Autumn 2010 | Public lectures and events | Video: Recent Episodes
London School of Economics and Political Science
Video files from LSE's autumn 2010 programme of public lectures and events, for more recordings and pdf documents see the corresponding audio collection.
Contributor(s): Professor James Ladyman, Professor Martha Nussbaum, Lord Rees of Ludlow, Richard Smith | James Ladyman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol and co-editor of the British Journal of the Philosophy of Science. Martha Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. Lord Rees of Ludlow is President of the Royal Society, Astronomer Royal and Master of Trinity College Cambridge. Richard Smith is a Former editor of the British Medical Journal and Director of the Ovations Institute. Mark Lawson from BBC Radio 4 and The Guardian.
Contributor(s): Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Professor Timothy Garton Ash, Professor Mary Kaldor, Amartya Sen, Maung Zarni and others | Aung San Suu Kyi, the recently released Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate, speaks live via videolink and telephone from Burma to an audience of LSE academics and students about Myanmar's generals, why they maintain power, the country's youth, and puts forward her vision for Myanmar.
Contributor(s): Professor Daniel Hausman | Preferences are the central notion in mainstream economic theory, yet economists say little about what preferences are. This talk argues that preferences in mainstream positive economics are comparative evaluations with respect to everything relevant to value or choice, and it argues against three mistaken views of preferences: (1) that they are matters of taste, concerning which rational assessment is inappropriate, (2) that preferences coincide with judgments of expected self-interested benefit, and (3) that preferences can be defined in terms of choices. Daniel Hausman is Herbert A. Simon Professor in the department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Contributor(s): Thomas Hammarberg | In a lecture marking UN International Human Rights Day, Thomas Hammarberg discusses the gap between human rights standards and realities in the EU. Thomas Hammarberg was elected Commissioner for Human Rights on 5 October 2005 by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. He took up his position on 1 April 2006, succeeding the first commissioner, Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles. Prior to his appointment, he spent several decades working on the advancement of human rights in Europe and worldwide.
Contributor(s): Professor Ranjana Khanna | More often than not, a sense of belonging to a nation or a community has been deemed or imagined positive. This talk explores how many contemporary artists use and cite different forms of technology as a way of proposing a state of unbelonging. Ranjana Khanna is a Professor of English, Literature, & Women's Studies and Margaret Taylor Smith Director of Women's Studies at Duke University.
Contributor(s): Gordon Brown | The financial crisis has held the world firmly in its grip since it began in 2007. In his three years in office, the former Prime Minister was at the centre of the world's response to the crisis. In his new book Beyond the Crash, Brown will offer an insight into the events that led to the financial downward spiral and the reactions of world leaders as they took steps to avoid further disaster. Long admired for his grasp of economic issues, Brown offers measures he believes should be adopted to secure jobs and justice. Beyond the Crash offers a unique perspective on the financial crisis as well as innovative ideas that will help create a sound economic future and will help readers understand what really has happened to our economy.
Contributor(s): Professor Nicholas Baigent | Nicholas Baigent is professor at the Institute of Public Economics at Graz University and president of the Central European Program in Economic Theory.
Contributor(s): János Martonyi | János Martonyi is the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Hungary, which assumes the Presidency of the European Union on 1 January 2011. Mr Martonyi has been Foreign Minister since May 2010. He is actively involved in politics as the President of the Free Europe Centre for European Integration of the Fidesz Hungarian Civic Union, a member of the Executive Board of the Centre for European Studies, a foundation of the European People's Party based in Brussels, a member of the Batthyány Society of Professors and a member of the advisory board of the weekly Heti Válasz. He is a permanent guest of the Fidesz presidium, a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Chairman of the Nézopont Institute, Budapest.
Contributor(s): Professor Ranjana Khanna | In "Asylum: The Concept and the Practice," Professor Khanna will analyse conceptual links among different sites designated by the term "asylum." Extending insights concerning one institutional setting (the mental asylum) to asylum's most expansive version (the nation), she will highlight the manner in which asylums are bound not only by borders but also by strict rules. Ranjana Khanna is a Professor of English, Literature, & Women's Studies and Margaret Taylor Smith Director of Women's Studies at Duke University.
Contributor(s): Jerzy Buzek, Professor Norman Davies | Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament and former prime minister of Poland, in conversation with Professor Norman Davies, author of Europe: a History and God's Playground, a History of Poland.
Contributor(s): Professor Yezid Sayigh | Professor Sayigh will examine Palestinian political dynamics, as a critical element in what will happen in the wider context of relations with Israel and of what outside powers can or should do. Yezid Sayigh is professor of Middle East Studies, King's College London. In 1990-1994 he was an advisor and negotiator in the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks with Israel, and has been a consultant on the permanent status negotiations and on Palestinian reform since 1998. His most recent publications include Policing the People, Building the State: Authoritarian transformation in the West Bank and Gaza, Carnegie Paper, 2010 (forthcoming); Hamas Rule in Gaza: Three Years On, Middle East Brief, No. 41, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, March 2010; "Fixing Broken Windows:" Security Sector Reform in Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen, Carnegie Paper, October 2009; and 'Inducing a failed state in Palestine', Survival, Vol. 49, No. 3, Autumn 2007.
Contributor(s): Lord Browne, Dr Bates Gill, Professor Mary Kaldor, Baroness Shirley Williams | London launch of the 2010 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Yearbook on Nuclear Weapons in Europe, which this year considers world military expenditure increases despite the financial crisis. Lord Browne of Ladyton is convenor of the Top Level Group. He served as parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office 2001-03; Secretary of State for: Defence 2006-08, Scotland 2007-08 and was the Prime Minister's Special Envoy to Sri Lanka 2009. Bates Gill is director of SIPRI. Mary Kaldor is co-director of LSE Global Governance. Shirley Williams served as adviser on Nuclear Proliferation to prime minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. She served as leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 2001-2004. She is also Professor Emerita of Electoral Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Contributor(s): Professor Christian Ingo Lenz Dunker, Professor Stephen Frosh, Professor Ian Parker | This debate will discuss this use of psychoanalytic thought, and its limitations, with reference to the world of politics, social psychology, philosophy and psychosocial studies. Christian Ingo Lenz Dunker is a professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology of the University of São Paulo, and a practising psychoanalyst. Stephen Frosh is the pro-vice master and head of the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College. Ian Parker is professor of psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Contributor(s): Professor Derek Gregory | Professor Gregory discusses the evolving character of conflicts in the borderlands of former empires and the blurring of the conceptual borders of war itself. Derek Gregory is professor of geography, University of British Columbia, and author of The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq.
Contributor(s): Howard Wolpe | Ambassador Wolpe will comment on the Obama Administration's Africa policy and its perceptions of the continent's place in the international community today. Howard Wolpe is former special envoy to the Great Lakes Region for President Barack Obama. Dr Chris Alden is Co-Head of the Africa International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS. Michael Cox is Professor of International Relations at the Department of International Relations at LSE.
Contributor(s): Dame Janet Gaymer | Law aspires to independence, and the value of the rule of law is closely associated with that independence. This is the final event in the Independence of Law? lecture series. Janet Gaymer is commissioner for public appointments in England and Wales and former senior partner of Simmons & Simmons.
Contributor(s): Dr Dana H. Allin | Dr. Allin will speak on the tangle of Middle East crises: Iran's growing nuclear challenge, the impasse on Israel-Palestine, and the consequences of both for President Obama's efforts to recast America's relations with the world's Muslims. This event marks the publication of Dr Allin's latest book The Sixth Crisis: Iran, Israel, America, and the Rumors of War. Dana H. Allin is Editor, Survival, and Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy and Transatlantic Affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. He is also Adjunct Professor of European Studies at the Bologna Center of the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University.
Contributor(s): Daniel Finkelstein, Professor Roger Scruton | The newly reinvigorated Tories describe themselves as liberal, progressive, and even radical. But these ideas have long been an anathema to conservative thinkers. Are the new Conservatives really conservative? Daniel Finkelstein is executive editor and chief leader writer at The Times and is an LSE alumnus. Roger Scruton is resident researcher at the American Enterprise Institute and visiting professor in philosophy, Oxford University.
Contributor(s): Professor John Quiggin | The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism--the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe. The crisis seemed to have killed off these ideas, but they still live on in the minds of many-- even some of those charged with cleaning up the mess. John Quiggin explains how these dead ideas still walk among us--and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid an even bigger financial crisis in the future. John Quiggin is professor of economics at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Contributor(s): Professor Jan Paulsson, Alexis Mourre | Jan Paulsson's recent paper on "Moral Hazard in International Arbitration" questioning the usefulness of having parties themselves appoint "their" arbitrators has stirred much controversy and will be challenged at this event by Alexis Mourre. Prof. Paulsson is Centennial Professor of Law at LSE, co-head of the international arbitration practice of Freshfields LLP and one of the world's leading arbitrators. Alexis Mourre is partner at Castaldi Mourre & Partners in Paris and a leading French specialist in international arbitration.
Contributor(s): Professor Niall Ferguson | Although never a "hot" war between the superpowers, the Cold War was waged partly through a series of proxy wars in Third World countries from Guatemala to Korea to Vietnam. Although a great deal of attention has been devoted to a select number of U.S. Interventions in the Third World, there is an urgent need to see the "Third World's War" in perspective, showing how successful the Soviet Union was in pursuing a strategy of fomenting revolution and how consistently successive U.S. administrations behaved in response. Professor Niall Ferguson is the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Contributor(s): Dr Danilo Türk | Dr Danilo Türk is President of the Republic of Slovenia. Dr Türk assumed the position of Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Nations in 1992. Following the successful conclusion of Slovenia's term (from 1998 to 1999) as non-permanent member of the Security Council, Mr Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Organisation, appointed Dr Türk as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs. For more than five years his tasks included analytical and consulting activity relating to the crisis situations of the time. After thirteen years in New York Dr Türk returned to Slovenia in the summer of 2005. He resumed teaching International Law and related subjects at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, from May 2006 he served as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law. On 11 November 2007 he was elected President of the Republic of Slovenia by 68,03% votes and was inaugurated in the National Assembly on 22 December 2007.
Contributor(s): Alan AtKisson | Coinciding with the reprint of Alan’s classic book, this event will look at how to build a bridge over the sea of despair, and show how to catch the wave to an enticing, sustainable future. Alan will discuss the pioneers who created the ideas, techniques and practices of sustainable living - the people who prove Cassandra's warnings wrong, by believing in them, and taking strategic action. Alan AtKisson is president and CEO of The AtKisson Group, an international sustainability consultancy to business and government.
Contributor(s): Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh | A decade after the groundbreaking Runnymede Trust 'Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain' report, its chair, Lord Parekh, revisits the issues of race equality and multiculturalism in Britain. Bhikhu Parekh is emeritus fellow of political theory at the University of Hull and a fellow of the British Academy.
Contributor(s): Dr Simon Glendinning | Simon Glendinning is reader in European philosophy at the European Institute, LSE, and director of the Forum for European Philosophy.
Contributor(s): Dr Simeon Djankov | The recent financial crisis has uncovered several weaknesses in Europe's regulatory system. Belatedly, the European Commission has tried to fix these weaknesses with extensive new regulation, including the creation of several new institutions. Simeon Djankov Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Bulgaria will in this lecture offer an analysis of the most recent developments as well as a perspective on how the financial sector in Europe, and its regulation, will look like in the coming years.
Contributor(s): Professor Costas Markides | Lots of people did many stupid things for us to get into the current financial mess. Now, the government is stepping up efforts to impose stricter financial regulations to ensure that such things do not happen in future. Will more regulation work? If history is any guide, the answer is no. Over the last 100 years, we've had a financial crisis every 15-20 years. Every time one took place, the government would step in and impose more regulation - only for another crisis to occur 15-20 years later. Why is that? Costas Markides is the Robert P. Bauman Chair of Strategic Leadership at the London Business School.
Contributor(s): Professor Caroline Pauwels, Dr Damian Tambini | The cornerstone of European media policy, public service broadcasting has long been characterised by transitions, questioning and criticism. Now convergence, media cross-over, EU interference and new public service management theories affect its very chances of survival. Caroline Pauwels is the head of the Institute for Broadband Technologies/Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunications at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and was appointed media commissioner by the Flemish Government for the public service broadcaster VRT. Damian Tambini is a senior lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications, LSE.
Contributor(s): Babatunde Fashola | Lagos is one the fastest growing cities in Africa, and the seventh fastest growing city in the world. Governor Babatunde Fashola discusses how his administration is managing rapid urbanization and growth of this 17.5 million city, the engine of Nigeria's economy. Central to his strategy is the view that cities must pursue a bottom-up approach to solve the environmental and social challenges of the contemporary city. Babatunde Fashola is the youngest Governor of Lagos State in the History of Nigeria and a lawyer by profession.
Contributor(s): Gideon Rachman | In this lecture to mark the publication of his new book Zero-Sum World: Power and Prosperity in the Age of Anxiety, Gideon Rachman argues that the global economic crisis has changed the logic of international relations and ushered in a new and more dangerous era. This will be characterised by rising tensions between America and China and a failure to deal effectively with global problems such as climate change and nuclear proliferation. Gideon Rachman is the chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times.
Contributor(s): Brad Adams, Margo Picken, Simon Taylor | Senior leaders of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime of Democratic Kampuchea are now on trial in Cambodia for the crimes committed between 1975 and 1979 when two million people are estimated to have died. Will these trials help to break the impunity that has characterised Cambodia's recent history and which continues today? Brad Adams is executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division and is a general expert on Asia. Simon Taylor is one of three co-founder/directors of Global Witness, a London and Washington DC based NGO which investigates and campaigns to prevent natural resource-related conflict and corruption and associated environmental and human rights abuses. Margo Picken has worked in the field of human rights for much of her professional career. Most recently, she worked for the United Nations as director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia from 2001 to 2007.
Contributor(s): Vuk Jeremić, Nickolay Mladenov | 'Balkans 2020: The Ministerial Debate' marks the launch of the Balkan International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS. The foreign ministers of Bulgaria and Serbia will identify the issues the region faces today and offer their vision of the Balkans in 2020. Can present challenges endanger the region's fragile stability or, will the Balkans forever shed the infamous attribute of being the "powder keg of Europe"? Vuk Jeremić was sworn in as minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Serbia on May 15 2007. Nickolay Evtimov Mladenov was appointed minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria by the 41st National Assembly on January 27 2010.
Contributor(s): Professor David Spiegelhalter | There has been a traditional division between 'risk', which can be quantified using probability distributions, and 'uncertainty', which is the surrounding mess of doubt, disagreement and ignorance. Spiegelhalter will use examples from swine flu to climate change to illustrate different approaches to dealing with uncertainty, from ignoring it to trying to fully quantify it, and conclude that we should all try to be aware and open about the magnitude and potential consequences of our ignorance. David Spiegelhalter is Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge as well as senior scientist in the MRC Biostatistics Unit.
Contributor(s): Professor John Van Reenen | The financial crisis and the great recession dealt the global economy a massive shock. How can growth be put back on a sustainable path? What policy lessons have we learned? And how should Britain respond? John Van Reenen is professor of economics at LSE and the director of the Centre for Economic Performance.
Contributor(s): Polly Toynbee, David Walker | We've had Mandelson's memoirs, Blair's book and Brown biographies: in this lecture Polly Toynbee and David Walker look at what the Labour government in power from 1997 meant for people's lives by charting what it accomplished. Polly Toynbee is an author and a political and social commentator for the Guardian. David Walker edits Public and was formerly chief leader writer of the Independent. They are co-authors of 'The Verdict: Did Labour Change Britain?'
Contributor(s): Professor Fawaz Gerges | Fawaz A. Gerges is a Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also holds the Emirates Chair of the Contemporary Middle East and is the Director of the Middle East Centre at LSE. Gerges is author of two recently acclaimed books: Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy (Harcourt Press, 2007), and The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (Cambridge University Press, 2005). The Washington Post selected The Far Enemy as one of the best 15 books published in the field. Journey of the Jihadist was on the best-selling list of Barnes and Nobles and Foreign Affairs Magazine for several months.
Contributor(s): Raghav Bahl | After decades working with foreign investors, multinationals, and his own native government, Raghav Bahl knows that most of the world underestimates and largely misunderstands India and its potential in the global economy, particularly when set against its neighbour and economic powerhouse China. In his new book 'Superpower?' he takes a close look at who is likely to dominate the world over the next decade - India or China - and provides an incisive and in-depth analysis about the race to superpower status between the two Asian giants.
Contributor(s): Professor David Wootton | Galileo was convicted in 1633 of defending Copernicanism, but he was also seeking to undermine Christianity. Professor Wootton will show that Galileo was no Christian, and that he welcomed the idea of an infinite universe with other inhabited worlds because he wanted to show that the universe was not made for man. David Wootton is Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York, author of Bad Medicine: doctors doing harm since Hippocrates and most recently Galileo: watcher of the skies.
Contributor(s): Álvaro García Linera | The LSE IDEAS Latin America International Affairs Programme is pleased to announce a lecture by Bolivia's vice president Álvaro García Linera as part of its 2010-11 International Peace and Security in Latin America events series.
Contributor(s): Dr Paul Slovic | Dr. Slovic will describe the laboratory experiments that led to the concept of risk as feelings and illustrate some insights gleaned from this perspective for behaviours as diverse as cigarette smoking and apathy toward large scale natural and human caused disasters. Dr. Slovic studies judgment and decision processes with an emphasis on decision making under conditions of risk. His work examines fundamental issues such as the influence of affect on judgments and decisions. For further information visit Dr. Slovic's website: www.decisionresearch.org.
Contributor(s): Alexander Stubb | Alexander Stubb, Finland's Foreign Minister is a graduate of the LSE. He became Minister for Foreign Affairs in April 2008. Before that he served for four years as a member of the European Parliament.
Contributor(s): Will Hutton, Dr Christopher Davidson | Will Hutton, executive vice chair of the Work Foundation, former editor in chief of The Observer. Dr Christopher Davidson, senior lecturer at the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham University.
Contributor(s): Zoran Vujic, Zoran Jeftic, Sonja Stojanovic, Bojan Brkic | Zoran Vujic is Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs. Zoran Jeftic is Deputy Minister of Defence. Sonja Stojanovic is Director of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy. Bojan Brkic is Deputy Editor in Chief of Radio Television Serbia.
Contributor(s): Dr Michael O'Malley | When Michael O'Malley first took up beekeeping he thought it would be a nice hobby to share with his son. But he noticed that bees not only work together to achieve a common goal but, in the process, create a remarkably productive organisation. O'Malley's new book The Wisdom of Bees shows what bees can teach managers and provides insight into decision-making, communication and forward planning. This event celebrates the publication of Michael O'Malleys new book The Wisdom of Bees: What the Hive Can Teach Business about Leadership, Efficiency, and Growth.
Contributor(s): Professor Ian Clark | International relations theory is weak on how international order is managed under a preponderance of power. This lecture explores the notion of hegemony as a theoretical solution, and develops the thought of Martin Wight in this respect. Ian Clark is E H Carr Professor of International Politics at the University of Aberystwyth and a fellow of the British Academy.
Contributor(s): Dr. Steve Woolcock, Dr. Jan Kleinheisterkamp and others | The workshop will present a recent study for the European Parliament on the Commissions communication and draft Regulation on the future of investment treaty law after Lisbon, with commentators from the EU Commission, the UK government and investment arbitration practice. Dr Steve Woolcock is the director of the International Trade Policy Unit of the LSE International Relations Department. Dr. Jan Kleinheisterkamp is heading the Transnational Law Project of the LSE Law Department.
Contributor(s): Professor Scott Atran | In this lecture Scott Atran will talk about his new book Talking to the Enemy |which is a courageous exploration of one of the most contentious issues of modern times. Scott Atran asks a question that he is uniquely qualified to answer: Why would someone take their own life through suicide bombing?
Contributor(s): Satish Kumar | When he was nine Satish joined the wandering brotherhood of Jain monks. At 18, he became a campaigner for land reform, working to turn Gandhi's vision of renewed India and a peaceful world into reality. Satish Kumar is a visiting fellow at Schumacher College, a residential centre for study of ecological and spiritual values. He founded the Small School, with ecological and spiritual values in its curriculum.
Contributor(s): Vineet Nayar | Differentiation is crucial to maintaining and growing market share. But many organisations lack the courage to look inwards and discover exactly what their competitive advantage is and change accordingly. However, 5 years ago the Delhi-based IT Service provider HCL Technologies started on a change journey that identified exactly where their strengths and weaknesses lay and culminated in an entirely new management philosophy and organisational culture - one in which, for example, employees are not only accountable to managers but managers are accountable to employees. In this session Vineet Nayar explains the reasoning and methodologies and the dramatic impact the philosophy has had on company results. Vineet Nayar is Chief Executive Officer and whole time Board Director of HCL Technologies Ltd.
Contributor(s): Dr Eric Martin | Eric Martin is a fellow in the Centre for Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences, LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Paul Pierson, Professor Anton Hemerijck, Professor Julian Le Grand | The lecture and panel discussion celebrate the T H Marshall Fellowship scheme, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, which has been running for seven years. The event also launches the Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State |and will be followed by a reception. Paul Pierson has been a professor of public policy and holder of the Avice Sarint Chair of Public Policy at Berkeley since 2004. Anton Hemerijck is secretary of the Scientific Council for Government Policy in the Netherlands, and is Professor of Comparative Analysis of the European Welfare State at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. Julian le Grand is Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at LSE. Howard Glennerster is Professor Emeritus of Social Policy at LSE.
Contributor(s): José Viñals | José Viñals was appointed to the position of Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund on April 15, 2009. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Viñals was Deputy Governor at the Bank of Spain from July 2006.
Contributor(s): Professor Robert O Keohane | There is no integrated regime governing efforts to limit climate change. Instead, there is a 'regime complex'… but can this work to resolve climate change? Robert Keohane is professor of international affairs, Princeton University, and the author of After Hegemony.
Contributor(s): George Papaconstantinou | The Greek sovereign debt crisis of 2010 has received world-wide attention and has elicited unprecedented action by the European Union and its member governments as well as by the IMF. Greece is now obliged to follow the terms of the 'Memorandum' agreed with the 'bail-out' loan it has received. Is Greek economic policy on track? What are its future prospects?
Contributor(s): Professor Patrick Haggard, Dr Amber Jacobs, Professor Thomas Pink | Is freedom part of human nature? And how can freedom be both a human power and a human right? Patrick Haggard is a professor at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and in the Department of Psychology, UCL. Amber Jacobs is a lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Thomas Pink is a professor of philosophy at King's College London.
Contributor(s): Judge Sergio Gabriel Torres | Under the military government of 1976-1983, Argentina suffered massive and systematic violations of human rights, the consequences of which still linger today. Sergio Torres is a federal judge, presiding over a case that involves more than 800 incidents of illegal detentions, torture, disappearances and deaths. Chetan Bhatt is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE.
Contributor(s): Olivier Blanchard | A strong and sustained world recovery requires two rebalancing acts. Internal, with a shift, in advanced countries, from fiscal support to private demand. External, with an increase in net exports in deficit countries, notably the US, and a decrease in net exports in surplus countries, notably China. Policy should be aimed at increasing their pace. This lecture is one in a series of lectures to celebrate 21 years of the Centre for Economic Performance. Olivier Blanchard is Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department at the IMF and has worked closely with the CEP over the last 25 years.
Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Howard Davies, Professor Fawaz Gerges, Professor Christopher Hill, Professor Margot Light, Dr Justin Rosenberg | This public event is an intellectual appreciation of Professor Fred Halliday who worked at the London School of Economics and Political Science for more than 20 years and who sadly passed away in April 2010. Michael Cox is professor of international relations at LSE. Howard Davies is director of LSE. Fawaz Gerges is professor of middle eastern politics and international relations at LSE. Christopher Hill is Sir Patrick Sheehy Professor of International Relations, University of Cambridge. Margot Light is professor emeritus in the Department of International Relations, LSE. Justin Rosenberg is a reader in international relations at the University of Sussex.
Contributor(s): Will Hutton | Will Hutton discusses the issues raised in his new book 'Them and Us: politics, greed and inequality' – why we need a fair society. Will Hutton is the executive vice-chair of The Work Foundation and senior visiting fellow at LSE Global Governance.
Contributor(s): Steven Johnson | Steven Johnson has spent twenty years immersed in creative industries, was active at the dawn of the internet and has a unique perspective that draws on his fluency in fields ranging from neurobiology to new media. In his new book, he identifies the key principles to the genesis of great ideas, from the cultivation of hunches to the importance of connectivity and how best to make use of new technologies. By recognising where and how patterns of creativity occur – whether within a school, a software platform or a social movement – he shows how we can make more of our ideas good ones. This event celebrates the publication of his latest book 'Where Good Ideas Come From: A Natural History of Innovation'.
Contributor(s): Saad Hariri | Saad Hariri is President of the Council of Ministers of the Lebanese Republic, a position he has held since November 2009. He is the leader of the Future Movement, which currently holds the majority in Lebanon's parliament. He entered the political domain in 2005 following the assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. Prior to politics, he held several high level roles in business as Chairman of the Executive Committee of Oger Telecom, Chairman of Omnia Holdings and a board member of Oger International Entreprise de Travaux Internationaux. Saad graduated with a degree in International Business from Georgetown University in 1992.
Contributor(s): Chris Huhne MP | In this keynote talk Chris Huhne will set out the economic need for low-carbon growth as an essential path out of recession. He will argue that the need to urgently renew and decarbonise our energy supply, and to upgrade our ageing and inefficient buildings, will not just provide an economic boost but also help to create a more balanced, resilient and sustainable British economy. Chris Huhne is Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Eastleigh since 2005.
Contributor(s): Lord Hutchinson QC, Helena Kennedy QC, Geoffrey Robertson QC | On 2nd November 1960 the jury at the Old Bailey acquitted Penguin Books of obscenity for publishing an uncensored version of D.H. Lawrence's controversial novel. Geoffrey Robertson QC and a panel explore the impact of the trial on our current laws and assumptions on freedom of expression. This event is in association with Doughty Street Chambers and English PEN.
Contributor(s): Professor Richard Bellamy, Professor Thomas Diez, Maurice Fraser | 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. Richard Bellamy is professor of political science and director of the School of Public Policy at UCL. Thomas Diez is professor of political science and international relations at the University of Tübingen. Maurice Fraser is a senior fellow in European politics at the European Institute, LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Anita J Prazmowska | When the First World War broke out many assumed that it would inevitably lead to the re-emergence of a Polish state. As the war drew to an end the battle for Poland commenced on several fronts, both diplomatic and military. In the end, an independent Polish state would bear the mark of the way Poland re-emerged, placing the importance of nationalism above the need to build a modern democratic state. Anita J Prazmowska is professor of international history at LSE. She is the author of a number of monographs on Poland's place in European politics.
Contributor(s): Professor Jesús Huerta de Soto | The current financial and economic situation of the world should be analysed from the point of view of the Austrian Business Cycle Theory as developed by Mises and Hayek. Professor Huerta De Soto will present innovative solutions to the banking crisis and credit crunch working within the tradition of the Austrian School masters, Mises and Hayek. He will also unveil his proposal for similar legislative change that the "Peel Act" or Bank Charter Act of 1844 achieved with regards to the over issue of promissory notes to gold, but with respect to the over issue of credit. The consequences of doing this should create a climate of financial stability and an opportunity to totally restructure the national debt (potentially pay it off).
Contributor(s): Professor Charles Goodhart, Professor Amartya Sen, Dr Purna Sen, Clare Short | In the year of his 70th birthday a panel of leading scholars discuss themes arising from Lord Desai's extensive work in the social sciences, his passionate commitment to the freedom and wellbeing of individuals, and optimism about human progress and globalisation.
Contributor(s): Dominic Sandbrook | The beginning of the 1970s saw Britain tottering on the brink of an abyss. Yet this time of immense unrest was also one of astonishing creativity and innovation, which helped shape society as we know it today. For perhaps the last time in our history Britain experienced the shock of the new, from celebrity footballers and the pornography boom to high street curry houses and foreign holidays. Dominic Sandbrook was born in Shropshire in 1974, an indirect result of the Heath government's three-day week giving couples more leisure time. Formerly a history lecturer at Sheffield and fellow of the Rothermere Institute, University of Oxford, he is now a well-known author, commentator and broadcaster. This event celebrates the publication of his new book, 'State of Emergency: The Way We Were, Britain 1970-1974'.
Contributor(s): Samantha Heath | In the face of current economic and climatic challenges, decarbonising the economy sometimes amounts to little more than tweaking the supply chain. Samantha Heath will pose the questions that Londoners need to consider before we can transform our behaviour to produce an economy suitable for real people. Samantha Heath is director of London Sustainability Exchange, a member and former co-chair of the London Sustainable Development Commission, and a member of the London Energy Partnership.
Contributor(s): John Githongo | Efforts to tackle corruption in Africa tend to focus on international initiatives, but it is local struggles for public accountability that often have the most impact. John Githongo, a former journalist and management consultant, was the Kenyan Permanent Secretary in charge of Governance and Ethics from 2003-2005, and a founding member of the Kenyan chapter of Transparency International.
Contributor(s): Professor John Worrall | Medics now insist that treatment decisions should be evidence based. Generally this must be right. But evidence based medicine has sometimes got the details wrong: philosophers of science can help. John Worrall is professor of philosophy of science at LSE's Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method.
Contributor(s): Professor Stephen Houlgate, Professor Şevket Pamuk, Professor Donald Sassoon | These events explore how our understanding of Europe's identity can be enhanced and developed in a new way by taking in a distinctively Turkish perspective. Stephen Houlgate is professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick. Şevket Pamuk is professor of contemporary Turkish studies at the European Institute, LSE. Donald Sassoon is professor of comparative European history at Queen Mary, University of London.
Contributor(s): Don Tapscott | Don Tapscott is an internationally renowned authority on the strategic impact of information technology on innovation, marketing and talent. He is a hugely successful author whose books include the international bestseller, 'Wikinomics'. He will be in the UK for the release of his new book 'MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World'. Don Tapscott explains how the current economic crisis is transforming society, business and markets, and where the opportunities are for thriving in the face of the downturn.
Contributor(s): Ben Wildavsky | In a worldwide educational marketplace, international competition to build the best universities and attract the brightest minds is more intense than ever. In his lecture based around his book, 'The Great Brain Race', Ben Wildavsky argues that the globalisation of higher education should be welcomed, not feared. Ben Wildavsky is a senior fellow in research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation and author of The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping the World (Princeton University Press, 2010).
Contributor(s): Stephan Freeman, Dr Steve March | LSE IT Services is pleased to present a series of evenings (19, 20 and 21 October) to help promote awareness of information security issues that are relevant to every person that uses the Internet. With the increasing use of computers and information technology in our everyday lives, the number of threats that people face on the Internet everyday has also increased. This series is set to show what some of those threats are, how you can protect yourselves and what other people are doing to protect us. Dr Steve March will be talking about the role of Government in staying safe online. Steve March is the deputy director of the Office of Cyber Security & Information Assurance at the Cabinet Office and director of GetSafeOnline. Stephan Freeman is the information security manager at the London School of Economics and Political Science, responsible for implementing information security in a challenging environment, from the ground up.
Contributor(s): James Caan | A recession can uncover some great entrepreneurial talent and surprising opportunities. The speakers will explore how we can make the UK more entrepreneurial, what are the key components in creating a successful business, the major pitfalls and what are the emerging sectors for people to capitalise on. They will also debate whether an entrepreneurship can be taught or is a part of genetic make up. James Caan is one of the UK's most successful and dynamic entrepreneurs. He is now CEO of private equity company, Hamilton Bradshaw, and famous panellist on BBC's Dragons' Den. Saul Estrin is head of the Department of Management, LSE.
Contributor(s): David Blunkett | LSE IT Services is pleased to present a series of evenings (19, 20 and 21 October) to help promote awareness of information security issues that are relevant to every person that uses the Internet. With the increasing use of computers and information technology in our everyday lives, the number of threats that people face on the Internet everyday has also increased. This series is set to show what some of those threats are, how you can protect yourselves and what other people are doing to protect us. David Blunkett will deliver a keynote speech on staying safe online.
Contributor(s): Ed Howker, Shiv Malik | Why can so few young people afford to buy a house? Why do even top graduates struggle to find jobs? Why does politics – from voting to protesting – seem so pointless? Why is Britain not just 'broken' but also broke? Twenty-something journalists Ed Howker and Shiv Malik tell the sad, maddening story of how their generation's future is being strangled by the culture of short-termism.
Contributor(s): Professor John Hagan | In addition to 300,000 deaths, the Darfur genocide has forced the displacement of about 3,000,000 people. John Hagan examines this through the application of social historical methods. John Hagan is John D MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University and co-director of the Center on Law and Globalization at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago. Tim Allen is professor of developmental anthropology in LSE's Department of International Development.
Contributor(s): Jonathan Powell | Taking the lessons Machiavelli derived from his experience as an official in fifteenth-century Florence, Powell shows how these lessons can still apply today. Illustrating each of Machiavelli's maxims with a description of events that occurred during Tony Blair's time as Prime Minister, The New Machiavelli is designed to be The Prince for modern times.
Contributor(s): Bob Ayers, Rob Carolina | LSE IT Services is pleased to present a series of evenings (19, 20 and 21 October) to help promote awareness of information security issues that are relevant to every person that uses the Internet. With the increasing use of computers and information technology in our everyday lives, the number of threats that people face on the Internet everyday has also increased. This series is set to show what some of those threats are, how you can protect yourselves and what other people are doing to protect us. Bob Ayers will give a presentation on the privacy aspect of Internet usage. Rob Carolina will describe how laws around the world apply to your use of the Internet. He will also explain why the Cyberspace "Frontier" is now closed, why the Internet does have borders, and how the Internet has entered an age of de-globalisation.
Contributor(s): Lykke Friis | The cold war era was characterised by a bipolarity based on ideologies and nuclear arms. The post cold war era will increasingly be defined by energy. Power and economic welfare will depend on a country's or region's access to the world's decreasing fossil fuels or the development of renewable energy. In this lecture, the Danish Minister of Climate and Energy focuses on Europe's chances to prosper in this new energy world order. Lykke Friis is the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy and Minister for Gender Equality a well known scholar of European Politics and a former adjunct professor and prorector of Copenhagen University. She is an alumna of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Contributor(s): Sebastián Piñera Echenique | Sebastián Piñera Echenique is President of the Republic of Chile, a position he has held since being sworn in on 11 March 2010. He graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile as a Commercial Engineer with a minor in Economics and also received a Masters and Doctorate degree from the University of Harvard in the United States.
Contributor(s): Professor Niall Ferguson | At its heart the Cold War was a competition between two economic systems. Despite having in common a "military-industrial complex", they were profoundly different in the degree of freedom they offered their citizens, the living standards they were able to achieve and the pace of technological innovation they could sustain. In this first lecture, Niall Ferguson compares and contrasts the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War and asks how far the outcome of the Cold War was economically determined from the outset. In particular, what role did commercial and financial globalisation play in enhancing U.S. power in the world? And how serious a threat did inflation pose to the United States in the 1970s? Professor Niall Ferguson is the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Contributor(s): Professor Tariq Ramadan | In this public lecture Tariq Ramadan, philosopher and Islamic scholar will talk about his new book 'The Quest for Meaning' in which he invites the reader to join him on a journey to the deep ocean of religious, secular, and indigenous spiritual traditions to explore the most pressing contemporary issues. Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University (Oriental Institute, St Antony's College).
Contributor(s): Hernando de Soto | The Global Policy dialogues are a unique series of exchanges bringing together today's most preeminent scholars and practitioners to discuss pressing questions of policy, with the aim of advancing our understanding of the underlying issues and offering innovative solutions to global challenges. Hernando de Soto is currently President of the ILD —headquartered in Lima, Peru— considered by The Economist as one of the two most important think tanks in the world.
Contributor(s): Nita Ambani, Professor Lord Stern | India is at the vanguard of epoch-making economic and social transformation. A country of glorious heritage and enormous diversity, where a sixth of humanity lives, India is looking to leapfrog on the strength of its unique endowment - a burgeoning and an incredibly huge young population. This demographic dividend, this soft power will drive the nation's trail-blazing journey to global leadership. The national aspiration is high and the key to leveraging this opportunity hinges on its capacity to harness the power of knowledge. Nita M. Ambani is the Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, Chairperson of Dhirubhai Ambani International School and Chairperson of IMG-Reliance joint venture. Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Director of the India Observatory and Chairman of the Asia Research Centre at the LSE.
Contributor(s): Howard Davies | In the 6th of an annual series of lectures, Howard Davies reviews the development of the Chinese financial system over the last year. He has been a member of the International Advisory Board of the Chinese banking regulator since 2003 and has observed the dramatic changes in Chinese banks at first hand. The Chinese system has been remarkably insulated from the crisis. What does that mean for the future? Will China turn its back on free-market financial reform? Howard Davies is director of LSE. Prior to this, from 1997-2003 he was Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the single regulator for the UK financial sector, which was created under his leadership from nine separate regulatory agencies. From 1995-1997 he was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. His latest books include The 'Financial Crisis: Who is to Blame?' and 'Banking on the Future: the fall and rise of central banking'.
Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Professor Arne Westad | The world is tilting away from the West to the East, from the United States to China, from the Transatlantic to the Pacific. Or is it? LSE experts with very different answers to these questions will battle it out in an open forum. Professor Michael Cox is Co- Director of LSE IDEAS and Professor of International Relations at LSE. Professor Westad is a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and an expert on Chinese international affairs.
Contributor(s): Professor Ngaire Woods | Ngaire Woods is professor of international political economy and director of the Global Economic Governance Programme, University College, Oxford.
Contributor(s): Lord Turner | Lord Turner will deliver the 2010 Lionel Robbins Memorial Lecture Series, running for three consecutive evenings (11/12/13 October). The overall theme of the 3 lectures is Economics after the Crisis. Amid the financial crash there was much talk of a crisis of capitalism and the need for a revolution in economics. Two years on much work is in hand to reform global financial regulation, but it is not clear that the crisis will produce change as radical as initially supposed. Adair Turner will argue, however, that the crisis should provoke us to think deeply about the conventional wisdom of the last several decades in which economic growth maximisation is the clear objective of economic policy, and market liberalisation, including in financial markets, the universally applicable means.
Contributor(s): Andrew Mitchell, Professor Paul Collier | This event marks the launch of a new DFID approach to private sector investment in developing countries and is the Department's first high profile outreach to the business community since the formation of the new coalition government. The event is presented in partnership with the Financial Times magazines The Banker and This is Africa. Andrew Mitchell is Secretary of State for International Development. Paul Collier is Professor of Economics at Oxford University and academic co-director of the International Growth Centre.
Contributor(s): Lord Turner | Lord Turner will deliver the 2010 Lionel Robbins Memorial Lecture Series, running for three consecutive evenings (11/12/13 October). The overall theme of the 3 lectures is Economics after the Crisis. Amid the financial crash there was much talk of a crisis of capitalism and the need for a revolution in economics. Two years on much work is in hand to reform global financial regulation, but it is not clear that the crisis will produce change as radical as initially supposed. Adair Turner will argue, however, that the crisis should provoke us to think deeply about the conventional wisdom of the last several decades in which economic growth maximisation is the clear objective of economic policy, and market liberalisation, including in financial markets, the universally applicable means.
Contributor(s): Professor Luc Bovens | What are the aims and methods of green social advertising? Is it distinct from green nudges? Does it respect the sensitivities and the autonomy of the viewer? Luc Bovens is professor of philosophy at LSE's Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method.
Contributor(s): Professor Amar Bhide | Our prosperity requires the enterprise of innumerable individuals and businesses who exercise their imagination and judgment—and bear responsibility for outcomes. And widespread enterprise is fostered through dialogue and relationships, not merely prices in anonymous markets. Yet in the last several decades finance has become increasingly centralised, distanced, and mechanistic. Bhide's lecture explains how bad theories and mis-regulation led to this dangerous divergence between the real economy and finance.
Contributor(s): Professor Robert Eaglestone, Dr Alberto Toscano | Alberto Toscano will be debating his counter-history of fanaticism, in which he argues that fanaticism has played a critical role in forming modern politics. Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London. Alberto Toscano is senior lecturer in sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Contributor(s): Sara Parkin | This lecture will consider the future for business and discuss the role of social enterprises, the future of universities and the links between them. Sara Parkin is a founder-director and trustee of Forum for the Future. Her latest book is The Positive Deviant: sustainability leadership in a perverse world.
Contributor(s): Lord Turner | Lord Turner will deliver the 2010 Lionel Robbins Memorial Lecture Series, running for three consecutive evenings (11/12/13 October). The overall theme of the 3 lectures is Economics after the Crisis. Amid the financial crash there was much talk of a crisis of capitalism and the need for a revolution in economics. Two years on much work is in hand to reform global financial regulation, but it is not clear that the crisis will produce change as radical as initially supposed. Adair Turner will argue, however, that the crisis should provoke us to think deeply about the conventional wisdom of the last several decades in which economic growth maximisation is the clear objective of economic policy, and market liberalisation, including in financial markets, the universally applicable means.
Contributor(s): Professor Christopher Pissarides | A press conference to mark the award of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences to LSE professor Christopher Pissarides. He won the 2010 prize jointly for his work on the economics of unemployment, especially job flows and the effects of being out of work. He shares the prize with Peter Diamond from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dale Mortensen from Northwestern University.
Contributor(s): Liao Min, Professor Richard Portes, Professor Danny Quah, Xiao Gang Tian, Professor Shujie Yao | The main theme of this forum is Chinese Financial Reform and 'Sustainable Economic Development Under the Global Crisis'. New perspectives on what we can learn from China and what China might learn from the global financial crisis will be discussed.
Contributor(s): Professor Emeritus Heinrich August Winkler | A lecture to mark the intellectual legacy of Ralf Dahrendorf, director of LSE from 1974 to 1984, and one of Europe's most eminent sociologists and public servants of the post-War period. Lord Dahrendorf passed away in June 2009. Heinrich August Winkler is an internationally acclaimed scholar and one of the most distinguished historians of modern Germany.
Contributor(s): Professor Anthony Seldon | Gordon Brown's three years at No.10 were the most turbulent of any premiership in the postwar history of Downing Street. In 'Brown at 10', Anthony Seldon tells for the first time the full, compelling story of the astonishing end of Gordon Brown's tenure, and with it the demise of the New Labour project. This will be a frank, authentic and penetrating account of a remarkable political era by one of Britain's foremost political and social commentators.
Contributor(s): Nicholas Phillipson, Professor Lord Skidelsky | Robert Skidelsky and Nicholas Phillipson discuss how the philosophies of Keynes and Smith helped shape their influential economic ideas and examine how each has influenced social and political change.
Contributor(s): Professor Costas Douzinas, Professor Conor Gearty, Professor Francesca Klug, David Lammy | Conor Gearty joins invited guests to initiate 'The Rights' Future' a collaborative writing project aimed at the production of a book to be launched at LSE's literary festival early in 2011. Starting this evening with his RIGHTS' MANIFESTO, Gearty will release a series of weekly essays onto the web which will probe the history of human rights, address their present state in the world and map out some of the possible futures that await this morally important but highly contested phrase.
Contributor(s): Howard Davies | Howard Davies delivers an orientation lecture to LSE students giving an insiders perspective on monetary policy and the mechanics of policy making. Howard Davies is the Director of LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Stuart Diamond | You're always negotiating. Whether making a business deal, talking to friends or even driving a car, negotiation is going on. And most of us are terrible at it. Experts tell us to negotiate as if we live in a rational world. But people can be angry, fearful and irrational. To achieve your goals you have to be able to deal with the unpredictable. Negotiation expert Stuart Diamond reveals the real secrets behind getting more in any negotiation - whatever 'more' means to you - in his new book Getting More|, published on the 7th October by Portfolio Penguin, and joins us at LSE to offer accessible, jargon-free and innovative insights into negotiation.
Contributor(s): Professor Ha-Joon Chang | We may like or dislike capitalism, but surely we all know how it works. Right? Wrong. Today, most arguments about capitalism are dominated by free-market ideology and unfounded assumptions that parade as 'facts'. This lecture in which Ha-Joon Chang will talk about his new book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism| tells the story of capitalism as it is and shows how capitalism as we know it can be, and should be, made better.
Contributor(s): Andrei Soldatov | Andrei Soldatov – a journalist who has covered Russia's security services for more than a decade – penetrates the secret world of the FSB to illustrate how, abetted by their most famous alumnus Vladimir Putin, the security services were given unprecedented rein, and emerged a more shadowy and powerful force than the Soviet KGB. Andrei Soldatov and his The New Nobility co-author Irina Borogan are-founders of Agentura.ru, a highly respected website covering the Russian security services. Soldatov and Borogan worked for Novaya Gazeta from January 2006 to November 2008.
Contributor(s): Steve Ballmer | The pervasive nature of technology and the ever increasing pace of development are rapidly changing the way we work, live and play. These changes bring enormous opportunity for individuals, organisations and society. For more than three decades, Microsoft, and current CEO Steve Ballmer, have played a vital role in leading a technology industry that has transformed the world of business in dramatic fashion. In one of the opening public lectures of the LSE term, Ballmer will discuss what's next, how cloud computing is radically altering paradigms, and new business opportunities enabled by the cloud. Steve Ballmer is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation. He joined Microsoft in 1980 as the first business manager hired by Bill Gates. Since then, Ballmer's leadership and passion have become hallmarks of his tenure at the company. Ballmer and the company's business and technical leaders are focused on continuing Microsoft's innovation and leadership across each of the company's core businesses. Variously described as ebullient, focused, funny, passionate, sincere, hard-charging and dynamic, Ballmer has infused Microsoft with his own brand of energetic leadership, vision and spirit over the years.
Contributor(s): Larry Elliot, Jon Cruddas MP, Professor Chandran Kukathas | Is it possible – or desirable – to reform capitalism so that it behaves better? A panel of speakers discuss the issues raised in Larry Elliot's new book Crisis and Recovery: ethics, economics and justice| (cowritten with Rowan Williams). Larry Elliott is the economics editor of The Guardian. Jon Cruddas is the Member of Parliament for Dagenham and Rainham. Professor Chandran Kukathas holds the chair of Political Theory in the Department of Government at LSE. He is the author of The Liberal Archipelago: A Theory of Diversity and Freedom, Rawls: A Theory of Justice and Its Critics (with Philip Petit), and Hayek and Modern Liberalism.
Contributor(s): John Tsang Chun Wah | John Tsang Chun Wah, Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will discuss post-financial crisis changes to Hong Kong's financial services sector and the potential benefits of these changes to markets around the world. How can Hong Kong maintain its competitive edge as an international financial and business centre in Asia?
Contributor(s): Lord Hattersley | David Lloyd George became the authentic radical of British politics in part because of intellectual conviction, but, more significantly, because his birth and upbringing had made him contemptuous of the establishment and its values. He did not so much break the rules of conventional society and politics as refuse to acknowledge their existence. He remained an "outsider" to the end. This event celebrates the publication of Lord Hattersley's new book David Lloyd George: The Great Outsider.
Contributor(s): Janusz Lewandowski | With its member states cutting spending sharply, what are the prospects for the EU's budget to 2020? Will Europe be able to meet pressing global challenges? Janusz Lewandowski is European commissioner for financial programming and budget, a position he has held since February 2010. He served as Polish Minister for Privatisation in 1991, and from 1992-93. He received both his Phd (economics) and Masters degree (economics) from the University of Gdańsk.
Contributor(s): Professor Anne Phillips | We commonly use the language of body ownership as a way of claiming personal rights, though we do not normally mean it literally. Most people feel uneasy about markets in sexual or reproductive services, and though there is a substantial global trade in body tissues, the illicit trade in live human organs is widely condemned. But what, if any, is the problem with treating bodies as resources and/or possessions? Is there something about the body that makes it particularly inappropriate to apply to it the language of property, commodities, and things? Or is thinking the body special a kind of sentimentalism that blocks clear thinking about matters such as prostitution, surrogate motherhood, or the sale of spare kidneys?
Contributor(s): Howard Daves, Robert Peston | There is still no consensus on who or what caused the financial crisis which engulfed the world, beginning in the summer of 2007. A huge number of suspects have been identified, from greedy investment bankers, through feckless borrowers, dilatory regulators and myopic central bankers to violent video games and high levels of testosterone among the denizens of trading floors. There is not even agreement on whether the crisis shows a need for more government intervention in markets, or less: some maintain that government encouragement of home ownership lay at the heart of the problem in the US, in particular. In this public event to mark the launch of his new book 'The Financial Crisis: Who is to Blame?' Howard Davies charts a course through these arguments, and the evidence advanced for each of them.
Contributor(s): Professor Michael A. Cusumano | This is an overview of Professor Cusumano's new book Staying Power: Six Enduring Principles for Managing Strategy and Innovation in an Uncertain World|, prepared for the 2009 Oxford Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies. The focus is on how managers can tackle the simultaneous challenge of "innovation and commoditization" in markets often subject to unpredictable change and disruption. Professor Cusumano positions each principle against other concepts associated with 'best practices' and competitive advantage but which he believes are less valuable than they seem.
Contributor(s): Dr Ulf Axelson | Dr Axelson draws from leading academic research to shed light on the controversial role of private equity in the economy.
Contributor(s): Nadeem ul Haque, Michael Keen, Dr Masihur Rahman, Rama Sithanen, Professor Joel Slemrod | To reduce reliance on foreign aid and financial inflows, policymakers across the developing world are seeking to improve domestic resource mobilisation. But doing so effectively and efficiently presents a huge policy challenge. More is at stake, however, than just revenue raising to fund socially valuable investments. Effective fiscal systems are a core element of state building and a barometer of state legitimacy and effectiveness.
Contributor(s): Professor Simon Schama | Simon Schama's latest book a selection of his writings titled Scribble, Scribble, Scribble, explores, amongst other subjects, Shakespeare, contemporary art, Hurricane Katrina, cheese soufflés, "The Fate of Eloquence in the age of Ozzy Osbourne," Barack Obama and baseball.
Contributor(s): Professor Michael Kremer, Professor George Imbanga Godia, Professor Geeta Kingdon, Dr Lansana Nyalley, Professor James Tooley | Michael Kremer discusses issues surrounding reform of education systems in developing countries based on evidence from studies on incentive mechanisms, peer effects and other interventions.
Contributor(s): Kenneth Clarke | As part of the Legal Biographies Project lecture programme Mr Justice Cranston will be interviewing Ken Clarke, QC, MP, Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor about his legal and political career. Kenneth Clarke QC MP was appointed as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice on 12 May 2010. He was born in 1940 and educated at Nottingham High School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He is a barrister-at-law, having been called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1963 and becoming QC in 1980. He has previously served as Chancellor, Home Secretary, Secretary of State for Health, and Secretary of State for Education and Science. In Opposition he served as shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Contributor(s): Ernest Aryeetey, Ijaz Nabi, Professor Mark Rosenzweig, Paul Romer, Professor John Sutton | A distinguished panel tackles controversial and highly significant questions regarding the relative importance of industrial and agricultural revolution in the developing countries today, for both economic growth and wider development.
Contributor(s): Professor Chang-Tai Hsieh, Rasheed Adegbenro, Ludovico Alcorta, Professor Haroon Bhorat | What do we know about the importance of industrial productivity to a country's standards of living, both in absolute terms and relative to agricultural productivity, to improvements in capital intensity and to improvements in schooling? What do we know about the sources of industrial productivity growth, especially in the developing world? Drawing on evidence from India, China, and Mexico, Chang-Tai Hsieh delivers the second policy lecture of Growth Week 2010. He is joined in discussion by a distinguished panel.
Contributor(s): Dr Jenny Aker, Ken Banks, Dawn Haig-Thomas | Mobile phones have the potential to contribute significantly to economic growth in the developing world, in both the private and public sector. From improving market information for fish traders in Lake Victoria, to enabling medical outreach services in rural South Asia, the mobile is a versatile and adaptable tool. What impact can mobiles have on those previously excluded from financial services and communications networks? Which policies will help turn the promise of mobiles into real benefits for the poorest people? This session, moderated by Diane Coyle, OBE, of Enlightenment Economics, features a panel of researchers and practitioners sharing ideas and experience from the field, discussing a range of case studies from literacy and conditional cash transfer programs in Niger to SMS-based communications for rural hospitals in Malawi.
Contributor(s): Professor Paul Collier, Dr Christopher Alden, Dr Gobind Nankani, Alan Winters | Is China's strategy - of negotiating deals in which resources are exchanged for infrastructure - mutually beneficial, or a new variant of the plunder of Africa? China 'asks no questions' of African governments: is that respectful of African sovereignty or an abrogation of responsibility?
Contributor(s): S.D. Shibulal | S.D. Shibulal is one of the co-founders and member of the Board of Directors of Infosys Technologies Limited. Shibu, as he is fondly called, has over three decades of IT leadership experience. He has played a pivotal role in the Infosys journey and a signal role in the evolution of the Global Delivery Model which is now the de-facto industry standard for delivery for outsourced IT services.
Contributor(s): Dr Heiner Flassbeck | Launch Lecture of the UNCTAD Trade and Development Report 2010. As nations struggle with what they fear will be a "jobless recovery" from the global recession, the report studies how employment can be raised in developing countries and how the participation of the majority of the population in economic growth can be warranted. The report recommends a fundamental change in the assignment of economic policies to allow for growth, inclusion, high employment and monetary stability at the same time. 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. Robert Wade is Professor of Political Economy and Development in the Department of International Development at LSE.
Contributor(s): Geoffrey Robertson | The Case of the Pope delivers a devastating indictment of the way the Vatican has run a secret legal system that has shielded paedophile priests from criminal trial around the world. Is the Pope morally responsible or legally liable under domestic or international law for the negligence that has allowed so many terrible crimes to go unpunished? Should he and his seat of power, the Holy See, continue to enjoy an immunity that places them above the law? To what extent do Vatican dogmas conflict with human rights treatise, and why has the United Nations allowed this church – alone of religions and NGOs – a privileged platform to promote them? Geoffrey Robertson QC demonstrates a deep respect for the good works of Catholics and their church. But, he argues, unless Pope Benedict XVI can divest himself of the beguilements of statehood and devotion to obsolete canon law, the Vatican will remain in grave breach of the convention on the Right of the Child and in some other respects, an enemy of human rights. This event marks the publication of Geoffrey Robertson's new book 'The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse.'