Hardtalk

Chrissie Hynde, who has one of the most distinctive voices in rock music and a record of success going back to the 1980s. Her band, The Pretenders, found global success during the era of punk; 30 years on she's still making music, but is she still in love with rock n roll?Picture: Chrissie Hynde, Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

The European Union confronts a host of problems from an economic slowdown inside the Eurozone to the crisis in Ukraine. Jose Manuel Barroso has been president of the European Commission for ten years, but has only two months left in the job. Hardtalk’s Zeinab Badawi talks to him by Lake Como in Italy and asks, how much of a mess is he leaving behind for his successor?(Photo: Jose Manuel Barroso. Credit: Getty Images)

There is a consensus view that the crisis in eastern Ukraine represents the most serious threat to Europe's security and stability since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Ukraine and Russia are just a few steps away from all-out war, but right now there are hopes of a ceasefire. So, is there a path back from the brink?(Photo: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (C) during the 2014 NATO Summit in Newport, Wales. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

This week's Nato Summit in Wales comes against a background of escalating tensions between Russia and Nato over the conflict in Ukraine, with calls for tougher action against Moscow. How far should Nato go in protecting countries that are not members of the Alliance like Ukraine? HARDtalk speaks to President Giorgi Margvelashvili of Georgia, a country that was at war with Moscow six years ago. What's his advice to Nato?

Vladimir Putin is reported to have said he could take the Ukrainian capital Kiev in two weeks if he wanted to. As he offers increasingly brazen support to the pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, his message to the West is clear - don't mess with Russia. Hardtalk speaks to senior Ukrainian diplomat Olexander Scherba. Can Kiev afford to risk all-out war with Moscow?

Hardtalk speaks to Francis Fukuyama, one of America's leading political scientists who, 25 years ago, watched the Communist bloc unravel and concluded that history had delivered a conclusive verdict - liberal democracy had vanquished its ideological rivals. How wise does that proposition sound today in Ukraine, Syria, China, or even in credit-crunched Greece? Has a quarter century of global tumult changed his mind about the end of history?(Photo: Francis Fukuyama)

Hardtalk is in the West Bank to talk to Yasser Abed Rabbo, who was a senior member of the Palestinian negotiating team in the years after the Oslo Peace Accords were signed with Israel. In wake of 50 day conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, where does the Palestinian quest for statehood stand?

It's 25 years since the Tianamen Square Massacre in Beijing that saw hundreds killed and many more detained. One award-winning British-Chinese writer and film-maker Xiaolu Guo was a teenager at the time. Decades earlier during the Cultural Revolution her fisherman father had spent more than ten years in correctional labour camps for painting a picture that had angered the authorities. What should the role of the artist or writer be in China today?

Do Christians have a future in the Arab world? It's a question raised with a new sense of urgency as an extraordinarily violent brand of jihadi extremism sweeps through Syria and Iraq. Tens of thousands of Christians, along with other minorities, have been forced from their homes, hundreds murdered. Right across the region Christians are fearful. Hardtalk speaks to Bishop Angaelos of the Egyptian Coptic Church about what can be done to protect the Arab Christian tradition.

American warplanes are once again attacking targets in Iraq, ordered into action by a President who made it his business to end US military involvement in the country. To his critics it's one more piece of evidence pointing to an incoherence of Barack Obama's strategy in a region becoming ever more unstable and dangerous. Hardtalk speaks to Ali Khedery, a former adviser to a number of US ambassadors in Baghdad.

With a ceasefire now in place in Gaza, the Israeli government faces a simple question: what exactly did Operation Protective Edge achieve? For all the death and destruction in Gaza, has Israel's position been strengthened or weakened? Stephen Sackur speaks to Israel's Minister of Intelligence, Yuval Steinitz. Does Israel need a strategic rethink?Picture: Yuval Steinitz talks to Stephen Sackur, Credit: BBC

Afghanistan's presidential election was supposed to mark the country's progress, instead it threatens to inflict new wounds. The long drawn out process appeared to deliver a second round victory to Ashraf Ghani; but his rival Abdullah Abdullah alleged massive fraud and the vote count is under review. The Americans are urging the two rivals to share power. Is Abdullah Abdullah currently acting in Afghanistan’s interest, or his own?Picture: Abdullah Abdullah, Credit: BBC

The Hamas/Israeli ceasefire in Gaza has allowed Palestinians time to assess the cost of the Israeli offensive both in human lives and damage to buildings and facilities. Hardtalk speaks to Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor just back from Gaza where he works as a volunteer at the main Al-Shifa Hospital. He is also an outspoken political activist on behalf of the Palestinian cause. Does this interfere with his work as a medic and humanitarian?

The United Nations has declared its highest level of emergency in Iraq as a humanitarian crisis follows the rapid advance of Islamic State militants. There have been eye-witness accounts of people beheaded, of whole families buried alive, and there are an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis internally displaced. Hardtalk speaks to Masrour Barzani head of intelligence and security in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. Is it the Kurds who can rescue the state of Iraq and how much outside help do they need to defeat the jihadists of the so called Islamic State?Picture: Masrour Barzani, Credit: BBC

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 brought Lenin to power. How far does what was happening in Russia then, help explain what is going on today? Zeinab Badawi talks to the renowned Russian theatre and film director Andrei Konchalovsky.Image: Andrei Konchalovsky. Credit: Getty

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 alliance went into retirement?Picture: Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Credit: Clemens Bilan/AFP/Getty Images

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 Minister of Moldova, if his country can avoid the fate of neighbouring Ukraine?

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 abducted in Nigeria, polygamy reintroduced in Kenya, child marriages and the prevalence of gender based violence, how much is there really to celebrate about being female in Africa?(Photo: Ama Ata Aidoo)

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 all of them soldiers. Hardtalk speaks to Danny Danon a member of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party. He was dismissed as deputy defence minister earlier this month for accusing the Prime Minister of being too weak in his Gaza campaign. How does he justify the high Palestinian death toll?(Photo: Danny Danon, Former Deputy Defence Minister, Israel)