What does the world look like today? What can explain the many wars currently taking place around the globe? Will conflicts like the one in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians ever end? How dangerous is the Russian war against Ukraine? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Simon Sebag Montefiore in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. 

In this episode, Montefiore discusses his latest book The World: A Family History of Humanity, a world history written with the grit of a biography, which uses family, the one thing all humans have in common, to tell the story of humanity, and examines how the current “world disorder” is just the end of “what we thought was the way the world normally worked”, describing this “new disorder” as a “multiplayer computer game” in which an array of continental powers and aspiring superpowers are challenging the United States.   

Montefiore also addresses Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7th and the war in Gaza, stating that the only way out is a "two-state solution", each with new leaderships. 

The bestselling author of history and novels, awarded several prizes for his previous books, including Jerusalem: The Biography, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar and The Romanovs, then expresses his concerns about the danger of nuclear proliferation, before considering the Russian invasion Ukraine and why the West must help the latter in fighting of the former. Finally, Montefiore delves into what might happen if Donald Trump is once again elected President of the United States in the 2024 election, in a conversation well worth listening to.  

More on this topic