Britain. What does history reveal about the ambitions of great powers, the dangers of miscalculation, and the way wars begin and end?

They also discuss Sir Max's new book, Plunder, his gripping account of the final weeks of the Second World War in Europe. It covers the crossing of the Rhine, the collapse of Nazi Germany, the liberation of Belsen and the extraordinary decisions made by commanders such as Eisenhower and Patton as victory finally came into sight.

At a time when war has returned to the centre of international politics, Sir Max brings the perspective of a historian who has spent decades trying to understand it. What can the experience of 1945 teach us about the world we are living through today?

Sir Max Hastings is a former editor of The Daily Telegraph and the Evening Standard, and the author of 30 books on history, politics and the media. His new book is Plunder: The Last of the War in Europe, 1945.

Join Tom's Exclusive Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/cff5e11f69a3/switzerland-with-tom-switzer

Read Tom's Substack: https://substack.com/@tomswitzershow

Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (international), The Australian, and across ABC and News24 (formerly Sky News), where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. Since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world.

Iran’s economy is under extraordinary pressure. Oil exports are being squeezed, sanctions are expanding and Tehran says it is fighting an “economic war”. Is the regime beginning to crack? 

Or does Iran still hold considerable leverage because it can threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz? The latest evidence, documented in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, suggests the recovery in Gulf oil exports may be more fragile than some people have assumed. How significant is Iran’s ability to disrupt those flows?

Meanwhile, China may be the one country capable of breaking the deadlock between Washington and Tehran. Why does Beijing have both the leverage and the incentive to intervene?

Trita Parsi is from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, based in Washington, DC.

Steve Hanke, the veteran and acclaimed free-market economist, discusses America’s cost-of-living crisis, persistent inflation, the $40 trillion national debt and the warning signs coming from the bond market.

Professor Hanke also explains why he thinks the AI boom may be a bubble, why Iran could inflict serious economic damage on the US, and why he has broken with Vice President JD Vance over the future of conservative economics.

Steve Hanke is professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a former member of President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Join Tom's Exclusive Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/cff5e11f69a3/switzerland-with-tom-switzer

Read Tom's Substack: https://substack.com/@tomswitzer

Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (international), The Australian, and across ABC and News24 (formerly Sky News), where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. For 30 years, since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world.

President Trump has rejected Iran’s seven-day plan proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms. 

Tehran’s proposal would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz within a week and resumed nuclear talks in return for the US easing oil sanctions and lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, which is causing deep damage to the country’s economy. Trump says openly that Tehran is begging for a deal after the midterms that dismantles its nuclear program.

So is US economic pressure producing Iranian concessions?

Patrick Cockburn is Middle East correspondent with the I newspaper in London and author of War in the Age of Trump. 

John Mearsheimer is professor of political science at the University of Chicago and author of The Tragedy of Great Power Politics.

Right-wing populist parties are surging across Europe -- and Germany is at the centre of the upheaval. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has made major gains in recent state elections, challenging the dominance of Germany’s established political parties. What is driving this revolt against the political establishment -- and why is it happening now?

To make sense of the populist ascendancy, Tom Switzer speaks with Simon Heffer, aka Lord Blackwater, one of Britain’s leading political and cultural historians and columnist during the past four decades..

Why has support for the established parties collapsed? How important are immigration, economic stagnation and declining competitiveness? Why has the AfD, France’s Le Pen and Nigel Farage’s Reform party attracted voters from the traditional working-class constituencies. Are they really neo-Nazis, as some of their detractors allege? And what does the rise of the populist right tell us about the future of European politics?

The most revealing development in Donald Trump’s war with Iran may not be taking place in Tehran at all. It is happening hundreds of kilometres away, on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. In the past week, the Iran-backed Houthis have seized strategically important territory across Yemen’s Red Sea coast. From there, they have greater capacity to threaten shipping through the Red Sea and, crucially, Saudi Arabia’s ability to export oil.

There are reports that the Trump administration is considering a large-scale operation against the Houthis. But how can the United States defeat the Houthis?

Plus, the latest on the Russia-Ukraine standoff. At what point does military attrition become a threat not merely to Ukraine’s army but to the viability of the Ukrainian state itself?

John Mearsheimer is professor of political science at the University of Chicago and the author of The Tragedy of Great Power Politics.

Is Ukraine really turning the tide against Russia? Western media coverage has increasingly focused on Ukraine’s drone strikes, Russia’s economic difficulties and mounting battlefield losses, prompting claims that Vladimir Putin is under growing pressure. 

But what is actually happening on the battlefield? Who has the strategic advantage as the war enters its fifth year, and can Russia consolidate its hold over the Donbas?

Is there a growing risk of a wider confrontation between Russia and the West? Has the war in Iran diverted American attention and depleted key weapons stocks needed by Ukraine? Is Moscow losing faith in Washington’s ability to honour any future agreement? And with Russian drones and aircraft increasingly testing NATO’s eastern flank, how dangerous is the present trajectory? Does the Western narrative of a Ukrainian turning point match the underlying strategic realities? 

Anatol Lieven is a senior fellow and at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft based in Washington. 

Iran is escalating its war with the United States — not only through direct attacks, but through its Shia allies and proxies across the Middle East.

The Iran-backed Houthis have seized key territory on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, including the strategically important Perim Island at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, giving them a growing ability to threaten shipping and Saudi oil exports. At the same time, an attack launched from Iraqi territory has forced Saudi Arabia to shut down its crucial East-West oil pipeline, a key alternative route for exporting oil around the Strait of Hormuz.

What is Iran trying to achieve? Are Tehran and its allies successfully shifting the balance of power in their favour? And can this strategy force Donald Trump to reconsider the war?

Oil prices have already surged as the conflict disrupts key energy routes. But will prices continue to rise? And what does this mean for the argument that a prolonged crisis over the Strait of Hormuz would trigger a global economic crisis and force Washington to back down?

Robert Pape is professor of political science at the University of Chicago.

This week on Switzerland, Tom Switzer is joined by Professor Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University.

Subjects include the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks: what did America learn –- and what did it fail to learn? How much of the foreign-policy thinking that emerged from that moment still shapes the Trump administration? When will US leaders recognise limits to military and economic power in a messy world that won’t conform to America’s expectations? When will Washington, to use a neoconservative phrase, get mugged by reality?  

Plus, is the tide turning against Tehran? After all, Iran has failed to shut Hormuz completely. The global economy has proved remarkably resilient. And the American naval blockade is severely restricting Iran’s oil exports, placing mounting pressure on its already fragile economy.

And is Ukraine really winning the war against Russia, as several western commentators allege? Or are Moscow’s strategic gains in eastern Ukraine irreversible?