Summer 2014 | Public lectures and events | Video: Recent Episodes
London School of Economics and Political Science
Video files from LSE's summer 2014 programme of public lectures and events, for more recordings and pdf documents see the corresponding audio collection.
Contributor(s): Professor Danny Quah, Professor Mick Cox | One of the aims of LSE Summer School is to bring the LSE experience to all those attending its many courses between July and August. Five years ago we launched our first full programme of Lectures. These have been an immense success. All lectures are exclusively for LSE Summer School students, and are given by top flight speakers talking on the big issues of the day. The events begin at 5.30pm and take place in the Old Theatre, located in the Old Building on Houghton Street. Lectures will be followed by a reception where students will be able to speak to the lecturers. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).
Contributor(s): Professor Andrew Gamble | One of the aims of LSE Summer School is to bring the LSE experience to all those attending its many courses between July and August. Five years ago we launched our first full programme of Lectures. These have been an immense success. All lectures are exclusively for LSE Summer School students, and are given by top flight speakers talking on the big issues of the day. The events begin at 5.30pm and take place in the Old Theatre, located in the Old Building on Houghton Street. Lectures will be followed by a reception where students will be able to speak to the lecturers. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).
Contributor(s): Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu | To many, Africa is the new frontier. As the West lies battered by financial crises, Africa is seen as offering limitless opportunities for wealth creation in the march of globalisation. In his new book, Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy’s “Last Frontier” Can Prosper and Matter, Kingsley Moghalu, in considering the questions of what Africa means to today’s Africans and whether Africa is truly on the rise, challenges conventional wisdoms about Africa's quest for growth. Drawing on philosophy, economics and strategy, he ranges from capitalism to technological innovation, finance to foreign investment, and from human capital to world trade to offer a new vision of transformation. Ultimately he demonstrates how Africa's progress in the twenty-first century will require nothing short of the reinvention of the African mindset. Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu is deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. One of Africa’s leading economic thinkers and policymakers, he worked for the United Nations for 17 years in New York, Cambodia, Croatia, Tanzania, and Switzerland, and was the founder and CEO of Sogato Strategies SA, a global risk and strategy advisory firm in Geneva, Switzerland. Kingsley Moghalu was educated at LSE where he earned his doctorate, Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Faculty of Law of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is the author of two other books, Global Justice and Rwanda’s Genocide. Catherine Boone is professor of comparative politics and African political economy at LSE.
Contributor(s): Dr Joseph Muscat | In his speech Dr Muscat will consider the future of the Commonwealth, and how to ensure it is an effective, prosperous and relevant organisation which meets the needs of its citizens. Hugo Swire (@HugoSwire), minister of state at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office will introduce the lecture. Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) is prime minister of Malta. He was born on 22 January 1974. He successfully contested the first European Parliament elections in Malta in June 2004. In June 2008 he was elected as the leader of the Labour Party. Dr Muscat took office as prime minister of Malta on 11 March 2013. George Gaskell is pro-director (Resources and Planning) of LSE. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording)
Contributor(s): Dr Robert Falkner | One of the aims of LSE Summer School is to bring the LSE experience to all those attending its many courses between July and August. Five years ago we launched our first full programme of Lectures. These have been an immense success. All lectures are exclusively for LSE Summer School students, and are given by top flight speakers talking on the big issues of the day. The events begin at 5.30pm and take place in the Old Theatre, located in the Old Building on Houghton Street. Lectures will be followed by a reception where students will be able to speak to the lecturers. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production).
Contributor(s): Professor David M Clark, Professor Lord Layard, Andrew Marr | This event marks the launch of David Clark and Richard Layard’s new book, Thrive, which argues that mental health problems are pervasive. They have massive social impacts and huge economic costs. They can be effectively treated by evidence-based psychological therapies, but these are not widely available. They should be. David M. Clark is professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford and a leading clinical psychologist. His work particularly focuses on understanding and treating anxiety disorders. Richard Layard is emeritus professor of economics at LSE and was founder-director of its Centre for Economic Performance. He is the author of the best-seller Happiness and a member of the House of Lords. Andrew Marr (@MarrShow) is a journalist, broadcaster and author. He hosts the BBC1 programme The Andrew Marr Show and BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).
Contributor(s): Professor Conor Gearty | One of the aims of LSE Summer School is to bring the LSE experience to all those attending its many courses between July and August. Five years ago we launched our first full programme of Lectures. These have been an immense success. All lectures are exclusively for LSE Summer School students, and are given by top flight speakers talking on the big issues of the day. The events begin at 5.30pm and take place in the Old Theatre, located in the Old Building on Houghton Street. Lectures will be followed by a reception where students will be able to speak to the lecturers.
Contributor(s): Stefan Ingves, Dr Jon Danielsson | Stefan Ingves is in charge of designing Basel III, the new financial regulations that will help protect the financial system from excesses whilst supporting its mission of promoting economic growth. He will address the question of whether Basel III lives up to its expectations and the main obstacles to its implementation. Stefan Ingves is Governor of the Riksbank and Chairman of the Executive Board. He is Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. He also chairs the Advisory Technical Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board. He is a member of the ECB General Council, of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements and Governor in the International Monetary Fund. He has previously been Director of the Monetary and Financial Systems Department at the IMF, Deputy Governor of the Riksbank and General Director of the Swedish Bank Support Authority. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production).
Contributor(s): Dr Eva Aldea | What is the difference between migrants and nomads? Eva Aldea will assess whether Deleuze’s concept of the nomad is useful for navigating current responses to the European project. Eva Aldea is a lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production).
Contributor(s): Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Chris Alden, Professor Thandika Mkandawire | An audio recording of the proceedings of the LSE Cape Town Conference 2014 Africa in the World, The World in Africa: Making regional integration and South-South relations work for growth and equality with Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Chris Alden and Professor Thandika Mkandawire.Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production).
Contributor(s): Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Chris Alden, Professor Thandika Mkandawire | An audio recording of the proceedings of the LSE Cape Town Conference 2014 Africa in the World, The World in Africa: Making regional integration and South-South relations work for growth and equality with Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Chris Alden and Professor Thandika Mkandawire.Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production).
Contributor(s): Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Chris Alden, Professor Thandika Mkandawire | An audio recording of the proceedings of the LSE Cape Town Conference 2014 Africa in the World, The World in Africa: Making regional integration and South-South relations work for growth and equality with Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Chris Alden and Professor Thandika Mkandawire.Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production).
Contributor(s): Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Chris Alden, Professor Thandika Mkandawire | An audio recording of the proceedings of the LSE Cape Town Conference 2014 Africa in the World, The World in Africa: Making regional integration and South-South relations work for growth and equality with Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Chris Alden and Professor Thandika Mkandawire.Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production).
Contributor(s): Professor Toby Dodge, Dr Faleh Jabar | The seizure of Mosul by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and their rapid move south towards Baghdad has thrown Iraq into another post-regime change crisis. This panel aims to examine the identity and background of the fighters in northern Iraq, as well as the root causes behind the violence. Bringing together three of the world’s leading experts on Iraq, it will explain why the Iraqi armed forces, comprising over a million men under arms, collapsed so quickly. It will then go on to explain how the political and constitutional system, which was set up in the aftermath of regime change, has contributed to the current situation. Finally, the speakers will discuss the consequences of the current crisis and what it means for the future of Iraq.
Contributor(s): Various | 25 June 2014 is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Michel Foucault. ‘Governing Academic Life’ marks this anniversary by providing an occasion for academics to reflect on our present situation through our reflections on Foucault’s legacy – which could include critical reflections on that legacy. The focus of the conference, therefore, will be on the form of governmentality that now constitutes our identities and regulates our practices as researchers and teachers. However the event will also create a space for encounters between governmentality scholars and critics of the neoliberal academy whose critiques have different intellectual roots – especially Frankfurt school critical theory, critical political economy; feminism; Bourdieuian analyses of habitus, capital and field; and autonomist Marxism.
Contributor(s): Various | 25 June 2014 is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Michel Foucault. ‘Governing Academic Life’ marks this anniversary by providing an occasion for academics to reflect on our present situation through our reflections on Foucault’s legacy – which could include critical reflections on that legacy. The focus of the conference, therefore, will be on the form of governmentality that now constitutes our identities and regulates our practices as researchers and teachers. However the event will also create a space for encounters between governmentality scholars and critics of the neoliberal academy whose critiques have different intellectual roots – especially Frankfurt school critical theory, critical political economy; feminism; Bourdieuian analyses of habitus, capital and field; and autonomist Marxism.
Contributor(s): Various | 25 June 2014 is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Michel Foucault. ‘Governing Academic Life’ marks this anniversary by providing an occasion for academics to reflect on our present situation through our reflections on Foucault’s legacy – which could include critical reflections on that legacy. The focus of the conference, therefore, will be on the form of governmentality that now constitutes our identities and regulates our practices as researchers and teachers. However the event will also create a space for encounters between governmentality scholars and critics of the neoliberal academy whose critiques have different intellectual roots – especially Frankfurt school critical theory, critical political economy; feminism; Bourdieuian analyses of habitus, capital and field; and autonomist Marxism.
Contributor(s): Various | 25 June 2014 is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Michel Foucault. ‘Governing Academic Life’ marks this anniversary by providing an occasion for academics to reflect on our present situation through our reflections on Foucault’s legacy – which could include critical reflections on that legacy. The focus of the conference, therefore, will be on the form of governmentality that now constitutes our identities and regulates our practices as researchers and teachers. However the event will also create a space for encounters between governmentality scholars and critics of the neoliberal academy whose critiques have different intellectual roots – especially Frankfurt school critical theory, critical political economy; feminism; Bourdieuian analyses of habitus, capital and field; and autonomist Marxism.
Contributor(s): Various | 25 June 2014 is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Michel Foucault. ‘Governing Academic Life’ marks this anniversary by providing an occasion for academics to reflect on our present situation through our reflections on Foucault’s legacy – which could include critical reflections on that legacy. The focus of the conference, therefore, will be on the form of governmentality that now constitutes our identities and regulates our practices as researchers and teachers. However the event will also create a space for encounters between governmentality scholars and critics of the neoliberal academy whose critiques have different intellectual roots – especially Frankfurt school critical theory, critical political economy; feminism; Bourdieuian analyses of habitus, capital and field; and autonomist Marxism.
Contributor(s): Zelda la Grange | Zelda la Grange (@ZeldalaGrangeSA) grew up in South Africa as a white Afrikaner who supported the rules of segregation. Yet just a few years after the end of Apartheid she would become a most trusted assistant to Nelson Mandela, growing to respect and cherish the man she had been taught was the enemy. Zelda la Grange will speak about her new book in conversation with John Carlin. Good Morning, Mr Mandela tells the story of how a young woman had her life, beliefs, prejudices and everything she once believed in utterly transformed by the greatest man of her time. It is the incredible journey of an awkward, terrified young typist in her twenties later chosen to become one of the President's most loyal and devoted servants, spending most of her adult working life travelling with, supporting and caring for the man she would come to call 'Khulu', or 'grandfather'. Zelda la Grange was born in 1970 and brought up in apartheid South Africa. She began working as a secretary for the government in 1992, in the Department of State Expenditure. In 1993 she moved to the Human Resources division and in 1994 she joined the office of the first democratically elected President of South Africa as a senior ministerial typist. She was promoted to one of President Mandela's three private secretaries in 1997 and in 1999 Nelson Mandela requested her to remain in his services beyond retirement. In 2002 she left government and became a full time employee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. She served Nelson Mandela in different capacities over nineteen years, ranging from typist, assistant private secretary, private secretary, manager of his office his spokesperson and aide-de-camp. She was serving as his personal assistant when he passed on in December 2013. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).
Contributor(s): Diane Coyle | Acting BBC Trust Chair Diane Coyle considers how the BBC can meet the challenge of providing a universal service while media channels proliferate and its audience becomes more and more diverse. She will also examine the BBC's relationship with the state and ask how its independence is best protected. Born and raised in the North West, Diane was educated at Oxford and Harvard, where she did a PhD in economics. She has worked as an economist and journalist. Economics editor for The Independent for eight years, she left in 2001 to set up her own consultancy specialising in the economics of new technologies. Diane was a member of the Competition Commission from 2001 to 2009, which has given her extensive experience in understanding how markets work and how to make competition serve consumers. She has also written many popular books on economics. In 2009, Diane was awarded the OBE for services to economics. She lives in London and is married to BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones. A BBC Trustee since November 2006, Diane was appointed as Vice Chair from May 2011 and Acting Chair in May 2014. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production).
Contributor(s): Professor Martin Loughlin | The Chorley Lecture is an annual lecture inaugurated in 1972 and named in honour of Lord Chorley of Kendal, the founding editor of The Modern Law Review. The Lecture, which is normally delivered in late May or early June at the London School of Economics & Political Science, is the most important occasion in the calendar of The Modern Law Review. A version of the lecture is subsequently published as the lead article in the January issue of the following year’s Review.
Contributor(s): Sheila O’Donnell, John Tuomey | O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects won the LSE international architectural competition for the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre in June 2009. Five years later, with the building completed and the Student Centre thriving in use, Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey will discuss the ideas behind their architectural design. The lecture will be followed by the book launch of Space for Architecture the work of O’Donnell + Tuomey.
Contributor(s): Professor Thomas Piketty | What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Thomas Piketty’s latest findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. Thomas Piketty is a professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics, an alumus of LSE and author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
Contributor(s): Professor Thomas Piketty | What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Thomas Piketty’s latest findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. Thomas Piketty is a professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics, an alumus of LSE and author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
Contributor(s): Lida Sherafatmand, Ruaridh Arrow, Captain APF Cassar | This public lecture is part of the LSE Arts exhibition Internal Worlds, External Relations. This lecture is based on a research paper exploring basic elements of human nature analysis and their crucial link to peace and conflict studies in international relations today, while arguing that public awareness of this link is very important if we seek a more harmonious and peaceful world. Richard Ned Lebow indicated four internal primary forces which push us to belong to and to take action within a collective entity. He categorized these four basic elements under: fear, spirit (self-esteem and honour), reason (rationality) and appetite. A more elaborated breakdown of such basic elements of human nature can be found in a very ancient text from Far East philosophy, put together by the Chinese philosopher T’ien T’ai back in the 6th century. Such elaborated breakdown helps us in the process of building a peace culture which has been proposed by several scholars today. Ruaridh Arrow is a journalist and film-maker who directed the multi-award winning documentary on the Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Dr Gene Sharp, the world's foremost authority on nonviolent struggle. Arrow reported for the BBC from Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution and has worked as a broadcast consultant to television stations in Afghanistan. A former research affiliate in Revolutionary Warfare at Harvard Law School, he is currently finishing his first book on the history and techniques of strategic nonviolent action. Adrian Cassar recently retired from the Royal Navy and has wide experience of policy formulation across Whitehall, operational planning and crisis management. He has seen service leading multinational forces in the Arabian Gulf, in NATO and in command of the frigate GRAFTON, again in the Gulf. In his final post he worked with EU colleges to develop collaborative studies in defence and security. Artist Lida Sherafatmand is an International Relations PhD candidate on hold for Keele University and graduate from The University of Malta and University Saint-Denis Paris VIII. Lida is inspired by the theories of Professor Ned Lebow and her own experiences of conflict growing up in the Iran-Iraq war. Professor Chris Brown is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and contributes to the LSE British Politics and Policy blog.
Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Birch, Professor Andrew Whiten | Culture surrounds us. But where did it come from? And what are the basic mechanisms underpinning its transmission? One way to answer this question is to compare the evolution of culture among humans to that of non-human cousins like monkeys and chimpanzees. In this event, renowned scientist Andrew Whiten will present some of his results on the evolution of culture, followed by a discussion with philosopher of biology Jonathan Birch. Jonathan Birch is a junior research fellow at Christ’s College, University of Cambridge. Andrew Whiten is a professor of evolutionary and developmental psychology and Wardlaw Professor at the University of St Andrews. Bryan Roberts is assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.
Contributor(s): George Bizos, Catherine M. Cole, Professor David Dyzenhaus, Lord Joffe, Dr Jens Meierhenrich | What role for law in the struggle against injustice? On 12 June 1964, Nelson Mandela and seven of his co-defendants in the Rivonia Trial were sentenced to life imprisonment for acts of sabotage against the apartheid regime. On the 50th anniversary of their sentencing, LSE hosts its official commemorative event to honour the life of Nelson Mandela. Eminent contemporaries and leading scholars of the late President of South Africa reflect on the role of law in the struggle against apartheid - and on Mandela, the lawyer. Against the dramatic backdrop of one of the most iconic trials of the twentieth century, the distinguished panellists discuss Nelson Mandela’s personal commitment to the idea of law, the role of law in the making and breaking of apartheid, and the courtroom as a stage for freedom’s greatest orator. Unbeknownst to many, Mr Mandela cared deeply about his first vocation. By paying tribute to this lesser known - yet very meaningful - aspect of Mr Mandela’s exemplary life, the evening recalls and honours one man’s lifelong struggle for justice. George Bizos was defence lawyer at the Rivonia Trial. Catherine M. Cole is a professor in the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Performing South Africa’s truth commission: stages of transition. David Dyzenhaus is a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Toronto and author of Hard Cases in Wicked Legal Systems about South African jurisprudence. Joel Joffe was on the defence team at the Rivonia Trial and is author of The State Vs. Nelson Mandela: the trial that changed South Africa. Jens Meierhenrich is an associate professor of international relations at LSE and author of The Legacies of Law: long-run consequences of legal development in South Africa, 1652-2000. This event has been organised by LSE’s Centre for the Study of Human Rights.
Contributor(s): Professor Anton Hemerijck, Dr Waltraud Schelkle, Professor David Soskice | Professor Hemerijck will consider whether the aftermath of the 2008 global credit crunch marks a new opportunity to reconfigure and re-legitimise social policy and the European project. Anton Hemerijck is dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and vice rector at the VU University Amsterdam. He is LSE Centennial Professor in the Department of Social Policy. Trained as an economist and political scientist, he obtained his doctorate from Oxford University in 1993.Between 2001-2009, he directed the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), the principle think tank in the Netherlands, while holding professorships in comparative European social policy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Antwerp. He has written extensively on the welfare state, comparative political economy, political transformation and institutional change, and is the author of Changing Welfare States. Waltraud Schelkle is an associate professor of political economy at the European Institute, LSE, which she joined in 2001. She is also an adjunct professor of economics at the economics department of the Free University of Berlin. She is interested in the political economy of European monetary integration as well as the role of financial markets in welfare states. David Soskice has been School Professor of Political Science and Economics at the LSE since 2012. He was previously research professor of comparative political economy at Oxford University and research professor of political science at Duke; before that he was research director at the WZB from 1990 to 2001, and before that taught macroeconomics at Oxford. He works on varieties of capitalism, and the political economy of macroeconomics. David Piachaud is professor of social policy in the Department of Social Policy at the LSE.
Contributor(s): Zainab Hawa Bangura | Zainab Hawa Bangura assumed her position as Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict at the level of Under-Secretary-General on 4 September 2012. In this capacity, she serves as Chair of the interagency network, UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action). Ms Bangura has over 20 years of policy, diplomatic and practical experience in the field of governance, conflict resolution and reconciliation in Africa. She served most recently as Minister of Health and Sanitation for the Government of Sierra Leone, and was previously Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the second woman in Sierra Leone to occupy this position. She was also Chief Adviser and Spokesperson of the President on bilateral and international issues. Ms Bangura has been instrumental in developing national programmes on affordable health, advocating for the elimination of genital mutilation, managing the country’s Peace Building Commission and contributing to the multilateral and bilateral relations with the international community. She has deep experience engaging with State and non-State actors on issues relevant to sexual violence, including engaging with rebel groups. Ms Bangura has on-the-ground experience with peacekeeping operations from within the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), where she managed the largest civilian component of the Mission, promoting capacity-building of government institutions and community reconciliation. She is an experienced and results-driven civil society, human and women’s rights campaigner and democracy activist, fighting corruption and impunity, notably as Executive Director of the National Accountability Group, Chair and Co-founder of the Movement for Progress Party of Sierra Leone, as well as Coordinator and Co-founder of the Campaign for Good Governance. She has received numerous national and international awards, including the Africa International Award of Merit for Leadership, the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship, the Bayard Rustin Humanitarian Award, the Human Rights Award from the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the National Endowment for Democracy’s Democracy Award, and the African American Institute’s Distinguished Alumna Award. Ms Bangura is a former fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute of London, with Diplomas in Insurance Management from the City University Business School of London and Nottingham University. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.
Contributor(s): Professor Iver Neumann, Dr Arkady Moshes, Dr Thomas Gomart | This expert roundtable will discuss Russia’s declared strategy to invest in soft power instruments in regional and global politics. What are Russia’s soft power assets? Has Moscow been successful in turning them into influence?
Contributor(s): Leila Zerrougui | In July 2011, the Security Council adopted landmark resolution 1998, which highlights the impact of attacks on schools and hospitals on the safety, education and health of children during armed conflict, and calls for greater action to ensure that schools and hospitals have no part in warfare. On 21 May 2014, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict will launch the Guidance Note on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1998 together with UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Health Organisation. The Guidance Note aims to provide practical guidance for UN and NGO partners in the field, further strengthening the Security Council’s Children and Armed Conflict agenda in highlighting the issue of attacks on schools and hospitals. In this event, UN Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict Leila Zerrougui will set out the aims of the Guidance Note, the legal ramifications of Security Council Resolution 1998 and discuss her mandate more broadly. Leila Zerrougui (@childreninwar) was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict at the Under Secretary-General level in September 2012. In this capacity, she serves as a moral voice and independent advocate to build awareness and give prominence to the rights and protection of boys and girls affected by armed conflict. Immediately prior to this appointment she was the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Deputy Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) where, since 2008, she spearheaded the Mission’s efforts in strengthening the rule of law and protection of civilians. As a legal expert in human rights and the administration of justice, Ms Zerrougui has had a distinguished career in the strengthening of the rule of law and in championing strategies and actions for the protection of vulnerable groups especially women and children. A lawyer by training, Ms Zerrougui was a member of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention under the United Nations Human Rights Council from 2001, and served as the Working Group’s Chairperson-Rapporteur from 2003 until May 2008. Jenny Kuper is visiting fellow in the LSE Centre for the Study of Human Rights. Her research interests generally cover: international human rights law, international humanitarian law/ law of armed conflict, children's rights and United Nations matters.
Contributor(s): Richard Blakeway, Professor Paul Cheshire, Rachel Fisher, Wayne Hemmingway, John Stewart | The governor of the Bank of England recently warned that the overheated housing market represents the "biggest risk" to the country’s long-term recovery. Mark Carney said rising property prices and the subsequent increase in large-value mortgages, could lead to a "debt overhang" capable of destabilising the economy. He spoke of "deep, deep structural problems" in the market, with demand for homes outstripping supply. In his native Canada, there are half as many people yet twice as many houses are built there every year as in the UK. On average over the past four years fewer market houses have been built than at any time since WW2. BBC Home Affairs editor Mark Easton (@BBCMarkEaston) asks this expert panel why this country has failed to build enough affordable homes and looks at what can be done to solve our housing crisis. Richard Blakeway is Deputy Mayor for Housing, Land and Property. Professor Paul Cheshire is Emeritus Professor of Economic Geography at LSE. Rachel Fischer is Head of Policy (Delivering Great Homes theme), National Housing Federation. Wayne Hemmingway, Hemmingway Design. John Stewart is Director of Economic Affairs, Home Builders Federation. The recording was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (@BBCRadio4) on Wednesday 11 June 2014.
Contributor(s): Christine Lagarde, Professor Amartya Sen | Ms Lagarde will be speaking on the theme of 'empowerment'. Christine Lagarde is managing director of the International Monetary Fund. She was appointed in July 2011. A national of France, she was previously French finance minister from June 2007, and had also served as France’s minister for foreign trade for two years. Ms Lagarde also has had an extensive and noteworthy career as an anti-trust and labour lawyer, serving as a partner with the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie, where the partnership elected her as chairman in October 1999. She held the top post at the firm until June 2005 when she was named to her initial ministerial post in France. Ms Lagarde has degrees from Institute of Political Studies (IEP) and from the Law School of Paris X University, where she also lectured prior to joining Baker & McKenzie in 1981. Amartya Sen is professor of economics at Harvard University and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics. He is an honorary fellow of LSE. Craig Calhoun is the director of LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Claus Offe | Current debates on “nudges” reflect the decline of traditional tools of policy implementation. This talk explores policy tools – ranging from paternalist manipulation to moral suasion and participatory schemes – that aim at shaping social behaviour. Claus Offe is a professor of theories of the state at Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. Ken Shadlen is a professor in development studies in the Department of International Development at LSE. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).
Contributor(s): Professor Anne Applebaum, Eugeniusz Smolar, Nigel Thorpe, Professor Vladislav Zubok | The Polish roundtable talks and subsequent elections on 4 June 1989 were a crucial step in ending the Cold War. 25 years later, LSE IDEAS and the Polish Embassy in London invite witnesses of the Polish Democratic Transition to join academics to discuss the importance of the events for Poland, for Europe, and for the world. Anne Applebaum was the Phillippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS. Eugeniusz Smolar is a Polish journalist. He was a member of the Polish opposition movement during the 1980s and director of the BBC Polish Section from 1988 to 1997. Nigel Thorpe is a former British diplomat who served twice in Warsaw, was Head of the FCO Central European Department, and Ambassador to Hungary. Vladislav Zubok is a professor of international history at LSE. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording)
Contributor(s): Richard Sharp | Recently created, the Financial Policy Committee is novel and has been in existence for a year. Why was the FPC created and how has macro prudential policy developed? What are the challenges facing the committee in addressing uncertainty and evaluating data to support its policy decisions and what are its priorities? How does the FPC address its dual mandate and evaluate the costs of its actions. Richard will discuss his experience of being an external member of one of the most powerful committees in the country. Richard is an external member of the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England. Richard was appointed as part of the establishment of the FPC in April 2013. He has approximately 30 years’ experience in Banking. Having studied at Oxford he joined JP Morgan where he was involved in the inception of JP Morgan’s first capital markets, derivatives and operations. He subsequently joined Goldman Sachs and was one of the founding partners of their European operations. Richard has had a broad based career at Goldman having headed; capital markets businesses, primary fixed income, investment banking and private equity and principal investing. Having left Goldman in 2007 Richard is chief executive of DII Capital a privately held investment company. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production).
Contributor(s): Dr William MacAskill | Should I work for a non-profit organisation in Africa? Or should I go into the City, and try to earn as much as I can to donate to good causes? William MacAskill is a research associate in the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford and is also president of 80,000 Hours ethical career advisory service. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording)
Contributor(s): Shami Chakrabarti, Professor Nicola Lacey | The British like to believe they are free, but after Snowden, Miranda and the “war on terror”, how true can this be? Are most of us free while those who seek change discover a tenuous grip on freedom? Shami Chakrabarti is director of Liberty. Nicola Lacey is LSE School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).
Contributor(s): Julia Barfield, Nicholas Boys Smith, Paul Finch, Simon Jenkins, Sir Edward Lister, Rowan Moore, Tony Travers, Nicky Gavron | There are now proposals for over 230 new tall buildings to be built in London over the next decade, 80 per cent of which are residential. As London’s population continues to expand, is this high-rise vision of London's future the right one for our city and its people? Kicking off the London Festival of Architecture 2014 programme, Centre for London, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and New London Architecture (NLA) host a public discussion to debate the motion 'London needs many more tall buildings'. Julia Barfield is director of Mark Barfield Associates. Nicholas Boys Smith is director of Create Streets. Paul Finch is programme director of the World Architecture Festival. Nicky Gavron is chair of the Planning Committee at the London Assembly. Sarah Gaventa is an associate at RSH+P. Sir Edward Lister is deputy mayor for Policy and Planning at the GLA. Simon Jenkins is chairman of the National Trust. Rowan Moore is architecture critic for The Observer. Tony Travers is director of LSE London. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording)
Contributor(s): Professor Catherine Malabou, Dr Michael O’Rourke, Dr Danielle Sands | Speaking both as a woman and a philosopher, Catherine Malabou will guide us through the philosophical, cultural, and biological questions surrounding gender and sexual difference. Catherine Malabou is a professor of modern European philosophy at Kingston University. Michael O’Rourke is a lecturer in the School of Arts and Psychotherapy at Independent Colleges, Dublin. Danielle Sands is a visiting lecturer in the Department of English at Queen Mary, University of London and a Forum for European Philosophy fellow. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording)
Contributor(s): Billy Bragg | Is it possible to be both progressive and patriotic? Billy Bragg argues that from Magna Carta to Euro-scepticism, England is a nation that has been defined by dissent. Billy Bragg (@billybragg) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. Robin Archer is a reader in political sociology in the Department of Sociology at LSE. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).
Contributor(s): Johannes Hahn | With reforms now in place, EU regional policy focuses more than ever on investment that will improve the quality of life of EU citizens. € 350 billion - the EU's second biggest spending priority - will above all support small and medium-sized enterprises, research and innovation, renewable energies and energy efficiency, education, and fight against unemployment and poverty. How can we ensure it is well spent? We will be asking to what extent the reforms challenge the traditional convergence role of the policy with its focus on the poorer regions. The discussion will also assess how profound the reforms are and, at a time when the UK is reconsidering its position in the EU, we will reflect on whether regional policy is better carried out at national level. Johannes Hahn will be in conversation with Professor Iain Begg. Johannes Hahn (@JHahnEU) is European commissioner for regional and urban policy. Iain Begg is a professorial research fellow at the European Institute, LSE.
Contributor(s): Gail Kelly | Come and hear Gail’s thoughts on leadership and what it takes to succeed in the current environment. Gail will share her insights, perspectives and lessons learnt drawing from personal experience over 12 years as a CEO of a major financial institution in Australia. Gail started her career as a teacher in South Africa and made the switch to banking in 1980. With over 30 years of banking experience, she is currently chief executive officer of the Westpac Group. Westpac ranks in the top 15 banks worldwide by market capitalisation and was recently named the World’s most sustainable company at Davos 2014. Gail is chairman of the Australian Bankers’ Association, a non-executive director of the Business Council of Australia and is CARE Australia’s ambassador for women’s empowerment. Gail also sits on the Global Board of Advisers at the US Council on Foreign Relations and is a member of the Group of Thirty.
Contributor(s): Professor Richard Clogg, Professor Evanthis Hatzivassiliou, Professor Constantinos Tsoukalas | This year marks the 40th anniversary of the collapse of the Greek Junta and its democratic transition. July 1974 and the events that followed were a pivotal moment for modern Greece - the inclusiveness of its political system; the return of many from the diaspora; the creation of new political parties; a shift in its foreign policy; and a path towards Europe. The panel will explore the issues and legacies that marked the end of the Colonels' regime and relate them to recent events. Professor Richard Clogg is emeritus fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford and a former professor of modern Balkan history at the University of London. Professor Evanthis Hatzivassiliou is an associate professor in the department of history at the University of Athens, and an associate of the LSE IDEAS Southern Europe International Affairs Programme. Professor Constantinos Tsoukalas studied law in law school at the University of Athens and law philosophy and philosophy of sociology in the universities of Heidelberg, Munich, Paris and Yale. In 1974 he was awarded the Doctor Degree in Letters and Human Sciences in Paris University. He is now professor emeritus of Sociology of the University of Athens.
Contributor(s): Professor T.V. Paul | Seemingly from its birth, Pakistan has been struggling to build a proper democracy and a secure state. Today it ranks 133rd out of 148 countries in global competitiveness. Its economy is as dysfunctional as its political system is corrupt; both rely heavily on international aid for their existence. Taliban forces occupy many key areas of the country and engage in random violence. It possesses over a hundred nuclear weapons that could fall into terrorists’ hands. Why, in an era when countries across the developing world are experiencing impressive economic growth and building democratic institutions, has Pakistan been such a conspicuously weak state? In The Warrior State, noted international relations and South Asia scholar T.V. Paul untangles this fascinating riddle. Paul argues that the “geostrategic curse”—akin to the “resource curse” that plagues oil-rich autocracies—is at the root of Pakistan’s unique inability to progress. Since its founding in 1947, Pakistan has been at the centre of major geopolitical struggles: the US-Soviet rivalry, the conflict with India, and most recently the post 9/11 wars. No matter how ineffective the regime is, massive foreign aid keeps pouring in from major powers, their allies and global financial institutions with a stake in the region. The reliability of such aid defuses any pressure on political elites to launch the far-reaching domestic reforms necessary to promote sustained growth, higher standards of living, and more stable democratic institutions. Paul shows that excessive war-making efforts have drained Pakistan’s limited economic resources without making the country safer or more stable. Indeed, despite the regime’s emphasis on security, the country continues to be beset by widespread violence and terrorism. In this lecture Professor Paul offers a comprehensive treatment of Pakistan’s insecurity predicament drawing from the literatures in history, sociology, religious studies, and international relations. He will also compare Pakistan with other national security states, Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Taiwan and Korea and their different trajectories. His book of the same title is the first to apply the “war-making and state-making” literature to explain Pakistan’s weak state syndrome. T.V. Paul is James McGill Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at McGill University, Montreal, and a leading scholar of international security, regional security, and South Asia. He was director (founding) of the McGill/University of Montreal Centre for International Peace and Security Studies (CIPSS) during 2009-12. His 15 books include: The Warrior State: Pakistan in the Contemporary World (Oxford University Press, 2014); Status in World Politics (co-edited, Cambridge University Press, 2014); Globalization and the National Security State (co-authored, Oxford University Press, 2010); The Tradition of Non-use of Nuclear Weapons (Stanford University Press 2009); India in the World Order: Searching for Major Power Status (co-authored, Cambridge University Press 2002); The India-Pakistan Conflict: An Enduring Rivalry (Cambridge University Press, 2005); and South Asia’s Weak States: Understanding the Regional Insecurity Predicament (Stanford University Press 2010).
Contributor(s): Dr Maria Alvarez, Professor Lisa Bortolotti, Professor Christian List, Dr Magda Osman | Traditional philosophical accounts of decision making assume that conscious rational thinking leads to wise choices. But recent psychological evidence suggests that we should trust our intuitions instead and ‘go with the flow’. Do these views conflict? If so, which one is correct? Or are both rational thinking and intuition ways of choosing for a reason? This panel discussion will bring philosophers and psychologists together to discuss these and other questions raised by recent research on decision making. Maria Alvarez is a reader in philosophy at King’s College London. Lisa Bortolotti is a professor of philosophy at the University of Birmingham. Christian List is a professor of political science and philosophy at LSE. Magda Osman is a senior lecturer in experimental cognitive psychology at Queen Mary, University of London.
Contributor(s): Professor Jonathan Nitzan | Theorists and policymakers from all directions and of all persuasions remain obsessed with the prospect of recovery. For mainstream economists, the key question is how to bring about such a recovery. For heterodox political economists, the main issue is whether sustained growth is possible to start with. But there is a prior question that nobody seems to ask: can capitalists afford recovery in the first place? If we think of capital not as means of production but as a mode of power, we find that accumulation thrives not on growth and investment, but on unemployment and stagnation. And if accumulation depends on crisis, why should capitalists want to see a recovery? Jonathan Nitzan is a professor of political economy at York University in Toronto and co-author, with Professor Shimshon Bichler, of Capital as Power: A Study of Order and Creorder.
Contributor(s): Professor David Stark | Professor Stark discusses the conditions for innovation; analysis of dissonance, including the necessity of a healthy critical social science and humanities to innovation. David Stark is LSE Centennial Professor and Arthur Lehman Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Columbia University. Mike Power is professor of accounting at the Department of Accounting and former director of the Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR) at LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor David Hulme, Professor Thomas Pogge | What do we owe to the global poor? David Hulme and Thomas Pogge will discuss questions of global poverty from the point of view of development studies and political philosophy. David Hulme is a professor of development studies at the University of Manchester. Thomas Pogge is Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University.
Contributor(s): Dr Rebecca Empson | In this lecture Rebecca outlines an economy based on the temporary, rather than outright possession of resources and commodities. Ethnographic evidence shows that such transient forms of possession can come to shape the very financial forms we might have assumed were incompatible with them. Mongolians located at the periphery of financial centres thereby come to shape wider economic practices that impact upon what we have understood capitalism to be. Theoretically, this may be taken as a broader critique of the idea of the ‘performativity of economics’ and the need to acknowledge the complex motivations that drive people toward different kinds of economic activity, including emotive feelings of trust, secrecy and uncertainty, as well the politics of accumulation in a rapidly changing landscape of economic potential. Rebecca Empson is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at UCL. She works in Mongolia on ideas about kinship, economics and material culture. Her monograph, Harnessing Fortune: Personhood, Memory and Place in Mongolia is published by Oxford University Press (2011). In September this year she will begin a new ERC-funded project exploring the form of capitalism emerging in Mongolia’s mineral economy, entitled: Emerging Subjects of the New Economy: Tracing Economic Growth in Mongolia. Rita Astuti is professor of social anthropology and head of the anthropology department at the LSE.
Contributor(s): Dr Marc Valeri | Oman’s foreign policy under Qaboos is usually considered to be pragmatic and independent – as illustrated by the sultanate’s role in facilitating the conclusion of the Iran-P5+1 nuclear deal in 2013 and its announcement that it would not join a hypothetical Gulf union. However such a widely accepted view should not obscure the fact that the price to pay for the perpetuation of this foreign policy has been an unquestioned political and economic dependence towards London and Washington. Marc Valeri is Senior Lecturer in Political Economy of the Middle East and Director of the Centre for Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter. He is the author of Oman Politics and Society in the Qaboos State.
Contributor(s): Professor Gerd Gigerenzer | Remember the volcanic ash cloud over Iceland? The subprime disaster? What about mad cow disease? Each new crisis makes us worry until we start worrying about the next one. When something goes wrong, we are told that the way to prevent further crises is through better technology, more laws, and bigger bureaucracy. How to protect ourselves from the threat of terrorism? Homeland security, full body scanners, further sacrifice of individual freedom. How to counteract exploding costs in health care? Tax hikes, rationalization, better genetic markers. One idea is absent from these lists: risk-savvy citizens. And there is a reason for that. Many experts have concluded that people are basically hopeless when it comes to risk and, like a child who needs a parent, require continuous “nudging." Against this pessimistic view, I will argue that instead of being the solution, experts are often part of the problem, and that everyone can learn to deal with risk and uncertainty on their own. A democracy needs risk-savvy citizens who cannot be easily frightened into surrendering their money, their welfare, and their liberty. Gerd Gigerenzer is managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, former professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and author of Risk Savvy: How to Make Good Decisions.
Contributor(s): Charlie Bean | In this lecture Charlie Bean, outgoing deputy governor of the Bank of England and visiting professor in the LSE Department of Economics will reflect on the economic events of the past decade and their impact on the role of the central bank. Nicholas Stern is the first holder of the IG Patel Chair of Economics and Government.
Contributor(s): Professor Wlodek Rabinowicz | Pragmatic arguments for rationality constraints on a decision maker’s beliefs or preferences show that disobeying such constraints makes one vulnerable to exploitation. Wlodek Rabinowicz will suggest that the proposed exploitation set-ups share a common feature: roughly, a constraint violator can be exploited only if she decides on various issues separately rather than in a unified manner. Some measure of disunification is a part of the human condition. Pragmatic arguments identify safeguards of a disunified mind. Wlodek Rabinowicz is a professor of practical philosophy at Lund University and LSE Centennial Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method.
Contributor(s): Philippe Costeletos, Wolfgang Munchau, Vicky Pryce, Horst Reichenbach | The event is organised by the Hellenic Observatory, LSE and the Hellenic Bankers Association, UK in the framework of the Hellenic Presidency of the EU Council. After the emergency actions taken at the height of the euro-crisis, serious attention has focussed on how the ‘bail-out’ states can return to growth on a sustainable and socially-inclusive basis. In part, this will depend on whether Europe has the right policies in place. A crucial dimension is also that of how Europe can best support reform in the bail-out states: are they receiving the right mix of support? How should external leverage be applied? And what is the best domestic strategy for the bail-out states themselves? Are they doing enough? The panel will address both the European and the national agendas, focussing on the Greek case in particular. Philippe Costeletos, Managing Partner and co-Founder, DMC Partners. Wolfgang Munchau, Associate Editor Financial Times & Co-founder & President of Eurointelligence ASBL. Vicky Pryce, Economist and Chief Economic Adviser, CEBR. Horst Reichenbach, Head of the Task Force for Greece in the European Commission. There will be a welcome address by Stratos Chatzigiannis, Chairman, Hellenic Bankers Association-UK.
Contributor(s): Raphael Espinoza | Raphael Espinoza's talk will analyse the challenges created by the changes the economies of the Gulf states have gone through in the last decade, spurred by high oil prices and ambitious diversification plans. Raphael Espinoza is an economist in the research department at the International Monetary Fund and an external research associate at the Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford. Danny Quah is Kuwait Professor of Economics and International Development (endowed by the Kuwait Foundation) and Director of the LSE Kuwait Programme.
Contributor(s): Professor Saskia Sassen, Professor Ash Amin | In her new book, Expulsions: brutality and complexity in the global economy, Saskia Sassen explores how today’s socioeconomic and environmental dislocations can be understood as a type of expulsion – from professional livelihood, from living space, even from the very biosphere that makes life possible. Saskia Sassen (@SaskiaSassen) is the Robert S Lynd Professor of Sociology and co-chair of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Ash Amin is the 1931 Chair of Geography at the University of Cambridge. Ricky Burdett (@BURDETTR) is professor of urban studies at the Department of Sociology, director of LSE Cities, and the Urban Age Programme at LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Sylvia Chant, Professor Inderpal Grewal | In this Gender Institute 20th Anniversary Conference keynote, two distinguished scholars – Sylvia Chant and Inderpal Grewal – will reflect on the presence of gender from the unique intersection of social science and humanities perspectives. Sylvia Chant’s paper is entitled Feminisation of Poverty’: ‘Win-Win’, ‘Lose-Lose’… or Gains at the Margin? The ‘feminisation of poverty’ has enjoyed a prominent place in Gender and Development (GAD) discourse and policy for around 20 years, coinciding with the founding of the LSE’s Gender Institute in the early 1990s. Yet although the LSE Gender Institute has evolved beyond all recognition in the past two decades, various associations of the ‘feminisation of poverty’ have remained remarkably enduring. In reviewing the origins, abiding tenets and policy implications of the ‘feminisation of poverty’, this lecture questions the extent to which women at the grassroots have gained from this construct, and whether it is now time to reframe it, especially in the context of the ‘smart economics’ agenda for gender equality and ‘female empowerment’. Inderpal Grewal’s paper is entitled Neoliberal Security and the hyper-visibility of Sexual Violence and the State. Focusing on two recent protest movements in India, one against corruption and the other against sexual violence, the lecture examines how and why sexual violence and corruption become mutually exclusive protests. Professor Grewal’s interest lies in understanding the gendering of the state through specific forms of authority and sovereignty that were able to separate and capture these protests. She suggests that continued demands on the state for security, both as welfare and as militarization, legitimizes privatized, dispersed and neoliberal sovereignties, even as it abjects particular forms of masculinity and privileges others. This is the keynote public lecture for the Gender Institute’s 20th Anniversary Conference The Presence of Gender. Sylvia Chant is a professor of development geography at LSE. Inderpal Grewal is a professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Yale University.
Contributor(s): Professor Lawrence Gostin, Professor Richard Ashcroft | Lawrence Gostin will discuss his new book, Global Health Law, examining critical health threats such as obesity, HIV/AIDS and climate change, and will offer creative ideas for achieving global health with justice. Richard Ashcroft is a professor of bioethics at Queen Mary, University of London. Lawrence Gostin is O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law at Georgetown University.
Contributor(s): Professor Yuli Tamir | Borders exclude non-members but force all classes to share risks and benefits. Is it the upper classes who have most to gain from abolishing borders? Yuli Tamir is an academic, former Israeli politician and author of Liberal Nationalism.
Contributor(s): Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, Professor Mark Kleiman, Dr Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch | This event will present the report of the Expert Group on the Economics of Drug Policy, the most thorough independent economic analysis of the current international drug control strategy ever conducted. Mauricio Lopez Bonilla (@mlopezbonilla) is the minister of interior of Guatemala. Mark Kleiman (@MarkARKleiman) is a professor of public policy in the UCLA School of Public Affairs. Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch (@OSFKasia) is director of the Open Society Global Drug Policy Program. Danny Quah (@DannyQuah) is Senior Fellow at LSE IDEAS. He is also Professor of Economics and International Development and Kuwait Professor at LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Sidney Winter | Innovative activity is commonly conceived in terms of flashes of creative insight, but success often rewards expertise, persistence and practice as much as creativity. The lecture will develop and illustrate this observation. Sidney Winter (@sidwindc) is a BP Centennial Professor in the Department of Management at LSE.
Contributor(s): Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, Professor Mark Kleiman, Dr Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch | This event will present the report of the Expert Group on the Economics of Drug Policy, the most thorough independent economic analysis of the current international drug control strategy ever conducted. Mauricio Lopez Bonilla (@mlopezbonilla) is the minister of interior of Guatemala. Mark Kleiman (@MarkARKleiman) is a professor of public policy in the UCLA School of Public Affairs. Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch (@OSFKasia) is director of the Open Society Global Drug Policy Program. Danny Quah (@DannyQuah) is Senior Fellow at LSE IDEAS. He is also Professor of Economics and International Development and Kuwait Professor at LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Robert Sutton | Stanford professor Robert Sutton will discuss the lessons that he and colleague Huggy Rao gleaned from their seven year study of ‘the problem of more’, the challenge of spreading constructive beliefs and actions from those who have them to those who don’t. In other words, what it takes to scale up without screwing up. Robert Sutton (@work_matters) is a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University and the author of six books including The No Asshole Rule and Good Boss, Bad Boss. This event marks the publication of his latest book, Scaling up Excellence.
Contributor(s): Enrique Garcia, Dr Daniel E Ortega, Dr Alvaro Mendez | The lecture will present the findings of CAF’s Economy and Development Report - RED 2013. Latin America’s low aggregate productivity growth is reflected in an overwhelming number of one-person enterprises and micro-businesses and a shortage of medium-sized and larger establishments capable of generating quality jobs and productivity gains. A lot of these small-scale enterprises stem from lack of other opportunities in the labour market and do not have the potential to become dynamic or transforming. Meanwhile, dynamic firms face external and internal restrictions to grow and to create enough high-quality jobs. The Economics and Development Report 2013 emphasizes the role of entrepreneurship—the creation of companies that generate sustained increases in employment and productivity—as a key factor to Latin America’s development. It does so in a comprehensive way, reviewing not only the potential impediments for high-skilled innovative entrepreneurs to realize their projects, but also the reasons why entrepreneurs with less potential opt for entrepreneurial activities instead of a salaried job. One of the report’s main messages is that these two phenomena –constrained growth for dynamic companies and abundance of subsistence enterprises—are closely linked; and recognizing this link is crucial to designing entrepreneurship policy. This policy also needs to adopt a multidimensional approach, integrating things like entrepreneurial talent, innovation fostering, financial access, and training. Enrique García has been president and CEO of CAF (Development Bank of Latin America) since December 1991. He is the Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Latin America, Vice President of Canning House, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Dialogue, member of the Advisory Board of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Harvard Kennedy School Dean ́s Council, the board of the Doña Maria de las Mercedes Foundation in Seville, among others. Daniel E Ortega is senior economist and impact evaluation coordinator at the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF). Dr Ortega is also an adjunct professor at IESA Business School in Caracas. His research focuses on microeconomics of development, with emphasis on social experimentation and impact evaluation of public policies in different areas such as education, citizen security, sports for development and tax collection. His research has been published in refereed academic journals and has been part of the team producing CAF's flagship report since 2006. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland.
Contributor(s): Cherie Blair | To mark the completion of the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, the first brand new building on campus for more than 40 years, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the LSE Students’ Union have organised a series of ‘in conversation’ events with some of the School's distinguished alumni. These events will take place in the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre and will be open to LSE students, alumni and staff. This event will see Cherie Blair in conversation with Professor Julia Black. Wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, leading lawyer and committed campaigner for women’s rights, Cherie founded the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in 2008 to help women build small and growing businesses in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East so that they can contribute to their economies and have a stronger voice in their societies. She is also Chancellor of the Asian University for Women which seeks to educate girls from within the region to become leaders. Cherie graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a law degree and was called to the Bar in 1976. She became a Queen’s Counsel in 1995 and in 2000 co-founded Matrix Chambers. Cherie is the Co-Founder and Chair of Omnia Strategy LLP, a law firm based in London that provides strategic counsel to government, corporate and private clients. She has over 35 years as a leading barrister specialising in public law, human rights, European Community law and arbitration. Cherie currently also sits as a part-time judge and is an accredited mediator. Cherie was awarded a CBE in the 2013 New Year's Honours List for services to Women's Issues and to charity in the UK and Overseas.
Contributor(s): Professor Julio Faundez, Dr Asunción Lera St Clair, Craig Mokhiber | What should most preoccupy people concerned with the socio-economic state of the world today and its attendant human costs? To which institutions, regions, and issues should we turn our attention? What disciplines and forms of interdisciplinarity might best fill gaps in scholarship? The UN has announced that it will prioritise human rights in the economic sphere: what does it hope to fix? This panel discussion of LSE’s Laboratory for Advanced Research on the Global Economy at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights will bring together three outstanding speakers who together have engaged with a vast range of institutions, worked within a variety of disciplines, and sought through decades of scholarship and practice to confront the challenges and causes of global economic injustice. We have asked them to offer their insights on where we should be putting our energies, and why, if we are going to try to save the world. Professor Julio Faundez is professor of international economic law at Warwick University specialising in law and development. He has written extensively on law and democracy, legal and judicial reform and has evaluated legal reform projects for the World Bank, DfID and the Inter-American Development Bank. He has advised several national and international agencies on governance and justice reform. He is co-editor-in-chief of Hague Journal on the Rule of Law and editor of the book series Law, Development and Globalization (Routledge). Recent publications include: Law and Development: Critical Concepts (ed.), Routledge, 2012 and International Economic Law, Globalization and Developing Countries (co-editor), Edward Elgar, 2010. Philosopher and sociologist, Asunción Lera St Clair (@asunstclair) is research director at the International Centre for Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo (CICERO). St Clair is lead author of the IPCC AR5 for the Working Group II Report, and member of the Joint Programming Initiative Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe. She is member of the Swedish Research Council Climate program; president of the International Development Ethics Association; and sits on a range of editorial boards. Dr St Clair has published widely on climate change, critical poverty studies, development ethics, human rights and global justice, with a particular focus on epistemology and processes of knowledge production. Dr St Clair is a member of the Sounding Board of the Laboratory for Advanced Research on the Global Economy. Craig Mokhiber is chief of development and economic and social issues branch in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva (@UNrightswire). A lawyer and specialist in international human rights law, policy and methodology, he has served the UN human rights programme since January of 1992 in Geneva, New York, as well as in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Afghanistan. His fieldwork includes dozens of human rights missions in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Eastern Europe and he currently serves as co-chair of the UN Working Group on the Resident Coordinator System. Mokhiber has served on the Secretariat of the World Conference on Human Rights (1993) among many others over 20 years, recently representing the OHCHR in the Rio+20 negotiations in 2012. Craig Mokhiber has lectured and published on a range of human rights themes.
Contributor(s): Dr Ha-Joon Chang | In Economics: The User's Guide, which he will talk about in this public lecture, bestselling author Ha-Joon Chang explains how the global economy works, and why anyone can understand the dismal science. Unlike many economists who claim there is only one way of 'doing economics', he introduces readers to a wide range of economic theories, from classical to Keynesian to institutionalist to Austrian, revealing how they all have their strengths, weaknesses and blind spots. By challenging the received wisdom, and exposing the myriad forces that shape our economic life, Chang provides the tools that every responsible citizen needs to understand - and address - our current economic woes. Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at Cambridge University. His book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism was a no.1 bestseller and was called by the Observer 'a witty and timely debunking of some of the biggest myths surrounding the global economy.' He is a popular columnist at the Guardian, and a vocal critic of the failures of our economic system.
Contributor(s): Dr Bryan Roberts, Professor Mairi Sakellariadou | Galileo famously wrote that natural philosophy is “written in the language of mathematics”. Why is it that abstract pieces of mathematics, like an imaginary number, often later turn out to be surprisingly effective in describing concrete aspects of the natural world? Eleanor Knox is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at King’s College London. Mairi Sakellariadou is a professor of theoretical physics at King’s College London. Bryan Roberts is assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE and Forum for European Philosophy fellow.
Contributor(s): F. Gregory Gause, III | The contest for influence in the post-Arab Spring Middle East is being played out in the domestic politics of states where governance is weak, collapsing or collapsed. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Israel and other states seek to gain influence and check each other by finding allies in the domestic political struggles of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and elsewhere. Meanwhile, ideological struggles in both Sunni and Shia Islam and between more Islamist and more secular forces complicate the already difficult task of reconstructing state authority, inviting foreign intervention and influence across the region. F. Gregory Gause, III is professor of political science at the University of Vermont and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center. From 1997 to 2008 he was director of the university's Middle East Studies Program and from 2010 to 2013 he was chair of the Political Science Department. He was previously on the faculty of Columbia University (1987-1995) and was Fellow for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York (1993-1994). During the 2009-10 academic year he was Kuwait Foundation Visiting Professor of International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. In spring 2009 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the American University in Kuwait. In spring 2010 he was a research fellow at the King Faisal Center for Islamic Studies and Research in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His research interests focus on the international politics of the Middle East, with a particular interest in the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf.
Contributor(s): Professor Jennifer Jenkins | The Nazi-Soviet Pact, a central topic in the scholarship on the Second World War, is generally studied in its political and European dimensions. It was the instrument for the coming together of two unlikely ideological allies in the destruction and acquisition of Poland. By contrast the economic aspects of the Pact are understudied, although they were fundamental to how it functioned. They also worked through transnational networks that stretched far beyond Europe. Professor Jennifer Jenkins will take a new look at the Nazi-Soviet Pact by embedding it in German and Soviet economic policies toward the Near East, specifically with Iran, from the early Weimar period forward. She will also explore the history of German-Soviet-Persian economic cooperation in the interwar period, Iran's importance as a zone of cooperation between Germany and the USSR, and its place in the making of the Pact.
Contributor(s): Professor Felipe Fernández-Armesto | In this talk Felipe Fernández-Armesto aims to traduce the Anglo myth that has dominated US historiography, by suggesting that regional approaches to US history have disclosed facts previously under-acknowledged: the country - in parts, especially - has a past that closely resembles that of most Latin American republics, and a future increasingly convergent with other parts of the Americas. Felipe Fernández-Armesto is the William P Reynolds Professor of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame and the author, most recently, of Our America.
Contributor(s): Dr Kevin Sheedy | This talk discusses the policies adopted by central banks during the financial crisis, in particular forward guidance and quantitative easing. Kevin Sheedy is a lecturer at LSE. His research focuses on inflation, (optimal) monetary policy and the effects of monetary policy on real activity.
Contributor(s): Pier Carlo Padoan | Pier Carlo Padoan was appointed minister of economy and finance in the Italian Government led by Matteo Renzi on 24 February 2014. Mr Padoan was professor of economics at the University La Sapienza of Rome, and director of the Fondazione Italianieuropei, a policy think-tank focusing on economic and social issues. On 1 June 2007 Mr Padoan was appointed deputy secretary-general of the OECD. As of 1 December 2009 he was also appointed chief economist while retaining his role as deputy secretary-general. In addition to heading the Economics Department, Mr Padoan was the G20 finance deputy for the OECD and has also lead the Strategic Response, the Green Growth and Innovation initiatives of the Organisation. From 2001 to 2005, Mr Padoan was the Italian executive director at the International Monetary Fund, with responsibility for Greece, Portugal, San Marino, Albania and Timor Leste. He served as a member of the Board and chaired a number of Board Committees. During his mandate at the IMF he was also in charge of European Co-ordination. From 1998 to 2001, Mr Padoan served as economic adviser to the Italian Prime Ministers, Massimo D’Alema and Giuliano Amato, in charge of international economic policies. He was responsible for coordinating the Italian position in the Agenda 2000 negotiations for the EU budget, Lisbon Agenda, European Council, bilateral meetings, and G8 Summits. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, European Commission, European Central Bank. Mr Padoan has a degree in economics from the University of Rome and has held various academic positions in Italian and foreign universities, including the College of Europe (Bruges and Warsaw), Université Libre de Bruxelles, University of Urbino, Universidad de la Plata, and University of Tokyo. He has published widely in international academic journals and is the author and editor of several books.
Contributor(s): Professor Archie Brown | The conventional wisdom, shared by many politicians and political commentators, is that strong leaders who dominate their colleagues and the policy-making process are the most successful and admirable. Brown argues this is a dangerous illusion. Archie Brown is emeritus professor of politics at Oxford University and author, most recently, of The Myth of the Strong Leader. He is an LSE alumnus.