Explore every episode of the podcast Rear Vision — How History Shaped Today

One third of the world's fertiliser is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. How did fertiliser supply become so concentrated in the Middle East and what happens when this supply is suddenly at risk?

Americans are preparing for an orgy of red, white and blue as the 250th anniversary of their Declaration of Independence draws near. But what’s not likely to be widely mentioned is the fact that the conflict wasn’t just a revolution against British rule, it was actually America’s first civil war – a bloody and divisive internal conflict. And those rebels who rejected the Crown and called themselves "patriots" were by no means in the majority when war broke out. Historians say understanding more about the conflict could help Americans come to terms with the issues they face today.

Guests:

Dr Maya Jasanoff – Professor of History, Harvard University

Dr Richard Bell – Professor of History, University of Maryland, College Park 

Dr Rebecca Brannon – Professor of History, James Maddison University 

As the war in the Middle East teeters on a peace deal, the carefully managed relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States is starting to show cracks.

Despite constant criticism from the Americans, European NATO members are actively rebuilding and strengthening their militaries. Some are even beginning to think beyond the Alliance and the United States, to an independent united European fighting force. NATO members will meet in early July for their 36th summit.

Guests:

Dr Hugo Bromley – Historian of manufacturing, geopolitics, and international trade, Centre for geopolitics, University of Cambridge 

Dr Simon J. Smith – Associate Professor of Security and International Relations at the Royal Danish Defence College

Stuart Dowell – political journalist and commentator based in Warsaw 

Max Bergmann – director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia Program, Center for strategic and international Studies

Stavros Atlamazoglou – Defence journalist and Greek Army veteran

President Trump has made it clear he doesn’t think diplomacy on its own will stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.So what does history tell us about what actually works? We’re looking back at one of the greatest nuclear risk reduction efforts ever — when the US and Russia joined forces to contain the weapons fallout from the Soviet collapse and convince countries like Ukraine to give up the nuclear arsenal they inherited.

An effort that was led by diplomacy, pragmatism and scientific expertise during a brief period of goodwill between the two countries.

GUESTSGraham Allison - Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at the Harvard Kennedy SchoolMariana Budjeryin - Senior Researcher at the Centre for Nuclear Security at MIT and author of Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of UkraineDavid E Hoffman - author of The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms

GUESTSGraham Allison - Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at the Harvard Kennedy SchoolMariana Budjeryin - Senior Researcher at the Centre for Nuclear Security at MIT and author of Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of UkraineDavid E Hoffman - author of The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms

Gerrymandering is endemic in the United States and could determine the outcome of this year's mid-term elections. It has been a feature of the American political system since the beginning of the republic, according to Princeton University's Samuel Wang. So, how did the self-styled “world’s greatest democracy” end up with a system that former California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, says is being rigged by both major parties?

Guests:

Dr John Hart – School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University

Dr Samuel Wang – Professor of Neuroscience and Head of the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, Princeton University 

Dr Ben Reid – data analyst and researcher, Australian and European history, Parliament of Victoria 

Dr Melissa Rogers – Professor, Politics & Policy and Co-Director, Inequality and Policy Research Center, Claremont Graduate University

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz continues to affect economies around the world.  But Russia has not only escaped the financial fallout, but has prospered.

It may surprise you to know that the Australian parliament has no real say over whether the country goes to war. In the United States its effectively the same, with analysts saying the US Congress has now basically ceded its war powers to the president. A process, by the way, that began long before the arrival of Donald Trump. In this episode we look at how that happened and why calls for war powers reform have had so little success.

Guests:

Dr Russell Berman – Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University 

Dr Sarah Percy – Associate Professor of International Relations, University of Queensland

Dr Sarah Burns – Rochester Institute of Technology 

Dr Alison Broinowski - Australians for War Power Reform

Dr Nicole Townsend - lecturer in War Studies – University of New South Wales, Canberra

The Federal Government is hoping tax reform will help address the widening generational wealth gap and rebalance the tax system in favour of younger people.One policy being targeted for an overhaul in this year's budget is the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount.

Australia started taxing capital gains in the mid-1980s to tackle tax avoidance and evasion which was a huge problem at the time.So why in 1999 did the Howard government introduce a discount on that tax? 

And why does the concession encourage investment in established housing stock? 

Guests:Chris Evans - Emeritus Professor UNSW Business SchoolPeter Martin - economist and presenter of The Economy StupidRick Krever - taxation law and policy specialist at UWACraig Emerson - economist and former Federal Labor MP Joe Aston - author and business journalistPeter Tulip - Chief Economist at the Centre for Independant StudiesRichard Holden - Scientia Professor of  Economics at UNSW Business School 

In 1707 the Scottish national parliament was disbanded, not to be reconvened until 1999. How and why Scotland regained its own Assembly is the story of rising Scottish nationalism and Westminster’s attempts to dampen such feelings and keep Scotland in the Union. On May 7th, Scots go to the polls, and the outcome could impact significantly on both the nationalist cause in Scotland and on the ongoing viability of Keir Starmer’s Labour government at Westminster.

Guests:

Dr Clement Macintyre – Professor Emeritus, School of Society and Culture, Adelaide University

Dr Nicola McEwen – Professor of Public Policy and Governance, University of Glasgow 

Alyn Smith – Former UK MP and MEP, candidate for the 2026 Scottish parliamentary elections, Scottish National Party 

Tom Chidwick – Manager, Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London

IN 1959 Fidel Castro transformed Cuba into a socialist state. And ever since then, American presidents have been trying to undo it.

Now it’s Donald Trump’s turn – and he’s determined to succeed. 

Australia’s incoming Chief of Army, Lt. General Susan Coyle, will be the first woman ever to hold the Army’s top post. Her appointment in the lead-up to Anzac Day reflects a change that’s been decades in the making. The true history of warfare is the story of men and women together on the battlefield. But in the early 20th century that reality changed, and at the same time, female fighters began to be written out of the history books. This is the story of how western women successfully fought their way back onto the front line. It’s also a story about how the current US administration is once again trying to wrest them from the field.

Guests:

Ashleigh Percival-Borley – Military historian, Durham University 

Dr Sarah Percy – Associate professor, School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland

Dr Megan McKenzie – Professor, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University 

Dr Kyleanne Hunter – CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

Links:

Sarah Percy’s Forgotten Warriors

Kyleanne Hunter’s Invisible Veterans

Megan MacKenzie’s Beyond the Band of Brothers

It’s a truism of peace talks that we’re not negotiating with our friends but rather with our enemies. And when our enemies have been designated as terrorists and murderers, it’s not an easy task. 

How have violent conflicts ended in the past and are there lessons we can learn from previous peace negotiations?

Guests

Youssef Mahmoud, Senior Advisor at the International Peace Institute. Former United Nations Under-Secretary-General and head of peace operations in Burundi, the Central African Republic and Chad.

Randall Lesaffer, Professor of Legal History at KU University in Leuven, Belgium and author of Peace Treaties and International Law in European History: From the Late Middle Ages to World War One.

Philipp Kastner, Senior Lecturer in International law at the University of Western Australia and author of Legal Normativity in the Resolution of Internal Armed Conflict.

Luxshi Vimalarajah, senior mediator advisor at the Berghof Foundation. Previously involved in peace negotiations in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Turkey, Yemen, North Macedonia and Colombia.

The conflict in the Middle East has led to a sharp rise in energy prices – and highlighted the issue of Australia’s energy security.  

Why haven’t we all transitioned to renewables? The story of Australia’s energy transition and why it’s had so many false starts and missteps. 

Wrapping yourself in the national flag has become a common practice for far-right activists right across the Western world, particularly anti-immigration demonstrators. In the UK the co-opting of the Union Jack and the flag of St George has become so common it’s now described in derogatory terms as “flag-shagging”. In this episode, we explore the historic power of national flags as symbols of division, not just national unity. 

Guests:

Dr Anne Platoff – Flag expert and former librarian, University of California, Santa Barbara 

Laura Scofield – Design Director, The Atlantic

Dr Dominic Bryan – Professor of social anthropology, Queens’s University Belfast

Pete Hegseth U.S. Secretary for War (previously Defense) is one of the most powerful people on the planet. He says that two things have defined his life – his military service and his religious faith. 

Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping are due to meet in Beijing in the near future, following a March postponement. China’s wish to subsume democratic Taiwan is certain to be one of the topics on the summit agenda. President Xi has reportedly instructed his military to be at capacity for an invasion by 2027, so 2026 could be Taiwan’s last year of freedom. Some analysts fear US military action in Iran and Venezuela may embolden Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party justifies its claim to Taiwan based on what it calls its “One China Principle”. But what exactly does “One China” mean?

Guests:

Jessica Drun – Washington-based China and Taiwan analyst

Dr Andrew Phillips – Professor of International Relations, University of Queensland 

Dr Mei-fen Kuo – lecturer in Contemporary Chinese Culture and History, Macquarie University

Dr Sow Keat Tok – Asia Institute, University of Melbourne

Dr Mark Harrison – Senior Lecturer, Chinese Studies, University of Tasmania

A wide-angle lens on the history of Innovation.

An unprecedented surge in human ingenuity has created six great waves of innovation.

What drove these breakthroughs? And where are we headed?

The government of Singapore this year sacked the leader of the Opposition — that's the way things happen in Singaporean politics. Though it looks like a model Westminster democracy, critics say it's actually a one-party state, dominated for more than 60 years by the People's Action Party. So, how is it that such a prosperous and modern nation has never managed to free itself from the long shadow of its authoritarian founder, Lee Kuan Yew.

Guests:

Dr Stephan Ortmann — Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Administration, Hong Kong Metropolitan University

Dr Michael Barr — Associate Professor of International relations, Flinders University

Dr Gillian Koh — Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies, National University of Singapore

Joshua Kurlantzick — Senior Fellow for SE Asia and South Asia, Council on Foreign Relations

China is now the number one trading partner of South America.

How realistic are U.S. plans to dominate the Western hemisphere?

High speed rail spread around the globe from the 1960s when the first bullet trains took off in Japan. Rear Vision looks at why previous attempts to introduce high speed rail in Australia have failed.

Japan opened the world's first high-speed rail line - between Tokyo and Osaka - in time for the 1964 Olympics. Japan’s ‘Bullet Train’ was the first to run on a dedicated line – a high speed service for passengers only. Over the last 30 years, millions of dollars have been spent in Australia on studies and proposals but is a fast train service on the east coast any closer?

Since the 1970s central banks around the world have increasingly become “independent” of government. They’ve developed that way over time to ensure that monetary policy isn’t impacted by partisan political motives. But there are those who now seek to turn the clock back and to rein in that independence. The current US president is at the front of the pack.

Guests:

Cristina Bodea – Professor of political science, Michigan State University

John Hawkins – Head of the Canberra School of Government, University of Canberra https://Dr Isaac Gross

Isaac Gross - Senior lecturer in Economics, Monash University

Links:

David Marr's Late Night Live interview with biographer RICHARD VAGUE about the US banker Thomas Willing

Bangladesh is having its first free and fair election in over 18 years.

Rear Vision looks back at the tumultuous history of this young nation.

Only a few decades ago China was known as the land of the bicycle – today it’s an automotive goliath. The PRC is now the world’s biggest car manufacturer and exporter. It also has the largest domestic car market. We explore how it achieved such a dramatic turnaround in only a few short decades. And what role European and American car makers inadvertently played in creating a super rival. 

Guests: 

Ilaria Mazzocco – Chinese business and economic expert, Center for Strategic and International Studies 

Dr Tessa Thorniley – freelance business journalist 

Zeyi Yang – technology journalist and senior writer, WIRED 

Mike Colias – Us Autos Editor, Reuters 

Since the start of the 20th century, oil has been the lifeblood of global development. Today, the story behind oil — and the politics of supplying oil and denying oil.

From sanctions to tariffs to seizing oil fields — it feels like we've entered a new age of economic warfare. But experts say we're really just returning to the past. To the time before the rules-based international order was established at the end of the Second World War.

Gunboat diplomacy it seems is once again de rigueur.

Guests

William Alan Reinsch — Senior advisor, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Saadia Zahidid — Economist and Managing Director of the World Economic Forum

Markus Jaeger — Adjunct professor, International and Public Affairs, Columbia SIPA

Abraham Newman — Professor of Government, Georgetown University. Author of Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy (Holt/Penguin 2023)

Hugo Slim — Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, University of Oxford

For just over three weeks huge street protests have swept across Iran and threatened to topple The Islamic Republic regime of Iran. The regime has responded with a brutal crackdown on dissent and imposing a total internet blackout. President Donald Trump has urges Iranians to keep protesting and has promised that 'help is on its way'.

So how should we understand what’s happening in Iran and why does President Trump care so much. In this podcast extra we trace the story of Iran from the 1953 CIA coup that overthrow the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh and ushered in the rule of the Shah through to the events that lead to the 1979 Iranian Revolution that ousted the Shah and the return of the Ayatollah, and finally, Iran post 1979 and the role that Iranian women have played in resisting the rule of the Ayatollahs.

Is the liberal international rules-based order – that has underpinned international relations for the past 80 years - about to collapse. The United States once its greatest champion is withdrawing funding from hundreds of international organisations, and at the same time unending the global economy by imposing of tariffs across the board. What might this mean for global security, and the global economy and can we blame Donald Trump and his wrecking ball or are there deeper forces at play?

President Trump not only want to make America great, he also wants to make it bigger and incorporating Canada as the 51st state would certainly do that – except for the fact that Canada is a sovereign nation. The story of Canada and the United States and why President Trump wants to turn Canada into the 51st States of the Union.

President Trump wants to buy or take control of Greenland from Denmark. But Denmark has made very clear, they don’t have the right to sell Greenland because Greenland is owned by the people of Greenland. 

Donald Trump is not the first US president to try and buy Greenland. The story of Greenland and America’s many attempts to gain control of the largest island on the planet.

As the world becomes an increasingly dangerous and uncertain place – how prepared are we in Australia to face these new challenges?  This week on Rear Vision the story of one nation that take security and preparedness very seriously – Finland

This year, the Australian Labor government changed the country's superannuation rules — and reduced the 15% tax concession on balances over 3 million dollars

Is this enough? And is our retirement system serving its purpose?

Back in 1996 Pauline Hanson – rocked Australian politics when she was elected to the House of Representative in the seat of Oxley espousing anti-Asian and anti-Aboriginal views. But her time in Canberra didn’t last. Two years later she lost her seat.

Over the next two decades Hanson stood for re-election 8 time, failing at each attempt. She looked like a spent force in Australian politics. But that was wrong – today she is back in federal parliament, and her Party’s numbers are surging. How has Pauline Hanson been able to make such an incredible political comeback.

Rear Vision traces the story of the World Trade Organization from its origins as The GATT - and asks whether the WTO can still play a meaningful role in managing the trade realities of the 21st century?

Australian universities are confronting a firestorm, the loss of foreign students, the lay-off of academics, the underpayment of staff and radical changes to domestic university fees.

Why is our university sector in so much trouble?

Guests 

Raewyn Connell, professor emerita at the University of Sydney

Professor Glyn Davis, The Australian idea of a university

Hannah Forsyth, historian of education and associate Professor at the University of New England

James Waghorne, Senior Research Fellow in the faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne

Presenter and producer Annabelle Quince

Sudan is engulfed in a civil war. We know little about it, but we should. Sudan sits at the crossroad between Africa and the Middle East, and many of its neighbours, the UAE, Egypt, Russia, and Saudia Arabia – are directly or indirectly involved in this conflict.

In this second part of our series on Sudan - Sudan’s deeper history and the regional factors that are shaping the current conflict.

The history of the current conflict in Sudan is complex and long, but it's a history that matters. Sudan sits at the crossroad between Africa and the Middle East, it controls a strategic trading port on the red Sea, Port Sudan, it has large gold reserves and is the point where the Blue and the White Nile meet before flowing into Egypt. All of which make it important in the region.

Rear Vision puts contemporary events in their historical context.

Rear Vision puts contemporary events in their historical context.

The six countries of the Persian Gulf. From their rapid arrival on the world stage to their influence in Middle East politics today.

Venezuela  -  the latest country on US President Donald Trump's radar in his fight against drugs.

India and China - one of the most complex and consequential relationships in modern geopolitics.

In 1998 The Good Friday Agreement was signed in Britain and Ireland, bringing an end to 30 years of violence, murder and religious conflict.

How did this come about? and are there lessons we can learn?

The last two months has seen a shift in international politics as Israeli westerns allies move to recognise a Palestinian state. Could this be a historical tipping point in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, like the moment that led to the end of Apartheid in South Africa in the 1990’s. Rear Vision explores the similarities and difference between the Anti-Apartheid movement and the growing international pressure being placed on Israel.Rear Vision puts contemporary events in their historical context.

Rear Vision puts contemporary events in their historical context.

Since the end of WW2, the security alliance between Australia and the United States ANZUS has been the cornerstone of our foreign policy and security. And the AUKUS agreement announced in 2021 by Prime Minister Morrison only deepens that alliance. But just how well has the alliance served Australia and will the AUKUS deal enhance our security or lead us into a war with China we don’t want? And if AUKUS does pan out, do we have a plan B or is our plan B to make sure plan A works?

It was after the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington – that the drone became America’s weapon of choice in war on terror. Unpiloted planes, capable of finding and destroying target on the other side of the world, known as – Reaper or Predator Drones.

But it’s over the past 25 years the use of drones - both civilian and military - has really taken off globally. Nowhere more so than in the war between Ukraine and Russia where they have literally reshaped the battlefield. The history of the drone.

Since the end of World War II, America has dominated the Pacific, but China’s expanding economy and growing military might is  challenging that dominance

What can Australia do to maintain its mineral wealth in a decarbonising world? 

Rear Vision drills down into our coal and iron-ore industries. 

And asks, can Green Iron save us?

The Israeli settlements in the occupied territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem are are illegal under international law. They are a key stumbling block to the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Yet for 50 years they have increased in number and size. Today, the story of the Israeli settler movement and its impact on Israeli politics.