The Interview

In August 1914, 100 years ago, the five great powers of Europe declared war on one another. For countries like Britain, Germany and France the significance of World War One is regularly debated and commemorated. But what of that other great power, Russia? It also fought against Germany, but by the end of the war Tsar Nicholas II and his family had been murdered and the Bolshevik Revolution had bro...

NATO is 65 years old – does it lack the vigour, resources and political will to be an effective military force on the world stage at a time when conflicts across continents in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and West Africa present ever greater dangers to global security? Hardtalk speaks to NATO’s Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Can NATO make the world a safer place and, if not, is it time the alli...

Hardtalk is in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia Herzegovina, to mark the centenary of the start of World War One. Stephen Sackur talks to Karl von Habsburg - the grandson of the last Habsburg Emperor. It was the assassination of his great uncle Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 that set in motion the Great War. Are similar tensions once again on the rise in Europe?

Hardtalk is on location in Chisinau, capital of Moldova where the stage is set for another tug of war between Russia and the European Union. With the backing of the majority Romanian speaking population, Moldova’s government is vigorously pursuing membership of the European Union, despite strong objections from the country’s Russian speaking minority. Stephen Sackur asks Iurie Leanca, Prime Minist...

Hardtalk speaks to the acclaimed Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo who has arguably done more than any other writer to depict and celebrate the condition of women in Africa, in books such as The Dilemma of a Ghost, and Changes. She is opposed to what she has described as a 'Western perception that the African female is a downtrodden wretch'. But when you look around the African continent today - girls...

Israel says its current campaign in Gaza is in response to rocket strikes from Hamas militants and is aimed at destroying illicit tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle arms. In more than two weeks of conflict around 600 Palestinians - mostly civilians - have been killed and nearly 4000 wounded. The UN Human Rights Commissioner says Israel may have committed war crimes. About 30 Israelis have died - nearly...

A few months ago international attention was fixed on the remote forests of north-eastern Nigeria - believed to be where 200 kidnapped schoolgirls were being held by Boko Haram militants. The girls have now been missing for 100 days, Boko Haram's terror campaign continues, but the media focus has shifted elsewhere. Hardtalk speaks to Obiageli Ezekwesili, a former Nigerian minister and one of the l...

Hardtalk is in the heart of the English countryside, a habitat that is rich in wildlife but for how much longer? The impact of human beings here, as in so much of the world, is putting enormous pressure on natural ecosystems. Stephen Sackur speaks to Chris Packham, one of Britain’s best known naturalists and campaigners for wildlife protection. Is it time to radically rethink man’s relationship wi...

Just a handful of countries allow assisted dying or euthanasia or both - most notably Switzerland and the Netherlands. It is a difficult and contentious area for policymakers. This week in the UK, the highly controversial Assisted Dying Bill has its second reading in parliament. Hardtalk speaks to Labour peer and former Attorney-General Lord Falconer, who has introduced the bill, and asks how he d...

Just occasionally a big idea makes waves across the world. Hardtalk speaks to French economist Thomas Piketty whose book Capital in the 21st Century, has become an unlikely international bestseller. His thesis carries echoes of Karl Marx - modern capitalism, he believes, works in favour of entrenched wealth and exacerbates inequality. His research and conclusions have come under intense fire - has...

The European Parliament are selecting a new set of officials including the key post of commission president. The choice of EU insider Jean-Claude Juncker has led to a bitter and public row between the UK and other member states. How far has this damaged the reputation of the EU and what does it tell us about the future direction of the European Union? Hardtalk speaks to one of the EU's most experi...

The kidnap and murder of four teenagers - three Israeli and then one Palestinian - has triggered protests and violent clashes in both Israel and the Occupied Territories and unleashed the heaviest rocket fire between Israel and Hamas for nearly two years. Israel blames Hamas for the abduction and killings of the Israelis. The tensions flared over the past week after the bodies of the Israeli boys...

Most of us probably don't associate local government with racing pulses and grave danger. But few local government jobs are like the Mayor of Mogadishu's. Hardtalk speaks to Mohamoud Nur who had that post for more than three years, trying to improve life in one of the most violent, most corrupt, most rundown capital cities in the world. So what persuaded him to leave home life in London to take up...

Is rising inequality the sickness that could yet kill capitalism? It's a debate currently raging in politics as well as economics. President Obama says income inequality is the defining challenge of our time. The influential American economist Deirdre McCloskey thinks that is to misunderstand 300 years of global growth and enrichment. She focuses on the enduring power of innovation, rather than we...

The extremist group Isis is expanding its foothold in Syria, after its recent gains in neighbouring Iraq. The first town it seized was Raqqa in northern Syria a year ago; it holds parts of Aleppo province in the north as well as more territory on the border with Iraq. Isis is now engaging in battles with other rebel groups in Syria, splintering efforts by the opposition who now find themselves bat...

More than 60 journalists have been killed in Syria's civil war. Across the world journalists have become targets as never before, murdered, kidnapped and, in the case of three Al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt, locked up by the state for doing their jobs. Hardtalk speaks to Anthony Loyd, the award winning war correspondent of The Times newspaper, who was shot and seriously injured in Syria last mont...

Three years ago Ireland was a basket case economy - hollowed out by broken banks, bad debts and a property crash. What about now? Ireland was the first of the Eurozone bail out countries to emerge from the economic emergency room. Hardtalk speaks to Patrick Honohan, Governor of Ireland’s Central Bank. Growth has returned, optimism is on the rise, but is it justified? (Photo: Patrick Honohan, Gover...

Imagine life without ageing. You could live for hundreds of years with the mental and physical attributes of your 25-year-old self. Would you be tempted? Hardtalk speaks to a scientist and futurologist who believes it is a proposition that 21st Century biotechnology will soon be able to deliver. Aubrey de Grey's Californian research foundation is spending millions of dollars in a bid to conquer th...

Low cost airlines have revolutionised the European aviation business over the past 25 years - offering cheap flights, no frills and a service sometimes to be endured rather than enjoyed. How much further can the budget airlines grow? Hardtalk speaks to Carolyn McCall, the CEO of easyJet, which carries more international passengers than Lufthansa, British Airways or Emirates. Is flying always going...

Hardtalk is in the gallery district of London’s West End to meet one of the most successful and controversial fashion and celebrity photographers of the last 30 years - David LaChapelle. His story revolves around sex, drugs and provocative pictures. He has the ability to shock and offend, but does his work go deeper?

The UK Independence Party topped the UK polls in the recent European elections putting pressure on the Conservative and Labour Parties to reconsider their position on immigration and the UK’s relationship with the EU ahead of the 2015 general election. Hardtalk speaks to veteran Labour MP, Jack Straw, who held successive senior positions in government between 1997 and 2010. Is the Labour Party und...

How should we make sense of Nigeria's 21st Century identity? Newly anointed as Africa's number one economy, it is an oil-rich emerging power. But it is also beset by corruption, poor governance and a wave of internal conflict that could threaten the very unity of the state. Hardtalk speaks to the highly acclaimed Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her fiction explores her country's troub...

It took the abduction of more than 200 school girls to focus international attention on the appalling level of violence and insecurity in north-eastern Nigeria. The brutal conflict between the Islamist militant group Boko Haram and government security forces has killed thousands. Hardtalk speaks to Doyin Okupe, a senior adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan. Are Nigeria's leaders capable of rescu...

Dr Kizza Besigye is a former ally of Uganda’s President Museveni who has become his biggest critic and the country’s best known opposition figure. As the former leader of the main opposition party – the Forum for Democratic Change – he has run three times against President Museveni in elections and lost each time. He has called for popular protests in Uganda like the ones that lead to the uprising...

How far can Vladimir Putin push his iron-fist foreign policy? Crimea is his, but Russia's next move in eastern Ukraine is much less clear cut, as is the extent of the Kremlin's neo-imperialist ambition. Hardtalk speaks to Sergei Karaganov - one of Russia's most influential foreign policy thinkers and until recently, an advisor to President Putin. Is restoring Russian greatness a coherent strategy?...