The Briefing Room

As contemporary hi-tech wars rage - Russia and Ukraine and the US-Israel war with Iran - The Briefing Room takes a hard look at the UK's armed forces. After telling his allies - including the UK - that he didn’t need them, President Trump called for them to help him open up the Strait of Hormuz, which has raised not just the question of should we, but could the UK do this? David Aaronovitch asks when it comes to big military operations what have we got? In this dangerous 21st century what do we need? Can we get it? And what about closer co-operation with other European countries?
Guests:
General Sir Richard Barrons, Senior Consulting fellow with the International Security Programme, Chatham House.
Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow, Royal United Services Institute
Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor, The Economist
Ruth Harris, Executive Director for National Security and Data Science, RAND Europe
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Caroline Bayley, Nathan Gower, Kirsteen Knight
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill and James Beard
Editor Richard Vadon

It could be that the US-Israel war with Iran ends soon. That was the message from Donald Trump this week. But it may not. The longer the war continues the more collateral damage to the world economy. Mostly because of the impact of energy prices. But why are we all so vulnerable still to events in one small part of the world and one tiny channel, the infamous Strait of Hormuz? David Aaronovitch asks what it tells us about the problems of global energy and oil dependency and what could be done to alleviate them.
Guests:
Ben Chu, Policy and Analysis Correspondent, BBC Verify
Duncan Weldon, Economist and author
Bill Farren-Price, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Gas Research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
Rosemary Kelanic, Director of the Middle East Program at Defense Priorities
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Caroline Bayley, Nathan Gower and Kirsteen Knight
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon

It's less than a week since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran. And it's already spread across the Gulf region as Iran retaliates. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader for 36 years, was killed in US and Israeli airstrikes on Saturday. The question now is who is in control in Iran and whether the regime in its current form will remain or if this will trigger major change. David Aaronovitch and guests discuss how the US-Israel war with Iran started and what comes next.
Guests:
Anshel Pfeffer, Israel Correspondent, The Economist
Professor Ali Ansari, founding director of the Institute of Iranian Studies at St Andrews University
Dr Burcu Ozcelik, Senior Research Fellow for Middle East Security at the Royal United Services Institute
Laurel Rapp, Director of the US and North America Programme at Chatham House.
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Caroline Bayley, Kirsteen Knight and Nathan Gower
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon

It’s four years this week since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. And by this summer the conflict will have gone on for longer than the First World War. Casualties run into the hundreds of thousands. Peace talks brokered by the US have been off and on for the past few months, with President Putin demanding that Ukraine gives Russia full control of the eastern Donbas region, including the part it does not occupy. President Zelensky refuses. Meanwhile, Ukraine has experiened one of its harshest winters as its cities and energy infrastructure have been pounded by Russian drones and missiles. Still both sides fight on in a war which has become dominated by advanced drone technology. David Aaronovitch asks his guests whether anyone is winning and when and how this war might end.
Guests:
Mark Galeotti, head of Mayak Intelligence and author of "Forged in War: a military history of Russia from its beginnings to today."
Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute and author of "The Arms of the Future: Technology and Close Combat in the Twenty First Century."
Rebecca Lissner, Senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and lecturer at the Jackson School of Global Affairs, Yale University.
Christopher Miller, Chief Ukraine Correspondent, The Financial Times and author of "The war came to us: life and death in Ukraine."
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Caroline Bayley and Kirsteen Knight
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon

Pressure is building in the UK for a ban on social media use for young people as countries across the world watch Australia, which introduced its own ban for under 16s last December. Meanwhile, the government here is launching a public consultation on children’s use of social media which will look at a range of options, including a ban. It also said this week that it wants to create new legal powers so it can take action quickly. David Aaronovitch asks what the evidence so far tells us about social media and harm to young people and what else could be done about it short of an outright ban.
Guests:
Katy Watson, Sydney Correspondent
Luke Tryl, Director More in Common
Professor Amy Orben, Programme Leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge
Professor Sonia Livingstone, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics
Pete Etchells, Professor of Psychology and Science Communication, Bath Spa University
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Caroline Bayley and Kirsteen Knight
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon