The system of nation-states is in convulsion. As American hegemony unwinds, anxious Western countries slide into xenophobia and debt. Liberal institutions are losing their prestige; autocracies like China, Russia, and the UAE are rising. The global political order offers human beings ever fewer securities—and ever more threats.

Award-winning novelist and commentator Rana Dasgupta joins Mishal Husain, award winning broadcaster and host of the Mishal Husain Show to explore the story of nation states – and share his insights into why they are failing today.

He will take us from the fall of ancient empires and the expansion of European concepts of money and law, right up to the emergence of twenty-first-century tech firms—which present formidable competition to nation-states—and the epochal restoration of Chinese power. And most important of all: he will share his ideas for what we need to do next.

Don’t miss this chance to hear urgently needed analysis of the troubles of our world in 2026.

Event Schedule

6:00pm: Pre-event socialising and networking

A cash bar will be available for refreshments.

6:15pm: Event begins

7:30pm: Event ends

Speakers:

Rana Dasgupta has lived in the United States, India, and France. His work includes Tokyo Cancelled (2005), a collection of contemporary folktales, and a novel, Solo (2009), which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (2010). His first nonfiction work, Capital: The Eruption of Delhi (2014), a portrait of India’s capital, and the dizzying transformation it underwent at the turn of the twenty-first century, won the Ryszard Kapuściński Award (2017) and the Prix Émile Guimet (2017). As an essayist, Dasgupta has contributed to outlets including The Guardian, Harper’s, Granta, and The New Statesman. His lectures on the nation-state, and the possibilities beyond it, have been hosted by the Berggruen Institute, the Serpentine Gallery, the House of World Cultures, and elsewhere. In 2025 he was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize for nonfiction.

Mishal Husain hosts the global interview podcast and is Editor-at-Large at Bloomberg Weekend. Since May 2025 her weekly, in-depth conversations have included Elon Musk, Shonda Rhimes, Prime Ministers Mark Carney and Keir Starmer, Succession creator Jesse Armstrong and UN AIDS chief Winnie Byanyima. She was a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 from 2013 to 2024 and her television work for the BBC included the main UK news bulletins, international news, live coverage of royal events and UK election debates. Mishal has presented several BBC documentaries on diverse topics, from the Arab uprisings to Malala Yousafzai, Mahatma Gandhi and Queen Elizabeth II. Mishal has written two books, the Sunday Times bestseller Broken Threads: A Family from Empire to Independence and The Skills: How to Win at Work. She won the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Journalism in 2024 and in 2025 delivered Oxford University’s prestigious annual Romanes Lecture. She has been profiled in British Vogue, and the London Press Club has twice named her Broadcaster of the Year.