The Empire strikes back

In this podcast series, we discuss the aftermath and side effects of imperial pasts.

The series starts with sinologist Klaus Mühlhahn and his view on China and global capitalism.
We talk with him about China’s internal and external turmoil and the country’s role in the emergence of global capitalism.

In the second episode, we discuss with Ulrike von Hirschhausen, an expert on the history of empires, about how far the legacy of empires reaches into the present. What does the container business in the port of Hamburg have to do with European colonial rule in China more than a hundred years ago?

In the third episode, we speak with Russian historian Alexander Semyonov about history as a weapon and about the reasons for Vladmir Putin to use history as a tool for geopolitical expansion.

The fourth part of the series hosts political scientist Gwendolyn Sasse for a discussion about Russia´s imperial past as a driving force for its war against Ukraine and about core elements of Ukrainian national identity.