What is the deep meaning of 2023? Alastair Benn is joined by Paul Lay and Iain Martin to set a dramatic year in perspective.

Image: A woman lights a candle to express solidarity with Israel. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo 

China projects its power and secures its national interests in three ways: exercising might, spending money and expressing its own mindset. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: CCP propaganda printed in rice fields. Credit: Fabio Nodari / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Matthew Hefler, post-doctoral fellow at the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy, to discuss the changing role of intelligence services in an era of intense geopolitical competition.

Image: The MI6 building in Vauxhall, London. Credit: Alex Segre / Alamy Stock Photo 

Putin uses history not only to fit a narrative that Russia is strong when it stands together, but also to seek legitimacy. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Russian Second World War propaganda poster. Credit: Shawshots / Alamy Stock Photo 

What went wrong for the western alliance in Afghanistan? Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by John Ferris, author of Behind the Enigma: The Authorised History of GCHQ, Britain's Secret Cyber-Intelligence Agency, to discuss whether liberal states can still carry out effective counter-insurgency operations.

Image: U.S. Marines search a compound in Afghanistan. Credit: Stocktrek Images, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo 

Religion is often ignored as a political factor; in the Middle East, this is not possible. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Supporters of the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah group wave the party flags in front of a poster of late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini during a ceremony in Beirut. Credit: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Calder Walton, author of Spies: The epic intelligence war between East and West, to discuss how governments can use covertly acquired intelligence as a powerful tool to influence debate — and how easily it can all go wrong.

Image: US Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, second from right, confronts Soviet delegate Valerian Zorin, first on left, with a display of reconnaissance photographs during an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on October 25, 1962. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo 

Wherever we insist on truth in order to win over our adversaries, we awaken a spirit of violence that endangers our living-together in the world. Read by Leighton Pugh.


Image: The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre by Francois Dubois. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Kate Cooper, author of Queens of a Fallen World, to discuss the women who shaped the life of Augustine of Hippo.

Image: A 17th century painting of Saint Augustine and Saint Monica. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo 

Mystical experience is the missing link in modern accounts of how human beings came to be conscious. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Trasverberazione di Santa Teresa d’Avila (1640). Credit: jozef sedmak / Alamy Stock Photo