Robert Kagan
Thursday 22 May 2008 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Rana Mitter talks to American writer and neoconservative thinker Robert Kagan about his new book The Return of History and the End of Dreams, which debates the issues facing liberal democracies today. A key advisor on foreign policy to Republican Party nominee John McCain, Kagan called for regime change in Iraq as far back as 1998 and is a vocal supporter of the war. He argues that it was wrong to assume the end of the Cold War would bring about global liberalism and that instead, the growing might of an autocratic China and Russia, along with the threat from Islamic fundamentalism, has created an ideologically unstable world in which liberal democracies will have to fight for survival and influence. Also on the programme, critic Gillian Reynolds and writer and broadcaster Tristram Hunt join Rana for a view of a new panoramic cityscape of Liverpool by the artist Ben Johnson. A vast painting three years in the making, the Panorama takes in Liverpool's skyline from a point high above the Mersey.
The Liverpool Cityscape
by Ben Johnson
Playlist
Robert Kagan
American author and essayist Robert Kagan is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a columnist for the Washington Post.
He is also foreign policy advisor to Republican presidential nominee John McCain and worked in the US State Department from 1984 to 1998.
In his new book The Return of History and the End of Dreams he explores the emerging balance of power in the world. Rather than entering an era of international convergence, he argues we have entered an age of divergence, that the 'end of history' is an illusion. Rana Mitter talks to Robert Kagan about his book and his argument that liberal democracies and autocratic countries are on a collision course.
The Return of History and the End of Dreams by Robert Kagan is out now.
Liverpool Cityscape 2008
Critic Gillian Reynolds and historian Tristram Hunt join Rana for a view of a new panoramic cityscape of Liverpool by the artist Ben Johnson, which goes on show today at the city's Walker Art Gallery.
A vast painting three years in the making, the panorama takes in Liverpool's skyline from a point high above the Mersey. The final view has been achieved using a renaissance-studio approach with assistants working on detailed miniatures of a thousand individual buildings and alternative viewpoints.
Ben Johnson's 2008 Liverpool Cityscape is at The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool until 2 November.
Rosmersholm
The Almeida's new production of Ibsen's Rosmersholm stars Helen McCrory as the seductive Rebecca West. West's arrival in Johannes Rosmer's life throws his idealist beliefs into turmoil in a new modern world of journalistic spin and opportunism. Andrew Dickson, Online Arts Editor for the Guardian, gives his verdict.
Rosmersholm is at The Almeida in London until Saturday 5 July.
The Telectroscope
Two summers ago, The Sultan's Elephant took London by storm. Twelve metres high, weighing 42 tonnes and driven by puppeteers, the mechanical elephant and a five metre high girl puppet played out their story all over the city.
Now, on the South Bank in London, the same company which brought the elephant to London, has set up a telectroscope - a contraption which they desribe as an extraordinary optical device. Rana Mitter goes down to the South Bank to talk to its creator and to theatre critic Susannah Clapp.
The Telectroscope can be seen in London (near Tower Bridge) and in New York (near Brooklyn Bridge) until 15 June. More information at http://www.tiscali.co.uk/telectroscope/
