Hardtalk

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 Iraq. 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?

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. Stephen Sackur talks to Abdullah Abdullah. Is he currently acting in Afghanistan’s interest, or his own?

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, the head of intelligence and security in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. He is also the son of that region’s President. 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'?

In August 1914, 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.

NATO is sixty five 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?

As the world commemorates the start of the First World War, HARDtalk travels to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia Herzegovina, to speak to Karl von Habsburg - grandson of the last of the Habsburg emperors. It was in Sarajevo that his great uncle Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in June 1914, an event which set the Great War in motion. Stephen Sackur hears reflections on Europe then and Europe now.

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 re-introduced in Kenya, child marriages and the prevalence of gender based violence, how much is there really to celebrate about being female in Africa?

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 six hundred Palestinians - mostly civilians - have been killed and nearly four thousand wounded. The UN Human Rights Commissioner says Israel may have committed war crimes. About thirty 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?

A few months ago international attention was fixed on the remote forests of north eastern Nigeria - believed to be where 200 kidnapped schoolgirls were being held by Boko Haram militants. Well, the girls have now been missing for 100 days; Boko Haram's terror campaign continues, but the media focus has shifted elsewhere. HARDtalk speaks to Obiageli Ezekwesili, a former Nigerian minister and one of the leaders of the Bring Back our Girls campaign. Has their country failed these girls and their families?

HARDtalk is in the heart of the English countryside, a habitat that is rich in wildlife but for how much longer? The impact of human beings here, as in so much of the world, is putting enormous pressure on natural eco systems. Stephen Sackur speaks to Chris Packham, one of Britain’s best known naturalists and campaigners for wildlife protection. Is it time to radically rethink man’s relationship with the natural world?

Just a handful of countries allow assisted dying or euthanasia or both - most notably Switzerland and the Netherlands. It is a difficult and contentious area for policymakers. This week in the UK, the highly controversial Assisted Dying Bill has its second reading in parliament. HARDtalk speaks to Labour peer and former Attorney-General Lord Falconer, who has introduced the bill, and asks how he defends the right to die in the face of staunch opposition from the many in the medical establishment, politicians and religious leaders?

Just occasionally a big idea makes waves across the world. HARDtalk speaks to French economist Thomas Piketty whose book, ‘Capital in the 21st Century’ has become an unlikely international bestseller. His thesis carries echoes of Karl Marx - modern capitalism, he believes, works in favour of entrenched wealth and exacerbates inequality. His research and conclusions have come under intense fire; has Thomas Piketty emerged unscathed?