The return of the Great Powers

July 9, 2026

Brendan Simms talks to EI’s Jack Dickens about a new age of geopolitical rivalry.

The holiday from history is over and a new age of great-power competition has begun. With wars raging across Europe and the Middle East, and tensions rising throughout Asia, the heady optimism that followed the end of the Cold War now feels like a distant memory. But who are the Great Powers, what drives them, and how will they shape the future of geopolitics? Brendan Simms, Professor of the History of International Relations at the University of Cambridge, talks to Engelsberg Ideas about his new book, The Return of the Great Powers.

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