Don't fear the future—understand it.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the world scrambled to understand how it happened. Samir Puri already knew. He had spent a year living in East Ukraine in 2014, monitoring Russia's first invasion on the ground. He had observed five Ukrainian elections as an international observer. And he had written the book, quite literally: Russia's Road to War with Ukraine, published months before the full-scale invasion began.
That combination of field experience and analytical precision is what sets Samir Puri apart. He has not been interpreting geopolitics from a distance. He has worked inside it: as a British diplomat at the UK Foreign Office, as a researcher at RAND, as a Senior Fellow at IISS-Asia in Singapore, as a lecturer in War Studies at King's College London, and as the founding Director of Chatham House's Centre for Global Governance and Security.
His five books trace the fault lines of modern power. The Great Imperial Hangover examines how colonial legacies shape the world's most intractable conflicts. Westlessness, his most recent, makes the case that the demographic, economic, and military dominance the West has held for centuries is fragmenting faster than most leaders have accounted for.
In the room, Samir does something difficult: he makes geopolitical complexity legible. Boards and executives leave his sessions with clear frameworks for reading geopolitical risk, stress-testing strategy, and anticipating disruption before it reaches the headlines. Whether the subject is China, the Middle East, or the reconfiguration of global alliances, he gives decision-makers the intellectual tools to act, not just to understand.
Talking Points
Iran, Ukraine, Taiwan: the makings of a new world war?
What makes a 'world war' and is a new one starting? Iran, Ukraine, Taiwan: the makings of a new world war?
Combining astute historical analysis, and front-line diplomatic experience is some of the world's hot spots, Dr Samir Puri explains how conflicts underway today could morph into a world war - and what it will take to stop this from happening.
This talk is designed to appeal to widest swathe of a general crowd but it can be adapted to a business or specialist audience.
The West-less currents of our age of geopolitical disorder
A talk for those who want a deeper understanding of the current affairs. The West-less currents of our age of geopolitical disorder
The pace of geopolitical change is relentless. Old certainties are collapsing, wars are waged and new powers rise.
Making sense of this requires stepping away from the headlines. And from the understandable tendency to attribute what is happening to the whims Trump, Putin, and other leaders seemingly in a hurry to secure their legacies at any cost.
In fact, something much bigger is happening as the very tectonic plates of global order shift, and as the West is de-centerd from its previously leading position in world affairs.
In this talk, you will be introduced to the 'West-less' world and will come way better equipped to make sense of the age of geopolitical transition.
The Great Imperial Hangover: what Empires tell us about today's world
A talk for those who prefer a historical approach to their current affairs. The Great Imperial Hangover: what Empires tell us about today's world
All of the countries of the world have their own imperial backstory in past generations, as empires, colonies, or both at different times.
This talk examines how the world’s imperial legacies are still shaping the thorniest issues we face today.
From Russia’s incursions in Ukraine to Trump’s ‘America-first’ policy; to China’s forays into Africa; and from Modi’s India to the hotbed of the Middle East.
Puri provides a bold new framework for understanding the world’s complex rivalries and politics, enlivened with vivid examples from history.
