The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
The Man Warning The West: I’m Leaving the UK in 2 Years, If This Happens!
22 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
There's mention of Greenland being invaded by the United States.
Chapter 2: What is the current state of global geopolitics?
There's the situation in Iran. Trump has snatched Maduro from Venezuela. There's talk of China taking back Taiwan. What the hell is going on?
Well, what you're seeing is the West becoming weaker and emboldening our enemies and the final collapse of a shared myth that we were living in a structured world where everything is done according to the rules. That is now gone and Trump is acting in recognition of that reality.
Chapter 3: How significant is the role of nuclear weapons in global security?
saying we are not going to play by the fake rules anymore that no one else is playing by anyway is there a risk with this strategy of course and we can talk about the reasons for it i think it's really important the floor is yours
Konstantin Kissin is one of the sharpest voices in political commentary right now.
He's here to unpack the current geopolitical landscape and what could be done to salvage the West before it's too late. So Russia invading Ukraine was not an accident. It was a consequence of the fact that Putin felt this was the moment to test the waters. Can we now do the things we've always wanted to do? Because the West lost its focus and sense of purpose.
So, for example, I don't know if you know this, Europe is 12% of the world's population, 25% of the world's GDP and 60% of the world's welfare spending. Germany destroyed its nuclear facilities, thereby making itself reliant on Russian gas. And in Britain, we've destroyed our manufacturing, which is now produced elsewhere.
And we've run down our armed forces because we have felt so safe and so comfortable because there's been no consequence.
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Chapter 4: What factors are contributing to the decline of the UK's global influence?
Well, the consequences are here. per person we have less money today than we did 20 years ago we have the highest tax burden in peacetime history we're driving out the entrepreneurs and we've already seen a decline in our power in the world in our influence in the world that's the big danger but there is an opportunity to turn things around if we can make these big decisions but are you hopeful
Constantine. There is so much going on in the world right now that it is incredibly confusing to somebody like me who doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about geopolitics or the bigger picture. I'm very, very headstand.
Chapter 5: Why is there a rise in socialism in today's political climate?
As I imagine a lot of people in my audience are, we kind of get on with our lives. But every time we look up at the news, there's Trump is... snatch Maduro from Venezuela. There's the war with Russia and Ukraine. There's something going on with Iran. There's mention of Greenland being invaded by the United States. There's talk of China taking back Taiwan.
Chapter 6: What concerns do parents have for their children's future?
I wanted to speak to you today to understand your perspective on the bigger picture here. What the hell is going on?
Well, what you're seeing is the final collapse of what people described as the post-World War II order, which then became the post-Soviet collapse order. So if you think about 1945, World War II finishes and the Cold War begins. So you go from World War II to two big major players in the world competing for dominance. And that lasts until 1991 when the Soviet Union collapses.
Chapter 7: What insights can we gain from the protests in Iran?
at which point you get the unipolar world in which there's only one hegemony, only one country that's really setting the terms of what's happening in the world. The West lost its focus and its sense of purpose. In 1991, because we were like, well, we defeated our great rival, communism, Soviet, Russia, et cetera. And then we kind of didn't really know what to do. And we took eye off the ball.
And what's happening now is that entire framework that we have had since World War II is disintegrating very rapidly. This is why, you know, in light of recent events and the Maduro situation, you hear a lot of people talk about international law.
Chapter 8: How could Greenland impact global power dynamics?
International law was – I don't know if you've ever had – you all know Harari on your show? I have, yeah. He wrote a book called Sapiens in which he talks about the fact that almost everything that we live in, the world in which we exist is a kind of shared myth that we have.
And laws and money and all these things, they're agreements that we have between us to make things real that are not real. Money isn't real. That piece of paper has no value in your pocket, really, outside of the fact that other people have got together and agreed that it's money. Right.
Well, international law really was that, but even weaker than that, because if you think about what a law is, a law is something that has to be backed by not only the consent of the people who are involved, but also ultimately it's about the use of force, the legitimate use of force. Now, for international law.
There's never been anything that could enforce that law other than the most powerful country in the world, right? So if China invades Taiwan, no one's going to do anything about it because there is no overarching authority with the military to be able to do anything about it.
And so that shared fiction that we had, which we were living in a structured world in which everything is done according to the rules, the rules-based order, you might have heard that term being used, that is now gone. And Trump is acting in recognition of that reality. And he's saying…
well, given that it's sort of every man for himself now, I'm going to do what's in the interest of the United States. Is it in the interest of the United States, for example, to have an openly hostile leader of a country close to the US, which is so destabilized that 7 million people have fled as refugees? Venezuela. Venezuela.
Is it in our interest to have this person cozying up to Russia and China? Is it in our interest to allow him to have Hezbollah training camps? on the island of Margarita? Is it in our interest? It's going back to the Monroe Doctrine, the idea that America does not allow foreign nations to meddle in its backyard, so to speak.
And so what he's doing now is going, well, look, this is the world we live in. I'm going to do what's best for my country. And I think that's what you're seeing. Is there a risk with this strategy? Of course. There's a risk with every strategy. Of course, there's a risk with this strategy. There was a big risk inevitably with this strategy.
And I think, you know, as I talked about in my book, the West becoming weaker and emboldening our enemies, which is what we have done for a long time now, is creating an environment where we are opening ourselves up to challenge from other forces. Russia invading Ukraine was not an accident. It was not an accident.
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