Professor Ian Langford

Great power competition is back.

It never really went away, but we had this Cold War peace dividend in 91, which gave us a false sense of security that somehow we could use the United Nations to prevent

conflict and war.

And sadly, that's not the case.

And we're reminded because of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, war in the Middle East and competition in East Asia that, you know, war as an instrument of the global system, as an instrument of policy is predominant and sort of recognising and understanding that's really important.

When you converge that around the impact of technology and the pace and scale of change, which we're at the very front end of, then you can see the kind of risk and uncertainty that it creates.

So whether you're an individual experiencing the disruption through job loss as a result of AI, or whether you're a prime minister trying to understand the new world order,

assumptions around alliances, security guarantees, and whether they are meaningful anymore, you can understand the level of uncertainty that we all experience today.

Well, his challenge is that he's leading a political system which is now in the minority worldwide.

Yeah.

So we have democracy on the retreat across global systems.

We've seen the return of the strong man.

And sadly, it is gender specific right now when you think about people like Putin and Xi and so forth.

And so how do we protect our democracy and our political system in a world that is under threat?

And when you add on AI, which is all pervasive,

and effectively gives certain individuals the same power and influence in the international system that was previously only the domain of nation states, you can understand how disruptive that is.

So for good or for ill, whether you're Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, or you are a state leader in old Europe or new Asia,

You have the same amount of influence in the international system, which was previously only the domain of nation states.

And that is new.

And I think people like the prime minister and the government he leads are grappling with how to deal with these issues in ways that protect our values, but also safeguard our interests.