Autumn 2011 | Public lectures and events | Video: Recent Episodes
London School of Economics and Political Science
Video files from LSE's autumn 2011 programme of public lectures and events, for more recordings and pdf documents see the corresponding audio collection.
Contributor(s): Rita Giacaman | How do young Palestinians define dignity? What is the importance of dignity in their lives? What would increase or decrease their sense of dignity? Following a pilot project which included 102 interviews with young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old in Ramallah, Professor Rita Giacaman's presentation will outline the main findings of the research which focused on young Palestinian's reflections on dignity. Rita Giacaman is a professor of public health at the Institute of Community and Public Heath at Birzeit University. She is a founding member of the institute and has worked there for 34 years. Giacaman has chronicled the effects of the Israeli military occupation, and has advocated for women to have a prominent role in an eventual Palestinian state.
Contributor(s): Ed Heery, John Kelly, David Metcalf | "The unsolved problems in the research of work and employment" – a round table discussion among former BJIR chief editors.
Contributor(s): Professor William Quandt | The US has been an active player in the Middle East over the past century, but has been of minor relevance during the Arab uprisings of 2011. The upheaval, however, will have deep implications for US policy in the region. William Quandt is a professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia.
Contributor(s): Dr Kent Deng, Professor Jude Howell, Professor Athar Hussain | Against all previous predictions China has been completely transformed. This raises the question of the "China Model" that we are still trying to understand for the 21st century. Kent Deng is a reader in the Department of Economic History, LSE. Jude Howell is professor in LSE's Department of International Development. Athar Hussain is director of the Asia Research Centre at LSE.
Contributor(s): Brendan Donnelly, Mike Gapes MP, Lord Teverson, Professor Wolfgang Wagner | In this second roundtable in a series on 'EU Foreign Policy after Lisbon' the LSE's European Foreign Policy Unit invites distinguished policy-makers and scholars to discuss the role and impact of parliaments in EU foreign policy-making. Brendan Donnelly is at the Federal Trust and former MEP. Mike Gapes is former Chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select CommitteeLord Teverson is the Chairman, Sub-Committee C - Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development, House of Lords. Professor Wolfgang Wagner is from the University of Amsterdam.
Contributor(s): Dr Armin Schulz | Many organisms make decisions using only reflexes and drives; some, however, do so by employing explicit representations of their goals. Why would they do this? Armin Schulz is lecturer in philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE.
Contributor(s): Jocelyne Bourgon | Crises, cascading failures, and unpredictable shocks characterise the world we live in. Jocelyne Bourgon will map out an enabling framework for governing in the 21st century. Jocelyne Bourgon has led ambitious public sector reforms as secretary to the Cabinet of Canada. She is president of PGI (Public Governance International) and author of A New Synthesis of Public Administration: serving in the 21st century.
Contributor(s): Kristalina Georgieva | Kristalina Georgieva is European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. Before joining the European Commission in February 2010, she held various positions at the World Bank. She started working there in 1993, initially as Environmental Economist, then Senior Environmental Economist. She continued as Sector Manager on Environment for the East Asia and Pacific Region, and later became the Director in charge of World Bank environmental strategy, policies and lending. In 2004 her work took me to Moscow, where she was World Bank Director for the Russian Federation, responsible for a large portfolio of World Bank projects in tax administration, customs, education, health, environment and regional development. In 2007-2008 she held the position of Director for Sustainable Development and, finally was appointed Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank Group. At this post, she acted as the interlocutor between the World Bank's senior management, its Board of Directors and the 186 countries that make up the World Bank Group shareholders. Ms Georgieva obtained her MA in Political Economy and Sociology at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her PhD in Economic Science was granted by the same university, for her dissertation on Environmental Policy. Between 1977 and 1993, she worked as associate professor at the University of National and World Economy. During this period she was also a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and spent one year as Visiting Professor at Fiji's University of the South Pacific and the Australian National University. In 1991 she went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she did post-graduate research in environmental policy, co-led a course on economies in transition, and consulted on environmental policy in Eastern Europe.
Contributor(s): Professor Jeffrey Sachs | The world economy remains in a precarious state after the global recession. Jeffrey Sachs will discuss why we must – and how we can– change our entire economic culture in the time of crisis. Jeffrey Sachs is director of The Earth Institute and Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University.
Contributor(s): Dr Madeleine Korbel Albright | Former US secretary of state Madeleine Korbel Albright will address the future of US foreign policy and the leadership of women in helping to build prosperity, foster peace, and promote democracy across the globe. Madeleine Albright was the 64th secretary of state of the United States (1997-2001) and is professor in the practice of diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Contributor(s): Iain Duncan Smith, Professor Anne Power, Professor Jane Waldfogel | The Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion tracked 200 families bringing up children in deprived neighbourhoods over ten years. The families told us a lot about their biggest worries and greatest needs. Streets and parks are unsafe; local facilities cost too much; energetic teenagers are not allowed to go further afield for fear of trouble so they often hang out on local streets. The thing families wanted most was for more for young people to do. Joblessness among low-skilled young people is extremely high in East London and other poor areas. Employers lose confidence and look for more highly qualified, more experienced and more privileged recruits, creating a vicious cycle for young people from troubled neighbourhoods. Families strive hard for their children, but young people need support. Parents told us what helps most and what works best. They explained what pushes families over the brink. The riots this summer showed how fragile society’s hold is on community resilience, and how many parents fail to control or contain their young people. Most people brought to trial after the riots came from highly disadvantaged and fragmented urban communities. Iain Duncan Smith, will talk about the importance of families to society; and explain how we can create better futures for our most disadvantaged children. Education, Sure Start for all ages, crime prevention, job training, outdoor space and youth activities all build community resilience. Professor Anne Power and Professor Jane Waldfogel will respond. Iain Duncan Smith has been Secretary of State for the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions since the 2010 General Election. He has served as MP for the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency since April 1992 and has held a number of roles in Government, including Leader of the Opposition when he led the Conservative Party from September 2001 until November 2003. In 2004, he subsequently founded the influential think tank, the Centre for Social Justice, which worked to develop innovative policies on tackling poverty and welfare reform. In his early career, Iain Duncan Smith served in the Scots Guards and worked with the General Electric Company.
Contributor(s): Professor Barry Smith | This lecture will explore the philosophy and neuroscience of taste and what it tells us about perception. Barry Smith is professor of philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London and director of the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London.
Contributor(s): Peter Popham | Twenty-three years after an uprising involving millions, and 21 years after elections which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won by a landslide, Burma remains in the grip of the military regime, now ruling through pseudo-democratic proxies. Has the 'Oxford housewife's' so-called 'revolution of the spirit' been a complete wash-out? What lessons does Burma's bleak recent history hold for the rest of the world? This event celebrates the publication of Popham's new book The Lady And The Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi. Peter Popham has toured Burma as an undercover journalist several times since his first visit to the country in 1991. A foreign correspondent and commentator with the Independent newspaper, he covered South Asia (including Burma) for a period in the late 90s. Popham interviewed Suu Kyi when she was released from house arrest in 2002, and met her again in 2011.
Contributor(s): Charlie Beckett | This lecture will tell the story of WikiLeaks, the most controversial journalism organisation of the digital age. Led by the charismatic Julian Assange it has produced the biggest leak of secret information in modern times. It has grown from a 'hactavist' whistle-blowing website to one of the best-known media brands in the world, working with major newspapers like the New York Times and The Guardian. It has taken on the most powerful nation in the world and produced headlines around the globe. WikiLeaks has also provoked condemnation for its disregard for conventional journalistic ethics and its disruption of diplomacy. Its founder Julian Assange has fallen out with almost all of his external collaborators and is subject to accusations of sexual assault. This lecture will ask whether WikiLeaks is a model for investigative journalism in the Internet age or a one-off experiment that has gone awry. Charlie Beckett is the director of Polis, the LSE's media think-tank. He was a journalist at the BBC and ITN's Channel 4 News for 20 years before joining the LSE. He is a leading expert on how journalism is changing and the impact on politics in the UK and internationally. He is an influential journalism/politics blogger, writes and broadcasts for international media and speaks at conferences around the world. Beckett is a faculty member of the LSE's Department of Media and Communications where he teaches critical studies in International Journalism and runs the Polis Summer School. He is a trustee of Article 19, the Institute for Development Studies and the Media Society. His new book WikiLeaks: News in the networked era (Polity) examines the effect of WikiLeaks and asks how it relates to new forms of political communications such as the use of social media in the Arab Uprisings.
Contributor(s): Professor Sadik Al Azm | Al-Azm, one of the Middle East's most notable contemporary thinkers, will reflect on the effects of the Arab uprisings on Arab nationalism and Islamist movements. Sadik Al Azm is emeritus professor of modern European philosophy at the University of Damascus.
Contributor(s): Professor Nancy Folbre | For Love and Money, a forthcoming book edited by Nancy Folbre provides an overview of care provision in the United States and develops a framework for the analysis of existing care policies. Nancy Folbre is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research explores the interface between political economy and feminist theory, with a particular emphasis on the value of unpaid care work. In addition to numerous articles published in academic journals, she is the author of Greed, Lust, and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas (Oxford, 2009), Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family (Harvard, 2008), Who Pays for the Kids?: Gender and the Structures of Constraint (Routledge, 1994) and co-editor, with Michael Bittman, of Family Time: The Social Organization of Care (Routledge, 2004). Books she has written for a wider audience include Saving State U (New Press, 2010); The Field Guide to the U.S. Economy (with James Heintz and Jonathan Teller-Elsberg, New Press, 2006 and earlier editions), The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values (New Press, 2001), and The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual (with Randy Albelda, New Press, 1996). She currently coordinates a working group on care work sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation. You can read her regular contribution to the New York Times Economix Blog. For more information, see her personal website. This event will be introduced by Professor Sarah Ashwin.
Contributor(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | Jawaharlal Nehru, the man most identified with Indian foreign policy after independence, is remembered for what is considered his greatest failure: the China policy and disastrous war of 1962. But is it fair to hold Nehru responsible for a conflict that arose out of the rise of two competing nationalisms? Ramachandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.
Contributor(s): Dr David Bell, Professor Simon May | Is genuine love unconditional, or enduring, or disinterested? Simon May says 'no' and offers an alternative theory. David Bell responds with a psychoanalytic perspective. David Bell is president of The British Psychoanalytic Society and a consultant psychiatrist in the Adult Department at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Simon May is visiting professor of philosophy at King's College London's Department of Philosophy.
Contributor(s): Dr Heinz Fischer | In spring 2010, Dr. Heinz Fischer was re-elected as Federal President of the Republic of Austria by popular vote for his second term. His political career includes Speaker of the Austrian Parliament from 1990-2002, various posts in the Austrian Social Democratic Party, the Party of European Socialists, MP as well as a ministerial post. President Fischer is also a professor of political science at Innsbruck University and has published widely including on legal issues.
Contributor(s): Professor Andrew Oswald | Herd behaviour is often natural and individually rational, but it has the potential to be disastrous for the group. In this lecture, Andrew Oswald will discuss human herd behaviour and its links to 'keeping up with the Joneses'. Andrew Oswald is professor of economics at Warwick University, a visiting fellow at IZA Bonn and an editor of the journal Science.
Contributor(s): Professor Leo Panitch | This lecture marks the 50th anniversary of Ralph Miliband's first major work, the hugely influential Parliamentary Socialism: a study in the politics of Labour. What can Miliband's arguments tell us about contemporary British politics and the modern Labour Party? Leo Panitch is Distinguished Research Professor at York University (Canada) and a renowned political economist, Marxist theorist and co-editor of the Socialist Register, who knew Ralph Miliband well.
Contributor(s): Brian Whitaker, Roger Hardy, Marwan Bishara, Dr Ramy Aly | A panel of seasoned journalists who have covered the Middle East extensively during their careers will critically reflect on the media coverage of the Arab uprisings. Why did reporters miss the build-up and tension which led to the Arab Spring? Have news stories exaggerated the role of social media? Are there wider questions that the coverage of the uprisings raise for reporting more generally? Dr Ramy Aly is lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Sussex and co-founder of the 'Public Service Broadcasting Initiative' (Egypt) and Head of its Research and Editorial Unit. He has contributed research on transnational Arab media and changing political cultures in the EU at the LSE as well as research on Arabic language media at the Open University and CRESC. Brian Whitaker has been a journalist for the British newspaper The Guardian since 1987 and its Middle East editor from 2000-2007. He is currently an editor on the paper's "Comment Is Free". He runs a personal, non-Guardian-related website, Al-Bab.com, about politics in the Arab world. Roger Hardy was for over twenty years a Middle East and Islamic affairs analyst with the BBC World Service. He is the author of The Muslim Revolt: A Journey through Political Islam (Hurst, 2010). He has come to LSE after six months in Washington, DC, at the Woodrow Wilson Center, where he was a public policy scholar researching the 'war of ideas' (under the Bush and Obama administrations). Marwan Bishara is Al Jazeera's senior political analyst. He was previously a professor of International Relations at the American University of Paris. An author who writes extensively on global politics, he is widely regarded as a leading authority on the Middle East and international affairs. Dr Myria Georgiou teaches at the Dept. of Media and Communications, LSE. She has a PhD in Sociology (LSE), an MSc in Journalism (Boston University) and a BA in Sociology (Panteion University, Athens) and her research focuses on the broader areas of diaspora, migration, media and identity.
Contributor(s): Professor Axel Gosseries, Paul Loach | This dialogue explores the prospects for workplace democracy - utopian ideal, or an idea whose time has come? Axel Gosseries is a professor at the Université de Louvain, UCL, and a research associate at the CPNSS, LSE. Paul Loach has been investing in, and developing, SME's for 30 years.
Contributor(s): Professor Manuel Castells | How are Social Movements shaped by the availability of horizontal communication networks based on the Internet and wireless communication? How can indignation become collective action by the connection between neural networks, digital social networks and urban networks? Which are the cultural and political consequences of these developments? Case studies in different contexts ground a theory of power and social change in the network society presented in the book Communication Power (Oxford University Press, paperback edition 2011) is to be presented in this lecture. Manuel Castells is University Professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He is a Harold Lasswell Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, as well as a fellow of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economics, a fellow of the Academia Europea, a fellow of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the British Academy.
Contributor(s): Professor Muhammad Yunus | Muhammad Yunus is to be awarded an Honorary Degree – Doctor of Science (Economics) at this ceremony. Professor Yunus will mark the occasion by giving a lecture entitled Social Business: to solve society's most pressing problems and will then take questions from the audience. Muhammad Yunus was born on 28 June 1940 in the village of Bathua, Chittagong, a seaport in Bangladesh. The third of fourteen children, he was educated at Dhaka University and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. He then served as chairman of the economics department at Chittagong University before devoting his life to providing financial and social services to the poorest of the poor. He is the founder of Grameen Bank, serving as managing director until May 2011. Yunus is the author of the bestselling Banker to the Poor. In October 2006, Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, for their efforts to create economic and social development. The trailer of Bonsai People - The Vision of Muhammad Yunus, the first film that looks at the work of Muhammad Yunus from microcredit through to social business is available using the link below.
Contributor(s): Lord Nat Wei | Lord Wei will give a lecture in memory of Lord Michael Chan, the first ever ethnic Chinese member of the House of Lords, who passed away in 2006. Nat Wei is the youngest and only ethnic Chinese peer in the House of Lords.
Contributor(s): Dr Jason McKenzie Alexander, Dr Keith Jensen, Dr Andrew Pinsent | What generates our capability to act morally? How much is it part of our basic biology? How is it socialised? Is it reasoned, emotional, or does it derive from some other source entirely? Jason McKenzie Alexander is reader in philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE. Keith Jensen is lecturer in comparative and developmental psychology at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London. Andrew Pinsent is research director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford.
Contributor(s): Andrew Dilnot | Achieving a sustainable and fair system for funding the support required by people with social care needs represents a growing challenge to governments across the world. In his address, Andrew Dilnot will introduce the rationale for the recommendations made by the independent Commission on the Funding of Care and Support set-up by the coalition government and which reported in July 2012. How do the Commission's proposals allocate responsibility between individual and the state, and why? Andrew Dilnot is Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford and a Pro Vice Chancellor of Oxford University. He was the Chairman of the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support, whose report was published in July 2011. He is the author, with Michael Blastland, of the best-selling book about numbers The Tiger that isn't, of which Rory Bremner has said 'it makes statistics far, far too interesting'. He was the founding presenter of BBC Radio 4's series on the beauty of numbers, 'More or Less' and was Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1991 to 2002. He is the chairman of the Statistics Users Forum of the Royal Statistical Society, and a trustee of the Nuffield Foundation. He has been a member of the board of the National Consumer Council and of the Office of Science and Technology Review of the use of science in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. He has served on the Social Security Advisory Committee, the Retirement Income Inquiry, the Balance of Central and Local Government Funding Inquiry, the Rowntree Committee on the future costs of long term care, the Ageing Population Foresight panel, and the Councils of the Royal Economic Society and Queen Mary and Westfield College. He is an Honorary Fellow of St John's College Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, the Swansea Institute of Higher Education and the Institute of Actuaries, and holds an Honorary Doctorate from City University. His main research interests lie in government economic policy as it affects individuals, companies, and the wider economy. He was awarded a CBE in 2000 for services to economics and economic policy.
Contributor(s): Juan Manuel Santos Calderón | Juan Manuel Santos Calderón is President of the Republic of Colombia. Born in Bogota on August 10, 1951. He was a cadet at the Navy Academy in Cartagena; he studied Economics and Business Administration and carried out graduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Harvard University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He was Chief of the Colombian delegation before the International Coffee Organization (ICO) in London; he was the most recent Designate to the Presidency and Colombia's first Foreign Trade Minister. He has also been Finance Minister and National Defense Minister. During this last position, he was in charge of leading the implementation of the government's Democratic Security Policy. He created the Good Government Foundation (Fundación Buen Gobierno) and founded the political party Partido de la U in the year 2005, currently Colombia's largest political party. As a journalist he was a columnist and Deputy Director of the newspaper El Tiempo, he was awarded the King of Spain Prize and was president of the Freedom of Expression Commission for the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). He has published several books, among which the most significant are The Third Way, co-written with the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Check on Terror (Jaque al Terror), where he describes the most important actions against the Farc terrorist group during his tenure as head of the Ministry of Defense. On June 20, 2010, (after obtaining the largest vote during the first round of the presidential elections which took place on May 30 of the same year) at the second round of the presidential elections, he was elected President of the Republic of Colombia for the four year period between August 7, 2010 and August 7, 2014. He obtained more than 9 million votes, the highest amount obtained by any candidate in the history of Colombian democracy. During his campaign, he promised to lead a government of national unity that would carry out the transition from democratic security to democratic prosperity. President Santos is married to María Clemencia Rodríguez, with whom he has three children: Martín (21), María Antonia (19) and Esteban (16).
Contributor(s): Paulina Bozek, Vyacheslav Polonski, Christina Kerr | This is the second year of events where invited alumni share a stage with current students in a public talk. This is a unique opportunity for LSE students, staff and alumni to meet and share their experience in an informal forum. Paulina Bozek is the CEO of INENSU, a start-up game company making social and innovative games for the connected generation. Prior to founding INENSU, she was the Development Director of the Atari London Studio where she was responsible for overseeing the creative direction and team management for the development of social games and applications. Paulina spent six years at Sony as the Executive Producer of the SingStar franchise for PlayStation. SingStar has been instrumental in establishing games as popular entertainment and has achieved over $500million in revenue. Paulina started her career in games in 1999 at Ubisoft in Montreal, Canada. In 2004 Paulina was awarded the BAFTA Interactive New Talent Award. In 2005, SingStar was awarded the BAFTA Award for Originality. Paulina has an MSc in Media and Communications from the LSE (2002) and a nBA in Cultural Studies from McGill University. She is a frequent speaker at industry events on new media technology and popular culture. Vyacheslav Polonski is a Stelios Scholar and is currently in his third year in the BSc in Management at LSE. He has previously worked at the World Economic Forum, PwC and Amazon.com and founded the Strategy & Management Consulting Conference at the LSE, which became Europe's largest student conference on business strategy. Vyacheslav is also president of the LSE SU Consultancy Society and founder of the 'BusinessBattle' Trading Card Game. In 2011, he was honoured at the British Council 'International Student of the Year' Awards and was shortlisted for the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards. At the WorldStage lecture, he talked about his passion for entrepreneurship and some of the projects he has developed alongside his studies at LSE. Christina Kerr (LSE alumnus) worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers from 2002 - 2010 in the position Senior Manager for Campus Recruitment in her last two years there and now works in campus recruitment for Barclays Capital. Christina talked about what employers (not just banks!) look for in graduates and offer advice on how to make yourself more employable. Head of Recruitment and Admissions at LSE, Cath Baldwin chaired the event.
Contributor(s): Kamalesh Sharma | Kamalesh Sharma will reflect on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in October 2011, which is expected to adopt reforms that will renew the focus and increase the impact of the Commonwealth. Kamalesh Sharma is the Commonwealth secretary general. He previously served as India's high commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Contributor(s): Professor Ralf Michaels | We are witnessing a paradigmatic shift in the reality and theory of law. The new transnational law – international commercial arbitration, non-state codifications like the UNIDROIT Principles, the alleged emerging convergent legal order– cannot be safely grounded, as law has been for a long time, in the state. Yet what its foundations are, or should be, remains unclear. In this situation, a remarkable number of authors shift from rational of political argument to invocations of dreams, faith, vision, as basis for the new transnational law. Most would dismiss these invocations as purely rhetorical. But dreams, vision and faith have played a central role in the history of texts in literature and political philosophy since at least the Bible, and current authors are, even if unknowingly, placing themselves in these traditions. The new transnational law is utopian in the literal sense of the word: placeless. Once we realize this connection, we can say more about its reality and its potential. Michaels studied law at the Universities of Passau and Cambridge, U.K. While at Duke, he has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Panthéon/Assas (Paris 2), Princeton, Pennsylvania, and Toronto; he has also held senior research fellowships at Harvard and Princeton, as well as the American Academy in Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Private Law in Hamburg.
Contributor(s): Dan Sperber | Many social scientists and philosophers - John Searle in particular in The Construction of Social Reality - argue that social facts exist in virtue of being collectively recognized. I want to debunk this view and offer a truly naturalistic (but non-reductionist) alternative. I characterize social facts in terms of causal chains where the causal links are alternatively mental and environmental. I suggest a way to reconceptualise the social domain that raises new questions and allows new answers, while preserving the knowledge and competence accumulated in the traditional social sciences. Dan Sperber is a French social and cognitive scientist. He is the author numerous articles in anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and psychology and of three books: Rethinking Symbolism (Cambridge UP 1975), On Anthropological Knowledge (Cambridge UP 1985), and Explaining Culture (Blackwell 1996). He holds an emeritus research professorship at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, a recurrent visiting professorship at the Department of Philosophy of the Central European University in Budapest, and is the director of the International Cognition and Culture Institute. He is Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, Foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and member of the Academia Europaea. He has been the first laureate of the Claude Lévi-Strauss Prize in 2009.
Contributor(s): John Tirman | US author John Tirman argues that while Americans are rightly concerned about the number of US troops killed in battle, they can seem indifferent, often oblivious, to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those they fight and those they fight for. John Tirman is executive director of MIT's Center for International Studies. This lecture marks the publication of his new book The Death of Others.
Contributor(s): Professor Gilles Kepel | From the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings to their suppression in Bahrain and Syria; from civil war in Yemen and Libya to the challenges arising from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – what are the prospects for the Arab revolt(s)? Gilles Kepel is professor and chair, Middle East and Mediterranean Studies, at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).
Contributor(s): Professor Daniel Kahneman, Professor Lord Richard Layard | Two systems drive the way we think and make choices: System One is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System Two is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Over many years, Daniel Kahneman has conducted groundbreaking research into this – in his own words – "machinery of the mind". Fast thinking has extraordinary capabilities, but also faults and biases. Intuitive impressions have a pervasive influence on our thoughts and our choices. Only by understanding how the two systems work together, Kahneman shows, can we learn the truth about the role of optimism in opening up a new business, and the importance of luck in a successful corporate strategy, or the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, and the psychological pitfalls of playing the stock market. Kahneman shows where we can trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choice are made in both our business and personal lives – and how we can guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. This public conversation between Professor Kahneman and Professor Lord Layard celebrates the publication of Kahneman's new book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Daniel Kahneman is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University and a Professor of Public Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his seminal work in psychology that challenged the rational model of judgment and decision making, his ideas have had a profound and widely regarded impact on many disciplines – including economics, business, law and philosophy. Until now, he has never brought together his many years of research and thinking in one book. Richard Layard is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, where he was, until 2003, the founder-director of the Centre for Economic Performance. He now heads the Centre's Programme on Well-Being. Since 2000 he has been a member of the House of Lords.
Contributor(s): Dr Chaloka Beyani, Ignacio Llanos, Professor Sir Adam Roberts | The UN has a responsibility to protect populations from genocide and crimes against humanity, but to what effect? Experts will consider how recent events, such as those in Libya, challenge the international concept of 'Responsibility to Protect'. Chaloka Beyani is senior lecturer in law, LSE. Ignacio Llanos is counsellor of the Embassy of Chile in the UK. Adam Roberts is president of The British Academy.
Contributor(s): Brian Moore | Former England rugby player turned journalist and media commentator gives his forthright views on a whole range of topics from the failings of the England football team to the rights and wrongs of Twitter. Moore speaks out on corruption in cricket, the downward spiral of boxing, the state of British tennis, the politicization of the Ryder Cup and of course, the world of rugby. Brian will be signing copies of his book More Thoughts of Chairman Moore after the talk. Brian Moore won 64 caps for the England rugby team between 1987 and 1995, played in three Rugby World Cups and won the Grand Slam in 1991, 1992 and 1995. Originally a qualified solicitor, he writes a regular column for the Daily Telegraph and is a co-commentator for international rugby matches on BBC, and will cover the 2011 Rugby World Cup for TalkSport. His double award-winning autobiography, Beware of the Dog, was released in 2010, and was followed by The Thoughts of Chairman Moore, Vol.1, published last Christmas.
Contributor(s): Robin Harris | Drawing on his new book, The Conservatives-A History, Robin Harris will review the different styles, strengths and weaknesses of successive Conservative leaders, and analyse the problems which they and the Party faced at different junctures. He will consider whether there are lessons to be drawn from this historical experience for the present and future. Robin Harris began to work for the Conservative Party in 1978, becoming Director of the Conservative Research Department, a government political adviser and a member of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Policy Unit. When Mrs Thatcher left Downing Street, so did he, going on to assist her with books and speeches. In recent years, he has written an authoritative history of the city state of Dubrovnik and an acclaimed biography of the French statesman, Talleyrand. He is currently working on a biography of Margaret Thatcher.
Contributor(s): Laura Oldfield Ford | In this talk, artist, writer and zine maker Laura Oldfield Ford will be showing traces and relics from her psychogeographic drifts around the ruined landscapes of London's hinterlands. This event marks the publication of Laura's new book Savage Messiah. Laura Oldfield Ford, originally from Halifax, West Yorkshire, studied at the Royal College of Art and has become well known for her politically active and poetic engagement with London as a site of social antagonism. She exhibits and teaches across Europe and America.
Contributor(s): Professor John Breuilly, Professor Sir Francis Jacobs, Professor Umut Özkirimli | This series of events explores how our understanding of Europe's identity can be enhanced and developed in a new way by taking in a distinctively Turkish perspective. John Breuilly is professor of nationalism and ethnicity at the Government Department, LSE. Francis Jacobs is professor of law and Jean Monnet Professor at King's College London's School of Law. Umut Özkirimli is visiting professor, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University. This is event is jointly organised with the LSE Chair in Contemporary Turkish Studies.
Contributor(s): Sven Lindqvist | This lecture marks the centenary of aerial bombardment. More than just a military revolution, this development redrew the legal and moral boundaries between civilians and combatants and spread the theatre of war into cities and domestic spaces. Sven Lindqvist is the author of over 30 widely translated books including A History of Bombing. The lecture is part of a joint initiative of LSE Sociology and the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Contributor(s): Professor Robert H. Frank | Who was the greater economist--Adam Smith or Charles Darwin? The question seems absurd. Darwin, after all, was a naturalist, not an economist. But Robert Frank, New York Times economics columnist and best-selling author of The Economic Naturalist, predicts that within the next century Darwin will unseat Smith as the intellectual founder of economics. Frank's new book is entitled The Darwin Economy. In this conversation with Paul Mason, economics editor of BBC 2's Newsnight, Frank will argue that the reason for this is that Darwin's understanding of competition describes economic reality far more accurately than Smith's. The consequences of this fact are profound and our failure to recognize that we live in Darwin's world rather than Smith's is putting us all at risk by preventing us from seeing that competition alone will not solve our problems. The good news is that we have the ability to tame the Darwin economy. The best solution is not to prohibit harmful behaviours but to tax them. By doing so, we could make the economic pie larger, eliminate government debt, and provide better public services, all without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. That's a bold claim, Frank concedes, but it follows directly from logic and evidence that most people already accept. Robert H. Frank is an economics professor at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management and a regular "Economic View" columnist for the New York Times, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos. His books, which have been translated into 22 languages, include The Winner-Take-All Society (with Philip Cook), The Economic Naturalist, Luxury Fever, What Price the Moral High Ground?, and Principles of Economics (with Ben Bernanke).
Contributor(s): Dr Michael Spindelegger | Dr Michael Spindelegger is Vice-Chancellor of the Republic of Austria and Federal Minister for European and International Affairs. He graduated from the University of Vienna with a doctorate in law. This event is part of the LSESU Austrian Society's Global Business and Politics from an Austrian Perspective lecture series. LSE's European Foreign Policy Unit| (EFPU) based in the International Relations Department acts as a focus for research and teaching on issues relating to the steadily more serious attempts to create a collective European foreign policy since 1970.
Contributor(s): Constantine Partasides | Few aspects are as crucial in the practice of international arbitration as having the right people on the tribunal. Constantine Partasides explores both the ethic and the tactic dimension of finding the right arbitrator also with reference to Jan Paulsson's vanguard call of abolishing unilaterally appointed arbitrators. Constantine Partasides is Head of Arbitration at Freshfields London.
Contributor(s): Professor David Kynaston | David Kynaston's ground-breaking history of the City of London, published in four volumes between 1994 and 2001 and now edited into a single volume, is a modern classic. Kynaston tells a story as dramatic as any novel, while explaining the mysteries of the financial world in a way that we can all understand. Educated at Wellington College, New College, Oxford, and the LSE, David Kynaston has been a professional historian since 1973. He is now a visiting professor at the University of Sussex and at the City University Business School. Since the late 1970s his main focus has been the City of London, on which he has written widely. His books include The City of London, King Labour: a history of the British working class, 1850–1914, and Family Britain, 1951–57.
Contributor(s): Professor Norman Davies, Maurice Fraser | The history of Europe is not just the story of Britain, France and Germany. Norman Davies examines the lives and afterlives of extinguished kingdoms that no longer have advocates. Norman Davies, FBA, Professor Emeritus of London University. His latest book Vanished Kingdoms – The History of Half-Forgotten Europe will be launched at this lecture. Maurice Fraser is a Senior Fellow in European Politics at LSE.
Contributor(s): Melanie Gerlis | With China now the second or even first biggest art market in the world, this lecture looks at the emerging markets for art in India, Middle East, China, Russia and Latin America. It tracks the volume of sales, the main collectors, museum projects and cultural infrastructrure. Melanie Gerlis has been art market editor of The Art Newspaper since June 2007, prior to which she worked as a book reviewer and art market writer for the paper for a year. She previously worked for ten years in investor relations and financial public relations for the City of London firm Finsbury where she advised clients including the investment bank Merrill Lynch, the private equity group Permira and hedge fund managers GLG Partners. Melanie has a first-class degree in English Literature from Clare College, Cambridge and an MA (distinction) in Art Business from Sotheby's Institute of Art, London. She lectures at Sotheby's Institute and Christie's Education.
Contributor(s): Stephen Perry | Stephen Perry will discuss the early days of the 48 Group, the oldest Western trading partners with the People's Republic of China, and doing business with China today. Stephen Perry is the chairman of the 48 Group Club.
Contributor(s): Erkki Tuomioja | Minister Tuomioja will outline his views on international security challenges and the responses that are urgently needed. He will comment on the state of the European Union and argue for a new, comprehensive foreign and security policy strategy for the EU. He will also set out the prospects for the further deepening of Nordic co-operation. Erkki Tuomioja is Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs, a position he has held since June 2011. He previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2000-2007, and Minister of Trade and Industry from 1999-2000. He was a member of parliament for the Social Democratic Party from 1970-79 and from 1991 to the present day, serving as vice-chairman of the SDP parliamentary group from 1991-96, and chairman from 1996-99. He worked as a journalist before being elected to parliament. He was Deputy Mayor in Helsinki 1979-91. He has a PhD in political science, BSc in economics and holds a lectureship in political history in the University of Helsinki. Mr Tuomioja is the author of 18 books, including Europe and the Nordic Fringe written in English and published in 1991.
Contributor(s): Roger Hardy, Jane Kinninmont | Roger Hardy is Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Studies at LSE and former Middle East and Islamic affairs analyst with the BBC World Service. Jane Kinninmont is Senior Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House.
Contributor(s): Dr John Chalcraft | Based on fieldwork conducted over the past five years, John Chalcraft will examine the Arab uprisings with a focus on popular protest and "history from below". John Chalcraft is a reader in the history and politics of Empire/Imperialism at LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Martin Kemp | Informative, funny, sad, and surprising by turns, this is the first book to look at all the main types of visual icon, taking eleven mega-famous examples, from Christ to the Coke bottle, to see how they arose and how they continue to function. Image, branding, and logos are obsessions of our age. Iconic images dominate the media. This event marks the publication of Kemp's new book Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon. Martin Kemp FBA is Emeritus Professor in the History of Art at Trinity College, Oxford University. He has written, broadcast and curated exhibitions on imagery in art and science from the Renaissance to the present day. Nick Byrne is Director of the LSE Language Centre and a member of the LSE's Arts Advisory Group.
Contributor(s): Sarah Lyall, Justin Webb | BBC Today Programme presenter and former Washington Correspondent Justin Webb in conversation with the New York Times' London correspondent and author of The Anglofiles, Sarah Lyall. How is the relationship between Britain and America changing in the era of Obama and Cameron? Is there still a unique political and cultural understanding or have we grown apart?
Contributor(s): Professor Rachel Bowlby, Professor Robert Eaglestone, Dr Sarah Wood | Marking the publication of Simon Glendinning's new book Derrida: a very short introduction, this discussion will explore Derrida's impact on English, both as a university discipline and as a national language. Rachel Bowlby is Northcliffe Professor of English at the Department of English, UCL. Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at the Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London. Sarah Wood is senior lecturer at the School of English, University of Kent.
Contributor(s): Mark Leonard | As uncertainty and insecurity in the West increase, can a drift to state capitalism and political authoritarianism be avoided? Mark Leonard is co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Contributor(s): Dr Jon Danielsson, Dr Bob Hancke, Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis, Professor Dimitri Vayanos | The panellists will each outline their analysis of the crisis, with particular emphasis on the Eurozone, and debate how it could be resolved. Their different academic backgrounds and views ranging from Political Economy to Financial Economics will provide for a wide-ranging and lively discussion set against LSE's customary sharp analysis. Dr Jon Danielsson is a reader at the Department of Finance and a member of the FMG. Dr Bob Hancke is a reader in European Political Economy at the European Institute, LSE. Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis is a senior lecturer in the Political Economy of South Eastern Europe at the Hellenic Observatory, LSE. Dimitri Vayanos is professor of finance, programme director of Paul Woolley Centre for the Study of Capital Market Dysfunctionality and a member of the FMG, LSE.
Contributor(s): Lakhdar Brahimi, Professor Mary Kaldor, Javier Solana | The event will discuss the gap between contemporary security needs and security capabilities, and will launch the new five-year research programme 'Security in Transition: an interdisciplinary investigation into the security gap'. Lakhdar Brahimi served as head of the UN assistance mission in Afghanistan from 2001-04. Mary Kaldor is professor of global governance at the Department of International Development. Javier Solana is the former secretary general of NATO and former secretary general of the Council of the European Union.
Contributor(s): George Anders | How do we recognise greatness? The world-wide hunt for talent has never been more ambitious, more systematic -- and more frustrating. It's time to redefine how we think about talent, and to come to terms with three major blind spots in the ways that most organisations hunt for superstars. Better approaches are within reach, as shown by the successful, maverick methods of the world's best talent spotters. This event marks the publication of George Anders new book The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else. George Anders is a founding member of Bloomberg View's board of editors, writing about technology, innovation and economics. He spent two decades as a top feature writer for The Wall Street Journal, where he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. He is the author of three previous books, including a New York Times bestseller. He lives in northern California.
Contributor(s): Andrew Feinstein | Pulling back the curtain on the secretive world of the global arms trade, Andrew Feinstein reveals the corruption and the cover-ups behind weapons deals ranging from the largest in history –between the British and Saudi governments – to BAE's controversial transactions in South Africa, Tanzania and eastern Europe, and the revolving-door relationships that characterise the US Congressional-Military-Industrial Complex. This event marks the publication of Feinstein's new book The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. Andrew Feinstein is the author of After the Party: A Personal and Political Journey Inside the ANC. His journalism has been featured in the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, Prospect, the New York Times, Der Spiegel, the New Statesman and Africa Report. He has recently been an Open Society Institute International Fellow and is the founding co-director of Corruption Watch.
Contributor(s): Dr David Kennedy | The UK has an aggressive plan to decarbonise its economy by 34 per cent in 2020, 50 per cent in 2027 and 80 per cent in 2050. This lecture will look at the economic, technical and policy challenges of achieving these targets. David Kennedy is chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change. He is also a visiting senior fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. This lecture is part of ESRC Festival of Social Science.
Contributor(s): Professor Nancy Cartwright | Why isn't evidence-based policy making working? This lecture looks at examples from Californian schools, the Bangladesh nutrition programme and proposals to tackle climate change. Nancy Cartwright is professor of philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE and at the University of California, San Diego.
Contributor(s): Professor Brendan O'Leary | Why do some multiethnic states break up while others hold together? Brendan O'Leary compares how federalism has maintained state integrity in Iraq with the secessionism by consent of Southern Sudan. Brendan O'Leary is the Lauder Chair in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
Contributor(s): Sir Thomas Harris | Drawing on his rich experience Sir Thomas Harris will talk about the role of a foreign bank in China. Thomas Harris is vice chairman of Standard Chartered Capital Markets Ltd.
Contributor(s): Professor Steven Pinker | One of the world's best-known psychologists argues that violence within and between societies - both murder and warfare - has declined from prehistory to today. He discusses the influence of organised government and the extraordinary power of progressive ideas - and offers insights into what this trend tells us about ourselves. Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and is the author of six books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate and The Stuff of Thought. This event marks his new book The Better Angels of our Nature: The Decline of Violence in World History and Its Causes.
Contributor(s): Professor Dani Rodrik | Emerging and developing economies have grown much more rapidly than rich countries recently. This has led to hopes that these countries can close the gap with the advanced economies and propel world growth. Historically, rapid convergence on the part of lagging countries has been rare and episodic, and has required a "benevolent" global hegemon which regards "unorthodox" catch-up policies with benign neglect. On top, growth requires structural transformation policies which have been difficult for countries with comparative advantage in natural resources to adopt. Together, these conditions suggest that much of the optimism with regard to continued high growth in the developing world is misplaced. Dani Rodrik is Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy at John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is one of the world's top economists, well known for his original and prescient analyses of globalisation and economic development. His latest book is The Globalization Paradox.
Contributor(s): Professor Asaf Savas Akat, Professor Fikret Senses | An interactive public debate on Turkish economy, its past, present, and future prospects.
Contributor(s): Judge Patrick Robinson | Since its establishment in 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has irreversibly changed the landscape of international humanitarian law and provided victims an opportunity to voice the horrors they witnessed and experienced. Patrick Robinson is president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Contributor(s): Professor Arie Kruglanski | Using research on terrorist organisations in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and the Middle East, Professor Kruglanski illuminates some of the sociopsychological mysteries around radicalisation and de-radicalisation. Arie Kruglanski is Distinguished University Professor at Maryland University and is an expert on the psychology of terrorism.
Contributor(s): Francis Salway | One of the industry's most influential figures will give his views on the vital importance of property developers in strained economic times. Francis Salway is chief executive of Land Securities, Britain's largest commercial property company.
Contributor(s): Douglas Alexander MP, Professor Sumantra Bose | UK forces have been in Afghanistan for over a decade but Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander MP will argue that it will be Britain's relations with Pakistan that will dominate Britain's focus on the region in the coming decade. Given the multiple challenges facing Pakistan new thinking and new energy is needed to redefine Britain's security, development and diplomatic relations with this country. Douglas Alexander MP is Shadow Foreign Secretary and Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South. Between May 2001 – May 2010 he served in a wide range of ministerial positions including as Secretary of State for Transport, Secretary of State for Scotland including from 2007 to 2010 as Secretary of State for International Development. He served as UK's Governor to the World Bank between June 2007 and May 2010. Prior to entering Parliament in 1997, he qualified and practiced as a lawyer in Scotland.
Contributor(s): Nemat Shafik | Nemat Shafik is the Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, a position she has held since April 2011. Prior to this Nemat was Permanent Secretary of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). She was chief executive of the department responsible for all UK development efforts including a bilateral aid programme in over 100 countries, multilateral policies and financing for the United Nations, European Union and international financial institutions, and overall development policy and research. Before her appointment as Permanent Secretary, she was Director General for Country Programmes where she was responsible for DFID's programmes across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Nemat Shafik was the youngest ever Vice President at the World Bank where she was responsible for a private sector and infrastructure portfolio of investments worth about $50 billion. She led the Bank's work on energy, water, transport and urban sectors, private sector development as well as infrastructure economics and finance. Prior to this, she held a number of appointments at the World Bank working on macroeconomic and structural reform issues in the Middle East and North Africa, in Central Europe, on the environment, and on international economic issues including global economic modelling and forecasting. She has held a number of academic appointments at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Economics Department at Georgetown University. Ms Shafik attained her BA in Economics and Politics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and her MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She also holds a DPhil in Economics from St. Antony's College, Oxford University. She has authored, edited, and co-authored a number of books, including Prospects for the Middle East and North African Economies: from Boom to Bust and Back?, Challenges Facing Middle Eastern and North African Countries: Alternative Futures, and Reviving Private Investment in Developing Countries. She has also written articles for a number of publications, including Oxford Economic Papers, Colombia Journal of World Business, The Middle East Journal, Journal of African Finance and Economic Development, World Development, and the Journal of Development Economics. She was named "Woman of the Year" for Global Leadership and Global Diversity in 2009.
Contributor(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | At once a freedom fighter, social reformer and environmental thinker, Mahatma Gandhi's ideas were original and controversial. Though much criticised, Ghandi's life and work continue to illuminate the major social and political debates of our time. Ramachandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-12.
Contributor(s): Professor Fawaz Gerges | Al-Qaeda has degenerated into a fractured, marginal body kept alive largely by the self-serving, anti-terrorist bureaucracy it helped to spawn. Professor Gerges' new book, The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda, will be launched at this event. Fawaz Gerges is director of the Middle East Centre and professor of Middle East politics and international relations at LSE.
Contributor(s): Dr Melissa W Wright | Since 2006, when Mexico's President declared war against the drug trade, the people of the northern Mexican border city, Ciudad Juarez, have been living through a record-breaking escalation of violence, the occupation of their city by federal troops and police forces, unprecedented human and civil rights violations, and a pervasive experience of fear in public space. These events have occurred simultaneous to a devastating economic crisis and with the ongoing femicide that activists have fought for almost 20 years. This paper asks the question: How can a feminist and Marxist geographer contribute to an analysis of what is happening in Ciudad Juarez? To address it, I create a dialogue among activists in northern Mexico and post-structuralist feminist and Marxist positions regarding the meaning of public fear in this city for the city's residents, for Mexico's democracy and for the making of public knowledge about the Mexico-US border. Melissa Wright is Associate Professor of Women's Studies at Penn State University. She studies the dynamics linking political, cultural and economic processes. Her research is based primarily in Mexico and along the Mexico-U.S. border. She has also conducted fieldwork in southern China and in Hong Kong. Her research has focused on the emergence of an international social movement that protests violence against women along the Mexico-U.S. border. Another project has examined the meaning of citizenship in a transnational context. Her current project focuses on how violence in northern Mexico along with the federal militarization of urban space has affected public life along both sides of the Mexico-US border.
Contributor(s): Professor Philip Goodchild, Professor Sevket Pamuk, Dr Waltraud Schelkle | This series of events explores how our understanding of Europe's identity can be enhanced and developed in a new way by taking in a distinctively Turkish perspective. Philip Goodchild is professor of religion and philosophy at the University of Nottingham. Sevket Pamuk is chair of Contemporary Turkish Studies at the European Institute, LSE. Waltraud Schelkle is senior lecturer in political economy at the European Institute, LSE and adjunct professor in the Economics Department at the Free University of Berlin. This event is jointly organised with the LSE Chair in Contemporary Turkish Studies.
Contributor(s): Dr Max Price | South Africa was one of the most unequal countries in the world in 1994, with the lines drawn clearly along the racial divide. Since then, the democratic governments have pursued policies aimed at reducing inequality through economic development with relatively high rates of growth throughout most of the period, the provision of over 3 million low cost houses, massive investment in electrification and sanitation in poor areas, land restitution, the creation of a large welfare grant system, and policies on free health care, education, minimum wages and constitutional court rulings forcing government to extend the socio-economic rights prescribed in the constitution. And yet, household surveys and other data sources suggest that inequality in South African society may even have increased. So what is going on? Max Price is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. Previous to his appointment he was an independent consultant in the fields of public health, health policy, medical education, and human resources for health planning, as well as consultant to the national Department of Education regarding financing of tertiary education of health professionals. Dr Price has a strong transformation record, built primarily during his tenure as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand from 1996 to 2006. He has an MBBCh degree from the University of the Witwatersrand which he obtained in 1979; a BA PPE (Oxon 1983); an M.Sc in Community Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and a Diploma in Occupational Health from Wits. A former Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Four Outstanding Young South Africans Award winner (1992), and Student Representative Council president, Dr Price's professional work has included clinical work in hospitals and rural primary health care; he was a research fellow in health economics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine from 1986 to 1987; a senior researcher at the Centre for Health Policy and Director of the Centre for Health Policy at Wits University as well as a visiting Takemi Fellow in International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health from 1994 to 1995. Dr Price has published extensively including 38 local and international refereed journal articles, over 100 other articles, and academic conference papers in health systems research, political economy of health; health economics and financing; privatisation and medical aids; rural health services; computer simulation modelling of health systems; medical education and human resources.
Contributor(s): Professor Kevin Anderson | This lecture is part of the LSE Department of International Development Friday Lecture Series, which brings in leading figures from inside and outside of academia to speak on important current issues. A question and answer session will follow the talk. Kevin Anderson is professor of energy and climate change in the School of Mechanical, Aeronautical and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester. He has recently finished a two-year position as director of the Tyndall Centre, the UK's leading academic climate change research organisation, during which time he held a joint post with the University of East Anglia.
Contributor(s): Alex Steffen | Alex Steffen uses real-world examples and big-picture research to show us that a brighter, greener future is ours to choose. His most recent work is Carbon Zero, a book describing cities that create prosperity not climate change, accelerating their economies while reducing their climate emissions to zero.
Contributor(s): Professor Richard Rumelt | Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of any leader. Richard Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate motherhood and apple-pie values and fluffy packages of buzzwords with "strategy." Richard Rumelt is the Harry and Elsa Kunin Professor of Business and Society at UCLA Anderson.
Contributor(s): Tom Burke, Avinash Persaud | The event will focus on two key questions: Has the economic crisis irrevocably undermined the world’s chances of successfully addressing climate change? Or are the investment opportunities such that the private sector can still prevent an environmental disaster? Global Policy brings together leading experts to discuss these questions as the global economy remains gripped in crisis and we head, seemingly inexorably, to a world which will be at least two degrees centigrade warmer on average. Tom Burke is founding director of E3G. Avinash Persaud is emeritus professor of Gresham College.
Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Chaplin, Alan Craig, Claire Fox, Professor Tariq Modood | Recent years have seen politicians and commentators of all stripes lining up to condemn multiculturalism. This event asks whether we are right to bury state multiculturalism, having once praised it so energetically. The debate coincides with the launch of Multiculturalism: a Christian retrieval from Theos. Jonathan Chaplin is the first director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics. Alan Craig is the leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance. Until May 2010 he also led the CPA councillors on Newham Borough Council in London. Claire Fox is director of the Institute of Ideas. Tariq Modood is director of the Centre for Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship at the University of Bristol. Jane Little is a writer and broadcaster, regularly presenting Woman's Hour, Sunday, Last Word, and The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4. After a Fulbright Scholarship at Harvard to study the relationship between religion and politics in the US she worked as a producer and reporter on The World at WGBH Boston, before returning to create the post of religious affairs correspondent at the BBC World Service.
Contributor(s): Joe Oliver | Joe Oliver, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, will discuss Canada as a reliable, responsible contributor to global energy security and economic stability. The Minister will give an overview of Canada's energy resources including the strategic importance of oil sands and current global oil demand. He will also explore trade and investment opportunities as well as highlight the importance Canada places on responsible development of energy resources. Minister Oliver was appointed Minister of Natural Resources on May 18, 2011. Prior to his election to Parliament, Minister Oliver had a career in the investment banking industry. He obtained both his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Civil Law at McGill University and was called to the Quebec Bar and later graduated with an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.
Contributor(s): Oliver Letwin MP | Michael Oakeshott famously distinguished the character of a state, as opposed to an enterprise association, as something that derives from the imposition of adverbial constraints on action rather than the adoption of social goals. Oliver Letwin will explore the extent to which this is, and the extent to which it is not, an adequate account of what we can legitimately demand from the modern liberal state. Oliver Letwin MP is Minister of State for Government Policy, responsible for providing policy advice to the Prime Minister from the Cabinet Office. Before entering Parliament as MP for West Dorset in 1997 he had a varied career encompassing being a philosophy don at Cambridge University, a member of Margaret Thatcher's Policy Unit in No.10 and a bank director. In opposition he held a number of senior Shadow Cabinet posts, including Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow Chancellor and was Chairman of the Conservative Party Policy Review between 2005-2010.
Contributor(s): Jan Paulsson | Jan Paulsson presents the essentials of international arbitration in two compact seminars of the LSE Transnational Law Project. Lecture two of two.
Contributor(s): Professor Paul Glendinning, Dr Charlotte Werndl | Chaos research has been hailed as having led to revolutionary scientific advances. This dialogue between a philosopher and a mathematician will highlight the insights gained from research about unpredictability and the evolution of mathematical ideas. Paul Glendinning is professor of applied mathematics at the School of Mathematics, University of Manchester. Charlotte Werndl is lecturer in philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.
Contributor(s): Dr Yasemin Soysal | This lecture addresses the recently intensified European debates and policies on immigrant integration in the context of the broad changes in conceptions and institutions of citizenship. Yasemin Soysal is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology, University of Essex.
Contributor(s): Professor Lord Richard Layard, Professor Lord Robert Skidelsky | In his book, Happiness (recently updated), Richard Layard argues that the best societies are those with the most happiness and the least misery. Public policy should be made on this basis. Robert Skidelsky has many reservations. They debate the issue. Richard Layard is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, where he was, until 2003, the founder-director of the Centre for Economic Performance. He now heads the Centre's Programme on Well-Being. Since 2000 he has been a member of the House of Lords. Robert Skidelsky is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three-volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, and he recently published Keynes: The Return of the Master. His forthcoming book is called How Much is Enough? The Economics of the Good Life jointly written with his son Edward Skidelsky. He was made a life peer in 1991.
Contributor(s): Professor Madawi Al- Rasheed | While neighbouring countries have seen unprecedented popular protests, Saudi Arabia has so far avoided a major show of discontent. But there are signs of domestic turbulence on the horizon. Madawi Al-Rasheed is professor of social anthropology at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London.
Contributor(s): Dr Gus Hosein, Mark Selby | New LSE research on Oyster Cards and other applications of near field communication technologies shows how the economics and acceptability of mobile transaction systems impact business and governance practices. But some critical questions need to be considered sooner rather than later. Gus Hosein is visiting senior fellow in the Information Systems and Innovation Group in LSE's Department of Management. Mark Selby is vice president of Industry Collaborations at the Nokia Corporation. Jonathan Liebenau is a reader in technology management in the Department of Management and author of Banking on Innovation: modernisation of payment systems.
Contributor(s): Professor Grzegorz W Kolodko | A key architect of Poland's successful economic reforms, Grzegorz Kolodko applies his far-reaching knowledge to the past and future of the world economy. Grzegorz Kolodko is professor of political economy at Kozminski University in Warsaw and was previously Poland's deputy prime minister.
Contributor(s): Herta von Stiegel | Herta von Stiegel presents The Mountain Within, the book and award-winning documentary, telling the story of her climb up Kilimanjaro with 28 disabled climbers. She shares the leadership lessons she learned from this experience, as well as her 25 years in international finance; lessons of enormous value for aspiring business leaders, women in business, and all of us seeking wisdom and clarity in today's turbulent changing world. Herta von Stiegel established Ariya Capital in 2008 to focus on Africa as the next major opportunity for sustainable venture and private equity investments. She has 25 years of experience in international finance and has led debt and equity transactions in excess of $10 billion. She was MD at AIG Financial Products, where she built a successful European structured finance division, and has also held senior positions at Citibank and JP Morgan in London and New York. She is founder and chair of the Prince's Trust Women's Leadership Group, member of the Women's Leadership Board at Harvard University and serves on the board of the Committee of 200, an organisation of the world's most successful women entrepreneurs and corporate leaders.
Contributor(s): Gary Gensler | In this seminar hosted by the LSE Financial Markets Group, Gary Gensler discusses derivatives reform as well as issues relating to high-frequency trading. Gary Gensler was sworn in as the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on May 26, 2009. Chairman Gensler previously served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury as Under Secretary of Domestic Finance (1999-2001) and as Assistant Secretary of Financial Markets (1997-1999). He subsequently served as a Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Senator Paul Sarbanes, on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reforming corporate responsibility, accounting and securities laws. As Under Secretary of the Treasury, Chairman Gensler was the principal advisor to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and later to Secretary Lawrence Summers on all aspects of domestic finance. The office was responsible for formulating policy and legislation in the areas of U.S. financial markets, public debt management, the banking system, financial services, fiscal affairs, federal lending, Government Sponsored Enterprises, and community development. In recognition of this service, he was awarded Treasury's highest honour, the Alexander Hamilton Award. Prior to joining Treasury, Chairman Gensler worked for 18 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was selected as a partner; in his last role he was Co-head of Finance. Chairman Gensler is the co-author of a book, The Great Mutual Fund Trap, which presents common sense investment advice for middle income Americans.
Contributor(s): Paulo Portas | In this lecture Paulo Portas, Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs will speak about the financial crisis in the Eurozone, the implementation of the financial assistance programme by Portugal, the Portuguese external policy and the new opportunities offered by the Arab Spring. Paulo Portas is the Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs, a position he has held since the general election in June 2011. He is also President of the Christian-Democrat CDS/PP Party which is a partner in the coalition government. He has been elected as an MP six times, and has previously served as: Minister of State, National Defence and Sea Affairs in 2004; Minister of State and National Defence in 2002; and Member of the Council of State (2002 to 2005). Mr Portas graduated in law at the Portuguese Catholic University.
Contributor(s): Jan Paulsson | Jan Paulsson presents the essentials of international arbitration in two compact seminars of the LSE Transnational Law Project. Lecture one of two.
Contributor(s): Michael Ward, Jonathan Derbyshire, Professor David Piachaud, Stephen Timms MP | Tackling poverty and inequality is at the heart of progressive politics. But what can history tell us about the struggle for a fairer society, and where does the work of Beatrice Webb, the co-founder of LSE and advocate of the welfare state, fit in? Jonathan Derbyshire is the culture editor of the New Statesman. Professor David Piachaud is Professor of Social Policy at LSE. Stephen Timms is MP for East Ham and shadow minister for employment. Michael Ward is a Smith Institute Research Fellow and chairman of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies.
Contributor(s): Professor Martin Cave | Google has been running into trouble with competition authorities in Europe, the US and elsewhere. Should its wings be clipped or will that stifle innovation? Martin Cave is BP Centennial Professor at LSE and has authored numerous works on regulation.
Contributor(s): Professor Ian Goldin | Migration has played a critical role in human history--the circulation of ideas and technologies has benefited communities and the movement of people across oceans and continents has fuelled economies. In this lecture which draws on the issues raised in the book Exceptional People Ian Goldin shows how migrants in today's world connect markets, fill labour gaps, and enrich social diversity. Migration also allows individuals to escape destitution, human rights abuses, and repressive regimes. Goldin argues that current migration policies are based on misconceptions and fears about migration's long-term contributions and social dynamics and looks at ways that future policies might allow societies to effectively reap migration's opportunities while managing the risks of the twenty-first century. This event celebrates Goldin's latest book Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future. Ian Goldin is director of the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, and professorial fellow at Balliol College, Oxford. Goldin was Vice President of the World Bank (2003-2006) and prior to that the Bank's Director of Development Policy (2001-2003). He served on the Bank's senior management team, and was directly responsible for its relationship with the UK and all other European, North American and developed countries. Goldin led the Bank's collaboration with the United Nations and other partners. As Director of Development Policy, Goldin played a pivotal role in the research and strategy agenda of the Bank. From 1996 to 2001 he was Chief Executive and Managing Director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and served as an adviser to President Nelson Mandela. His many books include Globalization for Development. Born in South Africa, Goldin has a BA (Hons) and a BSc from the University of Cape Town, an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Doctorate from the University of Oxford.
Contributor(s): William J. Bratton | From Tottenham to global terrorism, developing policies and implementing schemes that work across the range of fighting neighbourhood violence to combating international terrorism share common themes. Bill Bratton, CBE, will discuss his ideas about policing with purpose and collaborating to create a more secure future. William J. Bratton is the Chairman of Kroll the world's leading risk consulting company. He is known as one of America's premier police chiefs, the only person to have led the two largest police forces in the United States, the New York City Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department and was named by Security Magazine as one of 2010's most influential people in the security industry.
Contributor(s): Professor Danny Quah | From 1981 to 2005 China succeeded in lifting over 600 million of its citizens out of grinding poverty. What other evidence bears out the great shift east in the global economy? Danny Quah is professor of economics at LSE and senior fellow at LSE IDEAS.
Contributor(s): Professor Katalin Farkas | Our iPhones, diaries, computers or collaborators are extensions of our minds, according to a philosophical argument. This lecture investigates the significance of this claim in our understanding of the notion of a self. Katalin Farkas is professor of philosophy at the Central European University's Department of Philosophy, Budapest.
Contributor(s): Leszek Czarnecki | The lecture talks about establishing a prosperous business and seeks to present the crucial factors for success: a good idea, sound financing and a devoted team. These three ingredients working harmoniously together can make a company truly exceptional. Leszek Czarnecki is chairman of the Supervisory Board of Getin Holding SA and Getin Noble Bank SA and a majority shareholder of six companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. He is author of Simply Business and Risk in Banking: a post-crisis perspective.
Contributor(s): Ben Rogers, Professor Roger Scruton | Architecture is the most public of art-forms and has borne political, religious and moral meanings throughout history. Can architecture promote human well-being? and if so, how? Ben Rogers is director of the Centre for London think tank. Roger Scruton is a writer and philosopher, who holds visiting positions at St Andrews University, the University of Oxford and the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. With an introduction from William Arthurs.
Contributor(s): Professor Juan Cole | Juan Cole is Richard P Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan and author of the blog Informed Comment. This lecture is part of The Fred Halliday Distinguished Lecture Series.
Contributor(s): Malcolm Turnbull | The world economy is being transformed by the rise of Asia and increasing integration. Accompanying competition and adjustment pressures are a source of anxiety in many of the advanced economies, as are declining weight and influence relative to the emerging economies. But the opportunities and potential upside are larger still, and not just for commodity exporters such as Australia. Malcolm Turnbull is the MP for Wenworth in the Australian parliament and serves as Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband. He entered parliament in 2004 serving as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister from 2006 until he was appointed to Cabinet as the Minister for Environment and Water Resources; a position he held until the Federal Election in November 2007. After the election Malcolm was appointed as Shadow Treasurer and following a leadership ballot in September 2008, he was elected by his colleagues to lead the Liberal Party as Leader of the Opposition, a position held until December 2009. Malcolm graduated from Sydney University with a BA LLB. He won a Rhodes Scholarship and completed a further law degree at Oxford. During and after his studies at Sydney University, Malcolm worked as a journalist with the Bulletin, 2SM, TCN 9 and the London Sunday Times. After a successful career in journalism Malcolm began practicing law in 1980. He quickly established a reputation as an effective advocate, most notably when he successfully defended former MI5 agent Peter Wright against the British government, in the "Spycatcher" trial. Malcolm left law for business in 1987 where he has since been responsible for the establishment and success of many Australian businesses. In particular he has been a determined supporter of Australian technology. He co-founded OzEmail in 1994. His software companies have won many awards for exporting Australian technology. In 1997 Malcolm was elected to attend the Australian Constitutional Convention. He led the republican case in that Convention and in the subsequent referendum.
Contributor(s): George Bizos | George Bizos will speak about defending human rights under apartheid in South Africa, drawing on his own career as a human rights lawyer. George Bizos has had a distinguished legal career struggling against apartheid and promoting universal human rights. He has defended the likes of Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki and Morgan Tsvangirai.
Contributor(s): Professor Robert Trivers | After decades of research, one of the most influential theoretical evolutionary biologists of our time has returned to found the principles of a provocative new science on why we lie to ourselves. Robert Trivers argues that we deceive ourselves the better to deceive others. Self-deception is something we all practice and it is diverse, widespread and powerful. It can also apply to a wide range of phenomena from airplane crashes, to false historical narratives, war, and religions. Robert Trivers has been acclaimed as one of 100 greatest thinkers and scientists of the twentieth century by Time magazine and has been on the faculty at Harvard, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Rutgers University. His new book is Deceit and Self-Deception: Fooling Yourself the Better to Fool Others.
Contributor(s): Professor Richard Caplan | Currently leading a research project on 'Exit Strategies and Peacen Consolidation', Richard Caplan will analyse the lessons of the past for an exit strategy in Afghanistan. Richard Caplan is professor of international relations and official fellow of Linacre College. He is also director of the Centre for International Studies.
Contributor(s): Misha Glenny | In a world where we shop, bank, work and live online, security has become a nightmare for law enforcement agencies, as those who keep us safe on the street struggle to keep up with ever-changing nature of the online realm. All this is to advantage of the hacker, a highly intelligent and ever-morphing new breed of criminal, who can gain access to our private information through websites and servers which are not secure enough to keep them out. Misha Glenny, author of the bestselling McMafia, has spent the last three years immersed in the worlds of intelligence agencies, security forces, lawyers and that of the hackers themselves, and now brings his findings to us. This event marks the launch of Glenny's new book DarkMarket: CyberThieves, CyberCops and You. Misha Glenny is a distinguished journalist and historian. As the Central Europe Correspondent first for the Guardian and then for the BBC, he chronicled the collapse of communism and the wars in the former Yugoslavia. He won the Sony Gold Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting. The author of four books, including the acclaimed McMafia, he has been regularly consulted by the US and European governments on major policy issues and ran an NGO for three years, assisting with the reconstruction of Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo.
Contributor(s): Professor Ha-Joon Chang | Three years on since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, the world economy is struggling, with huge downward pressures on many people's living standards and sense of security. The predominant opinion is that, in order to get out of this mess, we have to cut taxes, cut welfare spending, and deregulate – so that the wealth creators can start investing and generating wealth again. But why should we so much trust in those very people, who, despite taking ever-larger share of national outputs in the last three decades, have so spectacularly failed to generate more wealth than before? If we are to overcome this crisis and build a better world, we need to part with this myth – that making rich people richer will make all of us richer – and 22 others on how we measure living standards, how we create wealth, how we pay people, how we ensure fairness, and ultimately how we cope with changes and change our future. This event marks the publication of the paperback edition of Chang's latest book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism. Ha-Joon Chang is a professor in the faculty of politics and economics at Cambridge University where he has taught since 1990. In addition to numerous articles in journals and edited volumes, he has published seven authored books (three of them co-authored) and eight edited books (six of them co-edited). His most recent books include Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World (2007), Kicking Away the Ladder - Development Strategy in Historical Perspective (2002), which won the 2003 Myrdal Prize, Restructuring Korea Inc. (with Jang-Sup Shin, 2003), Globalization, Economic Development and The Role of the State (2003), and Reclaiming Development - An Alternative Economic Policy Manual (with Ilene Grabel, 2004). His writings have been translated into 13 languages. Ha-Joon Chang has worked as a consultant for many international organisations, including various UN agencies such as UNDP (United Nations Development Program) and UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and a number of governments on development policies. He was awarded the 2005 Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.
Contributor(s): Luke Johnson | Luke Johnson will talk about how new firms and their founders create jobs and wealth, and what we can do to stimulate an enterprise economy. This event marks the publication of Luke's new book Start It Up. Luke Johnson is the Chairman of Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm he founded in 2001. For six years until 2010 he served as Chairman of Channel 4 Television, a major British broadcaster. He is Chairman/part owner of the restaurant business Giraffe with 40 branches, and Chairman/owner of Patisserie Valerie, Druckers and Baker & Spice, three chains of over 70 retail patisseries. He recently took control of Bread Ltd, Britain's largest artisan baker, including the retail bakery Gail's. As Chairman and majority shareholder of Signature Restaurants he built up the Strada 75 branch restaurant chain and owned various classic London restaurants including The Ivy, Le Caprice and J Sheekey. Previously he was Chairman of PizzaExpress PLC. During his involvement the share price rose from 40p to over 800p. In the 1980s he worked as a stockbroking analyst for Kleinworts. He co-founded the largest UK chain of dental surgeries, Integrated Dental Holdings, which was sold for over £100m after ten years of ownership. He wrote a business column in The Sunday Telegraph between 1998 and 2006, and now writes a weekly essay in The Financial Times. In 2009 he became the Chairman of The Royal Society of Arts. He graduated in medicine from Magdalen College, Oxford University.
Contributor(s): Professor Stephen Jenkins, Professor Simon Burgess, Professor John Hills | Stephen Jenkins launches his book, Changing Fortunes: income mobility and poverty dynamics in Britain, a comprehensive and original study of how people's incomes change between one year and the next. Stephen Jenkins is professor of economic and social policy at LSE. John Hills is professor of social policy and director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE. Simon Burgess is professor of economics and director of the Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO), University of Bristol. This event is supported by the ESRC Research Centre on Micro Social Change at ISER, University of Essex.
Contributor(s): Sergio Cabral, N K Singh, Professor Tony Venables | Urban areas are the most productive parts of the developing world, yet concentrated urban poverty presents some of the biggest policy challenges. This debate will address the potential and the challenges of economic development in urban areas. Sergio Cabral is Governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro. N K Singh is a member of the Indian Parliament. Tony Venables is professor of economics at Oxford University. This event is part of the International Growth Centre's Growth Week, a unique three-day conference taking place between 19 and 21 of September at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Growth Week is the annual conference of the IGC, based at the London School of Economics. It brings together the IGC's international network of scholars, institutional partners and policy makers in partner countries in Africa and South Asia for three days.
Contributor(s): Imran Khan | Born only five years after Pakistan was created in 1947, Imran Khan has lived his country's history. Pakistan now stands alone as the only Islamic country with a nuclear bomb, yet it is unable to protect its people from the carnage of regular bombings from terrorists and its own ally, America. Now, with the revelation that Pakistan has been the hiding place of Osama bin Laden for several years, that relationship can only grow more strained. How did it reach this flashpoint of instability and injustice with such potentially catastrophic results for Pakistan? In this talk he will discuss his new book Pakistan: A Personal History providing a unique insider's view of a country unfamiliar to a western audience. Imran Khan was born in 1952 and grew up playing cricket in Lahore, Pakistan. He played his first international match for his country in 1971. In 1972, he began his studies at Oxford University, where he was a contemporary of Benazir Bhutto. He went on to play cricket for Pakistan until 1992, and was captain of the team from 1982. In 1994 he established a hospital in Pakistan offering free cancer treatment to the poor and is in the process of setting up a second. He also founded Namal College (2007), the only private sector university outside the cities. In April 1996 Imran Khan established his own political party, the Tehreek-e-Insaf, which aims to bring good governance and social justice to the people of Pakistan, and make Pakistan a just and humane society.
Contributor(s): Professor John Sutton | Good advice for governments intervening to promote industrial development can only come from a detailed understanding of countries' industrial capabilities, and institutional frameworks. The aim of the "Enterprise Map" project is to provide this information. John Sutton is a professor of economics at LSE. This event is part of the International Growth Centre's Growth Week, a unique three-day conference taking place between 19 and 21 of September at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Growth Week is the annual conference of the IGC, based at the London School of Economics. It brings together the IGC's international network of scholars, institutional partners and policy makers in partner countries in Africa and South Asia for three days.
Contributor(s): Professor Paul Collier, Sushil Kumar Modi | Getting fragile states on a path of sustainable economic growth is currently a key policy imperative. This session will discuss ways of breaking out of a political equilibrium that creates state fragility and creating one that generates sustained economic growth. Paul Collier is director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies, Oxford University. Sushil Kumar Modi is deputy chief minister of Bihar, India. This event is part of the International Growth Centre's Growth Week, a unique three-day conference taking place between 19 and 21 of September at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Growth Week is the annual conference of the IGC, based at the London School of Economics. It brings together the IGC's international network of scholars, institutional partners and policy makers in partner countries in Africa and South Asia for three days.
Contributor(s): Nick Clegg MP | Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister. Nick Clegg was born in Buckinghamshire in 1967, the third of four siblings. He studied Social Anthropology at Cambridge and continued his post-graduate education at the University of Minnesota and the College of Europe in Bruges. After a brief spell in journalism, Nick worked on international aid programmes and trade policy at the European Commission. He was elected MEP for the East Midlands in 1999 and served as Trade and Industry spokesman for the European Liberal Democrat and Reform group until his decision to step down from the European Parliament to focus on domestic politics in 2004. Nick has contributed to a large number of articles and books, including on education, European Union reform, and trade liberalisation. He worked as a business consultant and part time university lecturer before his election as MP for Sheffield Hallam in 2005. In Parliament, Nick served as the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Europe (2005-6), Shadow Home Secretary (2006-7) before becoming Leader in 2007. In May 2010 Nick Clegg became Deputy Prime Minister and Lord President of the Council in the coalition government. Tony Travers is Director of LSE London and a visiting professor at the Department of Government at LSE.
Contributor(s): Jason Burke | Throughout the 1990s a vast conflict was brewing. Jason Burke was a first-hand witness of many of the conflict's key moments, and he cuts through the myth and debunks the screaming headlines to reveal the reality for those ordinary people whose lives have changed forever. Drawing together the complex and chaotic events of this vast conflict, Jason Burke explains this still ongoing war and outlines the course it is likely to take in the years to come. In 15 years as a foreign correspondent for the Guardian and Observer, Jason Burke has reported on many of the key events in the Middle East and South Asia. He is the author of two widely praised books, Al-Qaeda and On the Road to Kandahar, the former of which is widely recognised as the first book to accurately asses the terrorist group. His latest book The 9/11 Wars is published by Penguin.
Contributor(s): Carne Ross | In his new book The Leaderless Revolution, former diplomat Carne Ross offers a compelling new vision of what’s wrong with contemporary politics and how to put it right. In a bold and original analysis of world affairs today, Ross develops a unique new philosophy of political action and personal liberation, drawing on traditions of anarchism and cosmopolitanism, as well as his own personal experience of political crisis and conflict. Carne Ross is a former British diplomat, author and journalist. Having resigned from the British foreign service after giving secret testimony to an official inquiry into the Iraq war, he then set up the world's first independent diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat, which advises marginalised countries and groups around the world. His book, The Leaderless Revolution: How Ordinary People Will Take Power And Change Politics in the 21st Century, is published by Simon & Schuster on 1st September.
Contributor(s): Herman Van Rompuy | In this speech, the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, will draw the political lessons from the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone. To what extent do the 17 countries sharing a single currency -- and the 27 sharing the world's largest market -- need to move forward together? The speech will be followed by a Q & A session. Herman Van Rompuy is the first long-term president of the European Council. Trained as an economist and philosopher at Louvain University, President Van Rompuy served as Belgian's Prime-Minister (2008-2009), Speaker of the Belgian Lower House (2007-2008) and Budget Minister (1993-1999).
Contributor(s): Professor Gary Sick | Keynote speech by Gary Sick, the final session from the Arab-Iranian Relations: Discourses of Conflict and Cooperation Conference, organised the LSE Middle East Centre.
Contributor(s): Donald Kohn | Donald Kohn is a member of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee which identifies, monitors, and takes action to remove or reduce systemic risks with a view to protecting and enhancing the resilience of the UK financial system. As the former vice chairman of the US federal reserve, Mr Kohn is an expert on monetary policy, financial regulation and macroeconomics. Prior to taking office as a member of the Board of Governors of the US federal reserve, he was an adviser to the Board for Monetary Policy from 2001 to 2002, secretary of the Federal Open Market Committee from 1987 to 2002, director of the Division of Monetary Affairs from 1987 to 2001, and deputy staff director for Monetary and Financial Policy from 1983 to 87. He also held several positions in the Board's Division of Research and Statistics: associate director from 1981 to 1983, chief of Capital Markets from 1978 to 1981, and economist from 1975 to 1978. Donald Kohn is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.
Contributor(s): Dr Heiner Flassbeck, Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi | Post-crisis policy challenges in the world economy will be the focus of UNCTAD´s Trade and Development Report 2011. The Report will address the question of what lessons have policymakers drawn from the crisis for reforming the international monetary and financial system and the design of macroeconomic policies. The rethinking of policies and the reshaping of the international monetary and financial system remain urgent tasks. The Report will make concrete proposals on how, and in which priority areas, to advance in strengthening regulation of the financial sector and commodity markets, reform of the international monetary system, and the reorientation of fiscal policy. Dr Heiner Flassbeck is Honorary Professor of Hamburg University and Director, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, UNCTAD secretariat. He is the leader of the team preparing the Trade and Development Report. Previously, he was the Vice-Minister of Finance in Germany and Chief Economist of the German Institute of Economic Research in Berlin. Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi is Secretary-General of UNCTAD. He began his second four-year term as Secretary-General of UNCTAD on 1 September 2009, following his unanimous confirmation by the UN General Assembly. Established in 1964, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. UNCTAD has progressively evolved into an authoritative knowledge-based institution whose work aims to help shape current policy debates and thinking on development, with a particular focus on ensuring that domestic policies and international action are mutually supportive in bringing about sustainable development.
Contributor(s): Michael Chertoff | In this lecture former US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff will address changes in home security challenges at the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and in the wake of the death of Bin Laden. This will include the new networked structure of terrorism, the increasing challenge of homegrown terrorism, and cybersecurity. As Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2005 to 2009, Mr Chertoff led the country in blocking would-be terrorists from crossing US borders or implementing their plans if they were already in the country. He also transformed FEMA into an effective organization following Hurricane Katrina. His greatest successes have earned few headlines – because the important news is what didn't happen. As co-founder and managing principal at Chertoff Group, Mr Chertoff provides high-level strategic counsel to corporate and government leaders on a broad range of security issues, from risk identification and prevention to preparedness, response and recovery. Before heading up the Department of Homeland Security, Mr Chertoff served as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Earlier, during more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, he investigated and prosecuted cases of political corruption, organised crime, corporate fraud and terrorism – including the investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Chertoff spent one year of his studies at LSE and is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1975) and Harvard Law School (1978). From 1979-1980 he served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Jr. In addition to his role at Chertoff Group, Mr. Chertoff is also senior counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, and a member of the firm's White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group.