ACADEMIA

Niall Ferguson

Senior Fellow

Niall Ferguson, a historian known for applying long historical perspective to current geopolitics, played a prominent role in 2025 clarifying how Israel's war fits into a rapidly deteriorating global order. In essays and extended conversations, including a widely read dialogue with Bari Weiss, Ferguson argued that Oct. 7 and its aftermath exposed the weakness of international institutions, the erosion of deterrence, and the reemergence of ideological conflict between liberal democracies and authoritarian or theocratic regimes. He emphasized Iran's central role in coordinating proxy warfare, the strategic vacuum left by inconsistent Western leadership, and the dangers of treating Israel's conflict as isolated rather than as part of a broader confrontation reshaping global security. His work helped donors, policymakers, and informed readers understand that Israel is not a peripheral case — but an early test of how the West responds to sustained, ideologically driven aggression.