Three top U.S. government and military officials scramble to prevent World War 3 from happening amidst the chaos of a geopolitical crisis.

When the 20th century opened, Britain dominated world affairs, and America stood on the sidelines. Now their positions are reversed. This is the story of how it happened.

After one of the most shocking presidencies in history, Donald Trump’s top advisers and the leaders who clashed with him lift the lid on the critical moments of his foreign policy.

China is playing an increasingly important role worldwide. Under President Xi Jinping, substantial investments are being made in communication and cooperation and industrious Chinese people are settling abroad in large numbers. Documentary maker and China expert Ruben Terlou visits them in the new VPRO travel series ‘The World of the Chinese’. Who are they, what do they want to achieve and what impact does their presence have on the local population?

Empire is a unique programme that reports on and debates global powers on behalf of an international citizen. It does so in a way whereby it questions those geopolitical, geoeconomic, corporate, and other forms of power that influence citizens across borders. Many of those are not held accountable by any one government or any one nation, and so looking at the world as the global village it has become - with its integrated societies - we try to answer the questions on the minds of many of our viewers: why and how does global power act, react? And how does it throw its weight around?