Summer 2012 | Public lectures and events | Video: Recent Episodes
London School of Economics and Political Science
Video files from LSE's summer 2012 programme of public lectures and events, for more recordings and pdf documents see the corresponding audio collection.
Contributor(s): Professor Mick Cox | Professor Mick Cox is one of Europe’s leading commentators on the United States. He holds a Chair in International Relations and is also Co-Director of IDEAS, a Centre for the Study of Diplomacy and Strategy at LSE. He is the author, editor and co-editor of over twenty books. His most recent books include a major popular text on US Foreign Policy published by Oxford University Press, and a study on US Presidents and Democracy Promotion. He is a regular visitor to the United States and China and holds Visiting Professorships in Rome, Milan and Melbourne.
Contributor(s): Pankaj Mishra | The Victorian period, viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe, with foreign soldiers and merchants tearing apart the great empires which had once formed the heart of civilization. In his new book From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia, which he will discuss in this event Pankaj Mishra allows the reader to see foreign imperialism anew, through the eyes of the journalists, poets, radicals and charismatics who criss-crossed Europe and Asia – and through their thoughts and writings to understand how China, India and the Muslim World are remaking the world we know – in their own image, not that of the West. Pankaj Mishra is the author of Temptations of the West, An End to Suffering, The Romantics and Butter Chicken in Ludhiana. He writes regularly for The Guardian, New York Times, New York Review of Books and New Statesman.
Contributor(s): Sir Stephen Wall, George Eustice MP, Roger Helmer MEP, Mark Reckless MP, Dr Helen Szamuely | With the crisis continuing in the eurozone, recent polls suggest that the vast majority of the British electorate would be in favour of a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. In the current climate the voices of those in favour of the European project have been noticeable by their absence. Today programme presenter Evan Davis chairs this debate on the motion "Britain should stay in the European Union." Tony Blair's former EU adviser Sir Stephen Wall will defend the proposition against a panel that are opposed to Britain remaining in the EU in its current guise. Sir Stephen Wall worked closely with five British Foreign Secretaries and was Foreign Policy Adviser to Prime Minister John Major. He was British Ambassador to Portugal from 1993 to 1995, Permanent Representative to the European Union from 1995 to 2000 and Head of the European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office and EU adviser to the Prime Minister from 2000 to 2004. From 2004 to 2005 he was the Principal Adviser to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster. Sir Stephen is Chair of the Council of University College, London, Chair of the Federal Trust, Chair of Trustees at Cumberland Lodge, Member of the Council of Wilton Park, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Thomson Foundation, Trustee of the Franco-British Council and Honorary Fellow of Selwyn College Cambridge. He is also on the Council of the European Council on Foreign Relations. George Eustice is the Conservative MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle. George was born and brought up in Cornwall. After a time working in the family farming business, he gained nine years political campaign experience, first for the anti-euro 'No Campaign' as its Campaign Director between 1999 and 2003 and then as the Conservative Party's Head of Press under Michael Howard between 2003 and the 2005 General Election. He was David Cameron's Press Secretary from June 2005 until the end of 2007 and was part of his campaign team during the leadership contest. Roger Helmer was first elected to the European parliament in 1999 for the East Midlands region, subsequently being re-elected in 2004 and 2009. He defected from the Conservative Party to UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) in March 2012. Roger won a State Scholarship to Churchill College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics, graduating in 1965 with a B.A. and subsequently an M.A. He started his business career in 1965 with Procter & Gamble in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, going on to hold senior marketing and general management appointments in a range of companies, including well-known multinationals like Readers Digest, National Semiconductor, Coats Viyella and the whisky firm United Distillers, now part of the drinks conglomerate Diageo. Mark Reckless is the Conservative member of parliament for Rochester and Strood, having been elected in 2010. He serves on the Home Affairs Select Committee. Mark graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and has an MBA from Columbia Business School. More recently he has trained as a barrister, gaining an LLB from the College of Law and being called to the Bar in 2007. Dr Helen Szamuely is head of research for the Bruges Group and blogger on Your Freedom and Ours. She was a founder member of the EU Referendum blog and is a researcher in the House of Lords. Evan Davis joined the presenter team on Today in April 2008 following a six-and-a-half year stint as the BBC's economics editor. He also presents The Bottom Line, Radio 4's business discussion programme and Dragons' Den, the BBC Two business reality show. Before his promotion to editor, Evan worked for BBC Two's Newsnight from 1997 to 2001 and as a general economics correspondent from 1993.
Contributor(s): William Jefferson Clinton | William Jefferson Clinton is the Founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation| and 42nd President of the United States. He was the first Democratic president in six decades to be elected twice — first in 1992 and then in 1996. After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to improve global health, strengthen economies, promote healthier childhoods, and protect the environment by fostering partnerships among governments, businesses, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and private citizens to turn good intentions into measurable results. Today the Foundation has staff and volunteers around the world working to improve lives through several initiatives, including the Clinton Health Access Initiative (formerly the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative) which is helping more than 4 million people living with HIV/AIDS access lifesaving drugs. Other initiatives – including the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Clinton Development Initiative, and the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative – are applying a business-oriented approach worldwide to fight climate change and develop sustainable economic growth in Africa and Latin America. Established in 2005, the Clinton Global Initiative brings together global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. In the U.S., the Foundation is working to combat the alarming rise in childhood obesity through the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and is helping individuals and families succeed and small businesses grow. Celebrated actress and humanitarian Ashley Judd has served on the Board of Directors for PSI since 2004, after serving as Global Ambassador for PSI’s HIV education and prevention program, YouthAIDS, since 2002. Ms Judd has visited legislators on Capitol Hill, addressed the General Assembly of the UN, spoken at the National Press Club, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations and at the Condé Nast World Savers Congress, and served as an expert panellist at the Clinton Global Initiative. In addition to her role with PSI, Ms Judd serves on the Board of Directors of Defenders of Wildlife and the Advisory Councils of the International Center for Research on Women, Demand Abolition, and Apne Aap Worldwide. Most recently, she released her first book, a memoir entitled All that is Bitter and Sweet which speaks to her deep commitment for global health.
Contributor(s): Professor Danny Quah | Danny Quah is Professor of Economics and Kuwait Professor at LSE. He is Senior Fellow at LSE IDEAS, and had previously served as LSE’s Head of Department for Economics (2006-2009) and Council Member on Malaysia’s National Economic Advisory Council (2009-2011). Quah is also Tan Chin Tuan Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore, and lectures regularly at Peking University. He holds degrees from Princeton and Harvard, and was Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at MIT before joining LSE. In 2011 Quah gave the Inaugural LSE Big Questions Lecture, on East Beats West. His current research focuses on the shifting global economy and the rise of the east.
Contributor(s): Dr Ernestina Coast, Gary Darmstadt, Karl Hofmann, Ashley Judd, Nina Muita | On July 11, the UK Government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will launch the London Summit on Family Planning. The unprecedented event will bring world leaders together to catalyze political and financial commitments to reach the needs of an additional 120 million women who lack access to modern, voluntary family planning methods. One day prior on July 10, LSE Health and PSI (Population Services International) will co-host a public discussion about the summit's relevance to health, economic, and environmental challenges facing every country - and why everyone, in every sector, has a critical role to play.
Contributor(s): Professor Hamid Dabashi | Will the dispute over Iran's potential nuclear proliferation lead to war? Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
Contributor(s): Professor Lord Robert Skidelsky, Dr Maurice Glasman | Why do we work almost as hard as we did 40 years ago, despite being on average twice as rich? Robert Skidelsky suggests an escape from the work and consumption treadmill. This event marks the publication of Robert and Edward Skidelsky's new book How Much is Enough? The Economics of the Good Life. Dr Maurice Glasman is a reader in political theory at London Metropolitan University, author of Unnecessary Suffering and a Labour Peer. Robert Skidelsky is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three-volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, and he recently published Keynes: The Return of the Master.
Contributor(s): Andrew Blum | The internet is not some abstract "cloud" of connectivity - it exists in tubes - on the ground and under the sea. Andrew Blum explains how the internet exists in the real world and makes the case for why we all need to understand this. This event celebrates the publication of Tubes: Behind the Scenes at the Internet. Andrew Blum is a correspondent at Wired (U.S.) magazine whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times.
Contributor(s): Professor Joseph E Stiglitz | In his new book, The Price of Inequality, which he will discuss in this lecture Joseph Stiglitz considers the causes of inequality, why is it growing so rapidly and what are its economic impacts? He explains that markets are neither efficient nor stable and will tend to accumulate money in the hands of the few rather than engender competition and considers our political system that frequently shapes markets in ways that advantage the richest over the rest. He shows how moving money from the middle and bottom of society to the top, far from stimulating entrepreneurship actually produces slower growth and lower GDP with even more instability. Redistributing wealth from the very rich would produce far greater gains overall in our economies than the rich would lose. Joseph Stiglitz was Chief Economist at the World Bank until January 2000. He is currently University Professor of the Columbia Business School and Chair of the Management Board and Director of Graduate Summer Programs, Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001 and is the best-selling author of Globalization and Its Discontents, The Roaring Nineties, Making Globalization Work and Freefall, all published by Penguin. Professor Stiglitz will also be in discussion with Professor Amartya Sen on Thursday 28 June at 6.30pm. Details of this event: A Lecture by Joseph E Stiglitz.
Contributor(s): Professor Joseph E Stiglitz, Professor Amartya Sen | Joseph E Stiglitz was chief economist at the World Bank until January 2000. He is currently University Professor at Columbia University and won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. Amartya Sen teaches economics and philosophy at Harvard University, and was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, until 2004. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998. Professor Sen is an honorary fellow of LSE. This event is supported by LSE's Department of International Development and STICERD. Professor Stiglitz will also be speaking on Friday 29 June at 6.30pm about his new book, details of the event: The Price of Inequality.
Contributor(s): Tony Burton, Alex Morton, Professor Henry Overman, Professor Anne Power | House prices in Britain remain exceptionally high. We urgently need more housing, but where should we build it? Can we meet our needs by redeveloping existing built up areas? Or does the problem call for more radical solutions. Tony Burton is from Urban Task Force; Alex Morton is from Policy Exchange, Senior Research Fellow for Housing & Planning; Professor Henry Overman is from LSE and Professor Ann Power is from LSE.
Contributor(s): Frederick Kempe | Kempe explores the war of nerves between the young, untested President Kennedy and the bombastic Soviet leader, as they squared off over the future of a divided city - and the world came to the brink of disaster. This event celebrates the publication of Kempe's new book Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khruschev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth. Frederick Kempe is president and CEO of the Atlantic Council and a former Berlin bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal. A number of the photos included in Frederick Kempe's presentation are published on his website, Berlin1961.com.
Contributor(s): David Goldblatt | Seventeen days, 12,000 athletes, 29 sports, 302 gold medals: this event will be your personal trainer for the back stories and culture of the modern Olympics. David Goldblatt is a writer, broadcaster and teacher. He is author of The Ball is Round: a global history of football and, with Johnny Acton, How to Watch the Olympics. Simon Glendinning is a reader in European philosophy in the European Institute, LSE and director of the Forum for European Philosophy.
Contributor(s): Dambisa Moyo | Dambisa Moyo discusses the increasingly heated competition for the world's water and land, and the likely geopolitical fallout of China's biggest commodity rush in history. Are we heading for large-scale conflict and what can governments do to avoid it? Dambisa Moyo author of Dead Aid and How the West Was Lost; she has been an economist at the World Bank and Goldman Sachs and was chosen as Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2009. This event celebrates the publication of her new book Winner Take All: The Race for the World's Resources.
Contributor(s): Professor Luigi Zingales | When the Italian-born economist Luigi Zingales first arrived in the United States in the 1980s, he embraced the American dream: the belief that what brings you success is hard work, not luck or who you know. But the economic events of the past decade, combined with the actions of politicians from both sides, have undermined capitalism's reputation. In A Capitalism for the People, which he will discuss in this lecture, Zingales warns that the US economy risks deteriorating into a Berlusconi-style crony-capitalist system – pro-business rather than pro-market, and run by corrupt politicians who are more concerned with lining the pockets of the connected elite than with improving opportunity for the people. If it continues to lose popular support, can capitalism survive? Zingales' real-world recommendations for restoring true competition to the economic system give hope that the US can not only avoid the fate of Italy and Greece, but rebound to greatness. Luigi Zingales is the Robert C McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, and the David G Booth Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He serves as the director of the American Finance Association, a faculty research fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow for the Center for Economic Policy research and a fellow for the European Governance Institute.
Contributor(s): His Holiness the Dalai Lama | His Holiness the Dalai Lama is visiting the LSE to deliver the opening speech of a one' day conference entitled Tolerance in a Just and Fair Society, at the invitation of Frederick Bonnart Braunthal Trust, Matrix Chambers, the Sigrid Rausing Trust and the London School of Economics & Political Science. HH the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He was born on 6th July 1935 in north-eastern Tibet and recognised as the incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two. Since 1959, he has been living in Dharamsala in the north of India which is now the seat of the Central Tibetan Administration. In 2011 HH the Dalai Lama completed the process of democratisation of the Central Tibetan Administration by devolving all his political authorities to the elected leadership. HH the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 in recognition of his opposition to the use of violence in the Tibetan struggle and his work internationally for peace, human rights issues and global environmental problems. In September 2006, he received the highest civilian honour in the United States, the Congressional Gold Medal, in recognition of his advocacy of non-violence, human rights and religious understanding. More recently, on 14 May 2012, HH the Dalai Lama was presented with the 2012 Templeton Prize at a ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The Templeton Prize honours a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works.
Contributor(s): Faiza Chaudary, Dr Armine Ishkanian, Professor David Lewis, Ralph Michell, Professor Simon Szreter | To coincide with the publication of The Big Society Debate: a new agenda for social welfare? the speakers will examine the concept's ideological underpinnings and the challenges it poses for those involved in translating the ideas of the big society into practice. Faiza Chaudary is the deputy chief executive and director of policy and communications for the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services. (NCVYS). Armine Ishkanian is a lecturer in NGOs and development at LSE. David Lewis is a Professor of Social Policy and Development, in the Social Policy Department at LSE. Ralph Michell is the director of Policy for ACEVO. He leads ACEVO’s work engaging with policy makers in Whitehall and Westminster, local government, the NHS and elsewhere on issues ranging from public service reform to third sector capacity-building. Simon Szreter holds the chair of history and public policy at the University of Cambridge and is managing editor of historyandpolicy.org.
Contributor(s): Dr Simon Glendinning | A look at the role of philosophy in launching the idea of a European Union with reference to Kant and Nietzsche. Simon Glendinning is reader in European philosophy in the European Institute, LSE and director of the Forum for European Philosophy.
Contributor(s): Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor Nicola Lacey, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, Dr Maung Zarni | Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is Chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Member of Parliament of Kawhmu constituency in Burma. She was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1991. Christine Chinkin, FBA, is currently Professor in International Law at the London School of Economics. She has widely published on issues of international human rights law, law, including as co-author of The Boundaries of International Law: A Feminist Analysis. Nicola Lacey holds a Senior Research Fellowship at All Souls College, and is Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory at the University of Oxford, having previously held a chair at the London School of Economics. Nicola’s research is in criminal law and criminal justice, with a particular focus on comparative and historical scholarship. In 2011 she won the Hans Sigrist Prize for scholarship on the rule of law in modern societies. Sir Geoffrey Nice QC is a barrister; he is a signatory of Harvard’s Crimes in Burma report. Sir Geoffrey is a member of Burma Justice Committee and works with NGO's and other groups seeking international recognition of crimes committed in conflicts; represents government and similar interests at the ICC. A Burmese native, Dr Zarni is a veteran founder of the Free Burma Coalition, one of the Internet's first and largest human rights campaigns and a Visiting Fellow at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, LSE. His forthcoming book, provisionally titled Life under the Boot: 50-years of Military Dictatorship in Burma, will be published by Yale University Press. Mary Kaldor is professor of Global Governance in the Department of International Development and Director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at LSE. She writes on globalisation, international relations and humanitarian intervention, global civil society and global governance, as well as what she calls New Wars.
Contributor(s): H.E. Mohammed Al-Sabah, Steffen Hertog | H.E. Dr Mohammed Al-Sabah is the former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Kuwait. Steffen Hertog is Lecturer in Comparative Politics at LSE and author of Princes, brokers and bureaucrats: oil and the state in Saudi Arabia.
Contributor(s): Professor Diane Coyle | The world's leading economies are facing many crises. What these crises have in common is a reckless disregard for the future. This lecture examines the policy changes necessary to run the economy for tomorrow as well as today. Diane Coyle runs Enlightenment Economics. She is vice chair of the BBC Trust, and a visiting professor at the University of Manchester.
Contributor(s): Anders Dahlvig | Businesses are in the spotlight as never before and consumer trust in many sectors has deteriorated badly in recent times. In this lecture, the former president and CEO of Ikea, Anders Dahlvig, explains how a clear understanding of vision and values can translate throughout the entire business into best practice and sustainable profit growth. Anders Dahlvig is the former President and CEO of Ikea. With him at the helm from 1999-2009, Ikea enjoyed unprecedented growth and expansion, while at the same time championing the causes of social and environmental responsibility. Anders has recently written The Ikea Edge to show how motives of profit and social good can work in harmony to benefit an organisation.
Contributor(s): Professor Sebastian Seung | Sebastian Seung, a dynamic young professor at MIT, is at the forefront of a revolution in neuroscience which believes that the basis of our identity lies not in our genes but in the connections between our brain cells. Just as the genome has been mapped, so Seung plans to map the "connectome". By mapping this "connectome", Seung hopes to unlock the mysteries of identity and personality. Sebastian Seung is Professor of Computational Neuroscience at MIT and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has made important advances in robotics, neuroscience, neuroeconomics and statistical physics. His research has been published in leading scientific journals, and also featured in The New York Times, Technology Review, and The Economist. This event celebrates the publication of his new book Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are.
Contributor(s): Professor Richard Bellamy | This lecture will contrast liberal and republican models of democracy and representation and will apply them to the EU. Richard Bellamy is professor of political science and director of the European Institute at University College London.
Contributor(s): Professor Sheri Berman | Ralph Miliband believed that socialism should be both revolutionary and practical. This talk will argue that at least one variant of it--social democracy--was and might still be by looking back at the role it played in creating the Europe that is in transition today. During the 19th and first half of the 20th century Europe was the most turbulent region on earth, convulsed by war, economic crises and social and political conflict. Yet during the second half of the 20th century it was among the most stable, a study in democracy and prosperity. How can we understand this remarkable transformation? The answer lies in the changes that occurred after 1945, among the most important of which was a dramatic shift in the understanding of what it would take to ensure democratic consolidaton in Europe. Across the political spectrum a new understanding of democracy developed in Western Europe one that went beyond what think of today as “electoral” or even “liberal” democracy to what is best understood as “social democracy”—a regime type which entails not merely dramatic changes in political arrangements, but in social and economic ones as well. This talk will explain the background and logic of this "regime type" as well as consider its continuing relevance today. Sheri Berman is Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. Her research interests include political development, European politics, the history of the left, and comparative political economy. She is the author of The Social Democratic Moment: Ideas and Politics in the Making of Interwar Europe (1998) and The Primacy of Politics. Social Democracy and the Ideological Dynamics of the Twentieth Century (2006).
Contributor(s): Ali Dayan Hasan | As the Pakistan-US relationship reaches an unprecedented low, Pakistan appears to be in human rights and security freefall. The elected government remains wellmeaning but inept. The military appears unable to let go of its India-centric security paradigm and to be using its "time-out" from its alliance with the US to craft a hardline on Afghanistan, attempt regime change domestically and shrink space for liberal discourse. Three years after its restoration to office, the internationally lionized "independent" judiciary appears to be less than perfect, using judicial activism not just to curb the excesses of the executive but also to incessantly exceed its mandate and trigger political instability. The mineral rich South Western province of Balochistan is in a state of effective rebellion, the tribal areas reel under predator drone strikes and the port city of Karachi suffers from hundreds of political killings which are exacerbating ethnic tensions. As things go from bad to worse, the only unifier in Pakistan appears to be anti-Americanism. The civilian government and mainstream political parties that many hoped would provide a counterpoint to the Pakistani military appear to be in meltdown despite having publicly thrown in their lot with the country's army with grave implications for the human rights of ordinary people on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Can the West still be a force for good in the country, or is it in fact the problem? Why is the American embrace considered so deadly that many Pakistanis prefer a compact with the abusive Taliban? And can the US afford to just walk away from the human rights mess it sought to clear up after 9/11 but a decade later only appears to have made worse? Before taking over as Pakistan Director, Ali Dayan Hasan served as Human Rights Watch's South Asia researcher since 2003 and has specialized expertise in Pakistan. Hasan is responsible for researching, authenticating and writing reports, briefing papers and news releases produced by Human Rights Watch on Pakistan. He advocates South Asian human rights concerns globally with regional bodies, national governments, international financial institutions and is a regular contributor on Pakistan in the international media. In addition to appearing frequently as a commentator on television, his opinion pieces have appeared in major international media. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Hasan was a senior editor at Pakistan's premier independent, political news monthly magazine, Herald. During 2006 and 2007, Hasan was also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford.
Contributor(s): Professor Robert JC Young | The translations of Freud have been a subject of controversy for many years, but how did Freud himself theorise the role of translation in psychoanalysis? Robert JC Young is Julius Silver Professor of English and Comparative Literature at New York University.
Contributor(s): Rev Dr Giles Fraser, Professor John Gray | In the first event of the Programme for the Study of Religion and Non-Religion, Giles Fraser examines the links between Enlightenment thought and theology, reflecting on how theology frames the very ways in which we can understand the denial of God. Giles Fraser is the former canon chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral. John Gray is emeritus professor of European Thought at LSE. This event is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.
Contributor(s): Professor Daniel Kahneman, Professor Paul Dolan | This public conversation with Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman hosted by LSE and the Hay Festivals will focus on his best selling book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Professor Kahneman will be signing copies of his book after the event. Daniel Kahneman is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University and a Professor of Public Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his seminal work in psychology that challenged the rational model of judgment and decision making, his ideas have had a profound and widely regarded impact on many disciplines – including economics, business, law and philosophy. Until now, he has never brought together his many years of research and thinking in one book. His book Thinking, Fast and Slow was published late in 2011. Paul Dolan is Professor of Behavioural Science in the Department of Social Policy at the LSE. There are two main themes to his work. The first focuses on developing measures of wellbeing that can be used in policy, particularly in the valuation of non-market goods. Amongst other things, he is currently looking at the happiness hit of the 2012 Olympic Games. The second considers ways in which the lessons from the behavioural sciences can be used to understand and change individual behaviour. This work is focussing on the important role that situational factors play in influencing our behaviour, as summarised in the 'mindspace' report for the Cabinet Office. Evan Davis joined the presenter team on Today in April 2008 following a six-and-a-half year stint as the BBC's economics editor. He also presents The Bottom Line, Radio 4's business discussion programme and Dragons' Den, the BBC Two business reality show. Before his promotion to editor, Evan worked for BBC Two's Newsnight from 1997 to 2001 and as a general economics correspondent from 1993.
Contributor(s): Dr Stephen Cave, Professor John Gray | The will to live forever is central to the human story. Can it be fulfilled? And should we want it to be? Stephen Cave is a philosopher and writer. He is the author of Immortality: the quest to live forever and how It drives civilisation. John Gray is emeritus professor of European thought at LSE and author of The Immortalization Commission: the strange quest to cheat death.
Contributor(s): Ayman Asfari, Keith O'Nions, Jon Moulton | In this session, Ayman Asfari, Keith O'Nions and Jon Moulton will discuss their views on "Driving Growth through Science, Engineering, and Innovation".
Contributor(s): Professor Paul Krugman | The Great Recession is more than four years old—and counting. Yet, "Nations rich in resources, talent, and knowledge—all the ingredients for prosperity and a decent standard of living for all—remain in a state of intense pain." In his new book, End This Depression Now! which he will discuss in this event Krugman shows how the failure of regulation to keep pace with an increasingly out-of-control financial system positioned the United States and the world as a whole, for the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s. Decrying the tepid response thus far, he lays out the steps that must be taken to free ourselves and turn around a world economy stagnating in deep recession. His is a powerful message: a strong recovery is only one step away, if our leaders find the intellectual clarity and political will to see it through. Paul Krugman, the recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, is a best-selling author, columnist and blogger for The New York Times. A professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, The Economist called him "the most celebrated economist of his generation".
Contributor(s): Jonathan Fenby, Guy De Jonquieres, Linda Yueh | In an era characterised by economic crisis in the West, what kind of global role does China's geoeconomic strategy aspire to? This event launches the new LSE IDEAS report Kiss of the Dragon? China's Geoeconomic Strategy in a changing global order. Johnathan Fenby is the former editor of the Observer and the South China Morning Post. Guy De Jonquieres is a senior fellow at the European Centre for Political Economy. Linda Yueh is the director of the China Growth Centre and a fellow in economics at the University of Oxford.
Contributor(s): Pedro Carriço, Jon Coleman, Dr Hans-Joachim Henckel, Peter Luketa, Geetha Muralidhar, Professor Danny Quah, Lars H Thunell | A look at the role of export credit agencies and financial institutions in promoting global trade and the challenges they face during Europe's sovereign debt crisis. Pedro Carriço is Head of International Relations and Country Risk Department at Seguradora Brasileira de Crédito à Exportação. Jon Coleman is Chairman of the British Exporters Association. Hans-Joachim Henckel is head of division at the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Peter Luketa is global head of export finance at HSBC Bank plc. Geetha Muralidhar is executive director of Export Credit Guarantees Corporation of India LTD. Danny Quah is professor of economics at LSE. Lars H Thunell is executive vice president and CEO of International Finance Corporation.
Contributor(s): Dominic Sandbrook | In the mid-1970s, Britain's fortunes seemed to have reached their lowest point since the Blitz. Across the country, a profound argument about the future of the nation was being played out, not just in the political arena but in everything from episodes of Doctor Who to singles by the Clash. As Dominic Sandbrook reveals, this extraordinary, chaotic period was the decisive point in the creation of modern Britain. Dominic Sandbrook is the author of three highly acclaimed books on post-war Britain, as well as a prolific reviewer and columnist. His major new BBC2 documentary series, The Seventies, will air in April 2012 and his latest book is Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974-1979 published by Allen Lane in May.
Contributor(s): Professor Jayati Ghosh | Dynamic left movements are emerging that go beyond traditional socialist paradigms to incorporate ecological constraints as well as the demands of women, ethnic minorities, tribal communities and other marginalised groups. Jayati Ghosh is professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University and the executive secretary of International Development Economics Associates.
Contributor(s): Ian Davis, John van Reenen, Hal Varian | In this session, Ian Davis (formerly McKinsey & Co.), John Van Reenen (Director, CEP, LSE) and Hal Varian (Chief Economist, Google) will discuss the role of management in a strategy for growth.
Contributor(s): Quentin Skinner | Among contemporary political theorists, the idea of individual liberty is generally defined in negative terms as absence of interference. This lecture argues that, if the concept is instead approached genealogically, this orthodoxy begins to appear in need of qualification and perhaps abandonment. The genealogy traced in the lecture is shown to carry three specific implications, which are discussed in turn. The first is that the concept of interference is of much greater complexity than is often allowed, and gives rise to a number of rival theories of negative liberty. The second is that it may be misleading to assume that liberty can be defined only in negative terms. Finally, even if we accept that liberty is a negative concept, it remains unclear that negative liberty is best understood as absence of interference. The lecture ends by considering the rival 'republican' contention that freedom is best understood as a condition of independence from the arbitrary will and power of others. Quentin SkinnerQuentin Skinner is the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary, University College London. He is the author of numerous books and articles on early modern political thought and is a founder of the ‘Cambridge School’ of the history of political thought.
Contributor(s): Professor Pierre Mayer, Professor Jan Paulsson | The 3rd LSE Arbitration Debate will confront Pierre Mayer and Jan Paulsson over the question whether international arbitrators can consider some otherwise applicable laws to be unlawful , as argued by Paulsson in his 2009 Lalive lecture and challenged by Mayer in an article in the Revue de l'arbitrage. Pierre Mayer is Professor of Private International Law at the University Pantheo Sorbonne - Paris I and a partner at Dechert LLP in Paris. Jan Paulsson is the co-head of the international arbitration and public international law groups of Freshfields LLP. Johnny Veeder QC is a Barrister at Essex Court Chambers.
Contributor(s): Professor Michael Sandel, Stephanie Flanders, Professor Julian Le Grand, Rt Revd Peter Selby | Is there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don't belong? What are the moral limits of markets? Noted public philosopher and Harvard professor Michael J. Sandel will explore some of these pressing questions with responses from Stephanie Flanders, Professor Julian Le Grand and Bishop Peter Selby. St Paul's Cathedral is delighted to host a discussion on this vital topic within a sacred space in order to explore the intersection between faith, morality and markets and the power that money has in our lives. Questions and comments from the audience will be taken. Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught political philosophy since 1980. His recent book, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? relates the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of our time. His new book, What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, has just been published. At Harvard, Sandel's courses include Ethics, Biotechnology, and the Future of Human Nature, Ethics, Economics, and Law, and Globalization and Its Critics. His undergraduate course, Justice, has enrolled over 15,000 students, and is the first Harvard course to be made freely available online and on public television. A recipient of the Harvard-Radcliffe Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, Sandel was recognised by the American Political Science Association in 2008 for a career of excellence in teaching. He has been a visiting professor at the Sorbonne (Paris), delivered the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Oxford University, and in 2009 delivered the BBC Reith Lectures. In 2010, China Newsweek named him the "most influential foreign figure of the year" in China. Stephanie Flanders has been a reporter at the New York Times (2001); a speech writer and senior advisor to the US Treasury Secretary (1997-2001); a Financial Times leader-writer and columnist (1993-7); and an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and London Business School. She became BBC economics editor in April 2008. She has won numerous awards, including the 2010 Harold Wincott Award for online journalism. She blogs at Stephanomics. Julian Le Grand is the Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, a Trustee of the Kings Fund, and a Founding Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences. Dr Peter Selby was Bishop of Worcester from 1997 until 2007 and in 2001 was also appointed to Bishop of Prisons, a post from which he also retired in September 2007. Ann Pettifor is director of Policy Research in Macro-Economics (PriME), and a senior fellow of the New Economics Foundation. She is the author of The Coming First World Debt Crisis which was published in 2006. St Paul's Institute seeks to foster an informed Christian response to the most urgent ethical and spiritual issues of our times: financial integrity, economic justice, and the meaning of the common good. JustShare is a coalition of churches and charities committed to global development and social justice.
Contributor(s): Corrado Passera | Corrado Passera is Italian minister of economic development, infrastructure and transport. From 2002 to 2011 he was CEO of Intesa SanPaolo Bank and prior to that he was CEO of Poste Italiane, CEO and general director of Banco Ambrosiano Veneto, and CEO of Olivetti Group. He holds a post-graduate degree in business administration from Bocconi University of Milan and a masters degree in business administration from Wharton School of Philadelphia.
Contributor(s): Stephen Fries, David Newbery, Bridget Rosewell | In this session, Stephen Fries, David Newbery and Bridget Rosewell will give their views on the relationship between infrastructure, energy and Growth.
Contributor(s): Tobias Billström, Peter Sutherland | Migrants play a crucial role in the development of countries of origin and countries of destination. How can labour immigration and other policies in Europe be shaped so as to optimise the benefits? Tobias Billström is Swedish minister for migration and asylum policy. Swedish migration policy includes refugee and migration policy, voluntary return home and support to voluntary return migration. Billström, a member of the Moderate Party, has been a member of Parliament since 2002. Peter Sutherland is the United Nations special representative for migration. A former European Commissioner and Director General of the WTO, he is the chairman of Goldman Sachs International. He is the chairman of the LSE Court of Governors.
Contributor(s): Professor Steven Mithen | What can the archaeological record of our stone age ancestors bring to our understanding of the relationship between music and language? Steven Mithen is professor of early prehistory and pro-vice chancellor at the University of Reading. He is the author of The Singing Neanderthals: the origins of music, language, mind, and body.
Contributor(s): Professor Erik Olin Wright | Wright argues that we can be simultaneously utopian and practical by pursuing projects for social transformation within capitalism that point us in an emancipatory direction beyond capitalism. Erik Olin Wright is Vilas Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and president of the American Sociological Association.
Contributor(s): Ambassador Ron Kirk | In a major address, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk will discuss opportunities for the U.S.-EU trade relationship at a critical time. Leaders on both sides acknowledge the need for a fresh look at the U.S.-EU trade and investment relationship, to ensure that it meets its potential. Ambassador Kirk will emphasize how the United States and the EU can work together – bilaterally for mutual growth, at the World Trade Organization for better results, and around the world to better integrate emerging and transitioning markets into the world economy. Ambassador Ron Kirk is the United States Trade Representative (USTR). He is a member of President Obama's Cabinet and serves as the President's principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on trade issues. Since Ambassador Kirk was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March 2009, he has led the Obama Administration’s market-opening negotiations and dialogue with trading partners around the world, including the conclusion of bilateral free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama, advancing the ambitious regional Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, and sustaining serious U.S. engagement at the World Trade Organization. Ambassador Kirk has also simultaneously pursued robust enforcement of America's trade rights in support of U.S. businesses and workers, and he has focused efforts to better assist American small businesses seeking opportunities in international markets. Ambassador Kirk brings both public service and private sector experience to USTR. He served two terms as the first African-American mayor of Dallas. Prior to becoming mayor, he served as Texas Secretary of State under Governor Ann Richards. In addition, Ambassador Kirk has practiced law as a partner in the international law firm Vinson & Elkins, LLP. He was named one of "The 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America" by The National Law Journal in 2008.
Contributor(s): Anna Wesselink, Neil Hirst, Philip Webber, Nick Mabey, James Smith, Juliet Davenport, Nafees Meah, David Kennedy, Jason Lowe, Sarah Samuel, Professor Sir Brian Hoskins | Evaluating the Impact of Climate Change Research is a half-day conference hosted by the LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences project and Imperial College London, held on Monday, 21st May 2012, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Climate change is one of the most pressing issues affecting global governments. The complex interplay of scientific research, business interests, and strongly held public opinion creates difficulties in building consensus around policy and industry change. This half day conference seeks to look at how academic research in the climate change and energy areas has impacted on government and policymaking and business and industry practice. 2.00pm to 3.30pm, Session 1: Impacting Local, National and International Governance on Climate and Energy Policy. Chair: Professor Patrick Dunleavy (LSE Public Policy Group). Speakers: Anna Wesselink (Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds), Neil Hirst (Grantham Institute of Climate Change, Imperial College London), Philip Webber (Chair, SGR). 4.00pm to 5.30pm, Session 2: Academic and Industry Liaison and Partnerships on Future Change. Chair: Nicola Ranger (LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Environment). Speakers: Nick Mabey (E3G), James Smith (Carbon Trust), Juliet Davenport (Founder, CEO of Good Energy). 6.00pm to 7.30pm, Session 3 - Public Roundtable: The Impact of Climate Change Research. Speakers: Nafees Meah (Head of the Climate and Energy Science Analysis Team, Department of Energy and Climate Change), David Kennedy (Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change), Jason Lowe (Head of Knowledge Integration, and Mitigation Advice, Met Office), Sarah Samuel (Head of Sustainable Energy Policy, Ofgem). Discussant: Professor Sir Brian Hoskins (Director of Grantham Institute for Climate, Imperial College London).
Contributor(s): Anna Wesselink, Neil Hirst, Philip Webber, Nick Mabey, James Smith, Juliet Davenport, Nafees Meah, David Kennedy, Jason Lowe, Sarah Samuel, Professor Sir Brian Hoskins | Evaluating the Impact of Climate Change Research is a half-day conference hosted by the LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences project and Imperial College London, held on Monday, 21st May 2012, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Climate change is one of the most pressing issues affecting global governments. The complex interplay of scientific research, business interests, and strongly held public opinion creates difficulties in building consensus around policy and industry change. This half day conference seeks to look at how academic research in the climate change and energy areas has impacted on government and policymaking and business and industry practice. 2.00pm to 3.30pm, Session 1: Impacting Local, National and International Governance on Climate and Energy Policy. Chair: Professor Patrick Dunleavy (LSE Public Policy Group). Speakers: Anna Wesselink (Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds), Neil Hirst (Grantham Institute of Climate Change, Imperial College London), Philip Webber (Chair, SGR). 4.00pm to 5.30pm, Session 2: Academic and Industry Liaison and Partnerships on Future Change. Chair: Nicola Ranger (LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Environment). Speakers: Nick Mabey (E3G), James Smith (Carbon Trust), Juliet Davenport (Founder, CEO of Good Energy). 6.00pm to 7.30pm, Session 3 - Public Roundtable: The Impact of Climate Change Research. Speakers: Nafees Meah (Head of the Climate and Energy Science Analysis Team, Department of Energy and Climate Change), David Kennedy (Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change), Jason Lowe (Head of Knowledge Integration, and Mitigation Advice, Met Office), Sarah Samuel (Head of Sustainable Energy Policy, Ofgem). Discussant: Professor Sir Brian Hoskins (Director of Grantham Institute for Climate, Imperial College London).
Contributor(s): Anna Wesselink, Neil Hirst, Philip Webber, Nick Mabey, James Smith, Juliet Davenport, Nafees Meah, David Kennedy, Jason Lowe, Sarah Samuel, Professor Sir Brian Hoskins | Evaluating the Impact of Climate Change Research is a half-day conference hosted by the LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences project and Imperial College London, held on Monday, 21st May 2012, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Climate change is one of the most pressing issues affecting global governments. The complex interplay of scientific research, business interests, and strongly held public opinion creates difficulties in building consensus around policy and industry change. This half day conference seeks to look at how academic research in the climate change and energy areas has impacted on government and policymaking and business and industry practice. 2.00pm to 3.30pm, Session 1: Impacting Local, National and International Governance on Climate and Energy Policy. Chair: Professor Patrick Dunleavy (LSE Public Policy Group). Speakers: Anna Wesselink (Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds), Neil Hirst (Grantham Institute of Climate Change, Imperial College London), Philip Webber (Chair, SGR). 4.00pm to 5.30pm, Session 2: Academic and Industry Liaison and Partnerships on Future Change. Chair: Nicola Ranger (LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Environment). Speakers: Nick Mabey (E3G), James Smith (Carbon Trust), Juliet Davenport (Founder, CEO of Good Energy). 6.00pm to 7.30pm, Session 3 - Public Roundtable: The Impact of Climate Change Research. Speakers: Nafees Meah (Head of the Climate and Energy Science Analysis Team, Department of Energy and Climate Change), David Kennedy (Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change), Jason Lowe (Head of Knowledge Integration, and Mitigation Advice, Met Office), Sarah Samuel (Head of Sustainable Energy Policy, Ofgem). Discussant: Professor Sir Brian Hoskins (Director of Grantham Institute for Climate, Imperial College London).
Contributor(s): Ambassador Alicia Castro, Dr John Hughes, Professor George Philip | Although thirty years have passed since the South Atlantic conflict, disagreements over the Falkland/Malvinas islands continue to cast a shadow over UK-Argentina relations. This discussion will focus on what diplomatic steps can be taken to reduce current tensions, and improve long-term relations between the UK and Argentina. Alicia Castro is the Argentine ambassador to the UK. John Hughes is the former UK Ambassador to Argentina. George Philip is professor of Latin American comparative politics, Department of Government, LSE.
Contributor(s): Dr Shakuntala Banaji, Dr Vandana Desai, Jamal Osman, Susan Parnell, Dr Scott Rodgers, John Vidal | As the world population urbanises, it is crucial that we critically examine how the media invites us to ""see"" cities. Visible Cities will bring together academics and journalists to critically examine the ways in which cities in developing countries are currently portrayed and consider alternatives. Dr Shakuntala Banaji is a lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE. Her research interests include the meaning, history and textual study of cinema, particularly South Asian media and Hindi films; the socio-political contexts of audiences, representations of gender and ethnicity; tensions between popular and elite media; internet cultures; online civic participation; young people and cultural identities. She is the editor of South Asian media cultures: audiences, representations, contexts (2010). Dr Vandana Desai is a senior lecturer in the geography department at Royal Holloway. She conducts cross-disciplinary research on infrastructure and security of tenure in slums; aging, livelihoods and poverty; and gender and development, with a regional focus on South Asia. Jamal Osman is an award-winning independent journalist and filmmaker focusing on East Africa, including extensive work in Somalia. He has produced stories for Channel 4 and the Guardian, and is the recipient of the Royal Television Society (RTS) Independent Award 2012, the Amnesty International Gaby Rado Memorial Award 2010, the news story of the year prize at the Foreign Press Association (FPA) Awards 2009. His work for the Guardian on Al-Qaida's aid distribution in Somalia was recently shortlisted for the 2012 Broadcast Digital Awards ""Best News of Current Affairs Content"". Dr Susan Parnell is an urban geographer in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at the University of Cape Town and is the Director of the 'CityLab' at the African Centre for Cities. She is currently the Leverhulme Visiting Professor at UCL. Her research interests include contemporary urban policy research (local government, poverty reduction and urban environmental justice). Sue is also on the boards of several local NGOs concerned with poverty alleviation, sustainability and gender equity in post-apartheid South Africa. Dr Scott Rodgers is a lecturer in Media Theory in the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck. His research interests include the idea of a specifically 'urban' politics or public culture, and especially its constitution through media and processes of mediation and the ways in which urban life has been a longstanding focus for, as well as a milieu of, professional and amateur journalism. In 2008 he hosted a two day workshop on media practices and the political spaces of cities entitled ""Mediapolis"". John Vidal is the environment editor at the Guardian, writing on environment and international development issues, focusing on cities in Africa, Bangladesh and Latin America . He is the author of McLibel: Burger Culture on Trial (1998) and has contributed chapters to books on topics such as the Gulf war, new Europe and development. Dr Suzanne Hall is an urban ethnographer, and has practised as an architect and urban designer in South Africa. Her research and teaching interests include social and economic forms of inclusion and exclusion, urban multiculture, the imagination and design of the city, and ethnography and visual methods. She is a recipient of the Rome Scholarship in Architecture (1998-1999) and the LSE's Robert McKenzie Prize for outstanding Ph.D. research (2010). She co-edited (with Dinardi and Fernández) Writing Cities (2010, LSE), and her research monograph, City, street and citizen: The measure of the ordinary, is forthcoming.
Contributor(s): Professor Joshua Cohen | The second lecture in this series will reflect on political-philosophical challenges raised by the "mobile" approach to improving standards of living in very poor settings. The first lecture Mobile for Development Meets Human-Centred Design takes place on Tuesday 16 May. Joshua Cohen is Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society and professor of political science, philosophy, and law at Stanford. Although part of a series this is a stand-alone lecture and can be attended without having attended the first event.
Contributor(s): Andy Altman, Professor Ricky Burdett, Jim Eyre, Jim Heverin, Michael Taylor | This event brings together the key decision makers and architects of the London 2012 Olympic Games facilities to discuss the architecture and design of London 2012. Andy Altman is Chief Executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation. Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at LSE and director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age programme. Jim Eyre is director of WilkinsonEyre Architects. Jim Heverin is Associate Director of Zaha Hadid Architects. Nicholas Serota is director of the Tate. Michael Taylor is Senior Partner at Hopkins Architects.
Contributor(s): Professor Joshua Cohen | The first of two lectures which explore the idea of using mobile platforms and human centred design to promote development in low-income communities. This lecture will look at examples of this approach in Nairobi's informal settlements. The second lecture Mobile for Development – Global Justice takes place on 16 May. Joshua Cohen is Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society and professor of political science, philosophy, and law at Stanford.
Contributor(s): Richard Bronk | How far was Hayek justified in viewing the price mechanism as a marvel in its capacity to solve the problem of dispersed and incomplete knowledge? Richard Bronk is a visiting fellow at the LSE European Institute and author of The Romantic Economist.
Contributor(s): Dr Nicole Watts | Dr Nicole Watts, who was in Sulaimaniya last spring for the 'Kurdish Spring', discusses her ongoing research on dissent and campaigns for social and political change in Iraqi Kurdistan. Dr Watts is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at San Francisco State University where she teaches on comparative politics, Middle East politics and social movements.
Contributor(s): Professor Eli Zaretsky | The US, Zaretsky argues, has always had a vibrant and powerful left in times of crisis. He discusses three such crises: slavery, capitalist industrialisation and the present. Eli Zaretsky is professor of history at the New School for Social Research and author of Why America Needs a Left.
Contributor(s): Lord Sumption | As part of the Health of our Institutions Today series, Jonathan Sumption will discuss foreign policy in the UK courts. Jonathan Sumption is a justice of the UK Supreme Court.
Contributor(s): Professor David Vogel | Since 1990, the United States and the European Union have traded places. During the previous three decades, health, safety, and environmental regulations were typically more stringent, innovative and comprehensive in the US than in Europe. But many of the risk regulations more recently adopted by the EU such as for food safety, biodiversity, chemical health and safety, and global climate change are more risk averse than those adopted by the United States. The EU has also replaced the US as the major initiator and supporter of new global environmental agreements. These policy shifts are largely due to three factors: stronger public demands for additional government regulation in Europe than in the US, increased partisan polarization in the US and the political strength of "greener" member states and green pressure groups in the EU, and a shift in the criteria used to manage risks. While American policymakers have placed increase reliance on risk assessments, European policymakers have become able and willing to enact regulations on precautionary grounds. David Vogel is the Solomon P Lee Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and author of The Politics of Precaution.
Contributor(s): Lord Boateng | Ed Vulliamy, who reported extensively on the mid-1990s war in Bosnia, will discuss his new book The War Is Dead, Long Live The War, examining its legacy 20 years later. Ed Vulliamy is a British journalist and writer. Drawing on his unique experience as an MP, a peer, a Labour Minister and the grandson of a Ghanaian coco farmer, Lord Boateng will explore how aid to Africa can be used to empower producers instead of fostering dependency. Paul Boateng served as the British high commissioner to South Africa from March 2005 to May 2009 and was the UK's first black Cabinet Minister.
Contributor(s): Professor David Harvey | Given the strong relationship between urbanization and capital accumulation, and the consequent urban roots of both past and present fiscal crises, it follows that the city is a key arena within which class forces clash. The sharpening of these clashes transforms movements for the right to the city into urban uprisings and revolutionary movements. This then poses the key question of how to mobilize and organize a whole city around a movement for revolutionary change. David Harvey is Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His most recent books include A Companion to Marx's Capital; The Enigma of Capital (Deutscher Prize, 2010); and Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution.
Contributor(s): Ed Vulliamy | Ed Vulliamy, who reported extensively on the mid-1990s war in Bosnia, will discuss his new book The War Is Dead, Long Live The War, examining its legacy 20 years later. Ed Vulliamy is a British journalist and writer.
Contributor(s): Martin Hickman, Tom Watson MP | In this event the authors will discuss their new book, Dial M for Murdoch which "looks to uncover the inner workings of one of the most powerful companies in the world: how it came to exert a poisonous, secretive influence on public life in Britain, how it used its huge power to bully, intimidate and cover up, and how its exposure has changed the way we look at our politicians, our police service and our press." "Dial M for Murdoch gives the first connected account of the extraordinary lengths to which the Murdochs’ News Corporation went to “put the problem in a box” (in James Murdoch’s words), how its efforts to maintain and extend its power were aided by its political and police friends, and how it was finally exposed." Following stints with Reuters and the Press Association, Martin Hickman joined The Independent as a news editor in 2001. He became the Consumer Affairs Correspondent in September 2005 and has run the paper's trenchant campaigns on packaging, bank charges and factory-farmed chicken. He writes on subjects as diverse as food, finance, energy and fashion. Tom Watson has been the UK Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich East since 2001. Watson was a Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from 2008 to 2009. In 2011, he was made the first ever Deputy Chair of the Labour Party, with responsibility for co-ordinating Labour's campaigning, by Ed Miliband.
Contributor(s): Greg Muttitt | The author of Fuel on the Fire will talk about lessons from Iraq on oil, war and democracy. Greg Muttitt is campaigns and policy director at War on Want and the author of Fuel on the Fire: oil and politics in occupied Iraq.
Contributor(s): Professor Leszek Balcerowicz | Unsustainable fiscal policy hampers growth - the effect not only of sovereign debt distress but also of an overblown welfare state. What can we learn from the financial-fiscal crisis (US, UK, Ireland, Spain) and the fiscal-financial crisis (Greece, Portugal)? Professor Leszek Balcerowicz has served three times in the Polish government and the central bank, being in charge of economic reforms. Between 1989–1991 and 1997-2000 he held the position of Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, and between 2001-2007 he served as Governor of the National Bank of Poland. He is a member of the group of trustees of the Institute of International Finance (US) and also a professor of economics at the Warsaw School of Economics. He is also a Distinguished Associate of the International Atlantic Economic Society (IAES), a member of the Group of Thirty and a board member of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Professor Balcerowicz is chairman and a founder of the Civil Development Forum Foundation (FOR) and in 2011, he was appointed a member of the Advisory Scientific Committee providing advice and assistance on issues relevant to the work of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB).
Contributor(s): Professor Robert Eaglestone, Dr Edward Harcourt | What, if anything, is common to moral guilt, guilt at breaking a diet, survivor guilt, and collective guilt? Do phenomenologies of guilt vary according to culture or upbringing? Is guilt an "advanced" moral emotion or a primitive one? Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London. Edward Harcourt is University Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Oxford.
Contributor(s): Professor Robert Shiller | The reputation of the financial industry could hardly be worse than it is today with the ongoing financial crisis. Robert Shiller is no apologist for the sins of finance--he is probably the only person to have predicted both the stock market bubble of 2000 and the real estate bubble that led up to the subprime mortgage meltdown. However in his new book, he argues that, rather than condemning finance, we need to reclaim it for the common good. He makes a powerful case for recognizing that finance, far from being a parasite on society, is one of the most powerful tools we have for solving our common problems and increasing the general well-being. We need more financial innovation--not less--and finance should play a larger role in helping society achieve its goals. This event marks the publication of Professor Shiller's new book Finance and the Good Society. Robert J. Shiller is the author of Irrational Exuberance and The Subprime Solution, and the coauthor, with George A. Akerlof, of Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism. He is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University.
Contributor(s): Professor Helmut K Anheier, Professor Mary Kaldor, Ahmed Naguib, Laurie Penny | As part of the launch of the tenth anniversary edition of the Global Civil Society yearbook, two of the founding editors will discuss the radicalisation of civil society with Ahmed Naguib and Laurie Penny, and ask what is new about the current politics of squares. Helmut K Anheier is dean at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, and one of the founding editors of the Global Civil Society yearbook. Mary Kaldor is director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, LSE, and one of the founding editors of the Global Civil Society yearbook. Ahmed Naguib is an activist and co-founder of the Council of the Trustees of the Revolution in Egypt, who mobilised a march to Tahrir on 28 January 2011. Laurie Penny is a journalist and feminist activist, and has tweeted regularly from both the London and New York Occupy actions under the moniker @pennyred. Catherine Fieschi is the director of Counterpoint, a research and advisory group that focuses on the cultural and social dynamics of risk. Prior to directing Counterpoint, Catherine led the London based think tank Demos (2005-2008).
Contributor(s): Professor Richard B Freeman | This lecture contends that the last 3-4 decades' increase in inequality and financialization threatens the success of democratic capitalism. It reviews the changes in income distribution and financialization of economies, with special attention to the US, that make the world increasingly diverge from free market ideals and argues that the economic interests of small groups of "crony capitalists" have come to dominate government responses to the financial crisis and ensuing recession. The danger is not an ever-expanding socialist state, per Hayek's Road to Serfdom, but of a move to economic feudalism, in which a small set of wealthy masters dominate markets and the state and subvert or outsmart efforts to regulate their behavior or rein them in. Professor Freeman will explore the way in which modern internet and communication technology and the increases in team-based production, worker participation in firm decision-making and in group incentive pay can restore the influence of the many and create a "shared capitalist" solution. Richard B. Freeman holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University. He directs the National Bureau of Economic Research / Sloan Science Engineering Workforce Projects, and is Senior Research Fellow in Labour Markets at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance. He received the Mincer Lifetime Achievement Prize from the Society of Labor Economics in 2006. In 2007 he was awarded the IZA Prize in Labor Economics. In 2011, he was appointed Frances Perkins Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science. His recent publications include Can Labor Standards Improve Under Globalization (2004), What Workers Want (2007 2nd edition), What Workers Say: Employee Voice in the Anglo American World (2007), Reforming the Welfare State: Recovery and Beyond in Sweden (2010), and Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee Ownership, Profit and Gain Sharing, and Broad-based Stock Options (2010).
Contributor(s): Sir Tony Atkinson, Paul Schreyer, Jean-Paul Fitoussi | In this session, Tony Atkinson, Paul Schreyer and Jean-Paul Fitoussi will give their views on the best ways of defining and measuring economic growth, including distributional considerations and sustainability issues, drawing on state of the art academic literature.
Contributor(s): Professor Jack Goldstone, Professor Eric Kaufmann, John Parker | This panel will discuss the current global demographic revolution – the contrast between an aging developed world and a youthful developing world. This marks the publication of Political Demography: how population changes are reshaping international security and national politics. Jack Goldstone is the Virginia E and John T Hazel Jr Professor at the George Mason School of Public Policy. Eric Kaufmann is professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. John Parker writes about globalisation without economic policy. He was previously bureau chief in Washington, Moscow and Brussels for the Economist.
Contributor(s): Dr Amnon Aran, Roger Cohen, Professor Anoush Ehteshami | As the revolutions of 2011 become the politics of 2012, has power shifted in the Middle East, and has Iran been the main beneficiary? This event launches the new LSE IDEAS report After the Arab Spring: power shift in the Middle East. Amnon Aran is a senior lecturer at the Department of International Politics, City University. Roger Cohen is a columnist for the International Herald Tribune and New York Times. Anoush Ehteshami is professor and joint director of the ESRC Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World, University of Durham.
Contributor(s): Dr Robin Murray, Dr Gavan Titley, Hilary Wainwright | Our political leaders claim there is no alternative to austerity cuts. Two academics, who are also activists, argue otherwise, providing examples of existing alternatives from the social economy and from the perspective of the alternative media. Robin Murray is a co-founder of Twin Trading, a pioneer of the fair trade movement, and of the environmental partnership Ekologica. Gavan Titley is a lecturer in media studies at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and a regular contributor to the Guardian. Hilary Wainwright is a founding editor of Red Pepper and research director of the New Politics programme at the Transnational Institute (TNI).
Contributor(s): Martin McGuinness MP MLA | The deputy first minister of Northern Ireland will discuss his view of Northern Ireland’s position in the future of the Union. Martin McGuinness is a Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy first minister of Northern Ireland.
Contributor(s): Professor Ruth Mace, Professor Catherine Rowett, Professor Volker Sommer | What does it mean to be human? What are the origins of humanity, and what distinguishes us from non-human animals? Ruth Mace is professor of evolutionary anthropology at University College London. Catherine Rowett is professor of philosophy at the University of East Anglia. Volker Sommer is professor of evolutionary anthropology at University College London.
Contributor(s): Ruchir Sharma | In this talk Ruchir Sharma will discuss his new book, Breakout Nations. After a decade of rapid growth, the world's most celebrated emerging markets are poised to slow down. Which countries will rise to challenge them? To identify the economic stars of the future we should abandon the habit of extrapolating from the recent past and lumping wildly diverse countries together. We need to remember that sustained economic success is a rare phenomenon. Ruchir Sharma is the head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley and a longtime columnist for Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economic Times of India. He lives in New York City.
Contributor(s): Ash Amin, Michel Wieviorka, Claire Alexander, Richard Sennett | This event will launch two new books on the society of strangers discussing issues of hyper-subjectivity and desubjectification as the causes of contemporary escalations of violence. Ash Amin’s Land of Strangers offers a diagnosis of attitudes towards the stranger in the West after 9/11, while Michel Wieviorka’s Evil develops a sociological analysis of evil phenomena presenting us with a fresh approach to the understanding of the darker regions of human behaviour. Both authors will be joined by Claire Alexander, Craig Calhoun and Richard Sennett to discuss the analytical challenges posed by the return of the Subject, and the nature of a politics of solidarity. Ash Amin is 1931 Chair of Geography at the University of Cambridge. Craig Calhoun is director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and professor in the departments of Sociology and Media, Culture and Communications at New York University. Richard Sennett is the School Professor of Social and Cultural Theory emeritus at the LSE and University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. Michel Wieviorka is president of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and professor at École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
Contributor(s): Lord O'Donnell | As part of the Health of our Institutions Today series, the former cabinet secretary will discuss the health and importance of the civil service today. Gus O'Donnell served as UK Cabinet Secretary from 2005 to the end of 2011, serving under three prime ministers. Prior to that, he was Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury (July 2002 – July 2005). Before that he had been Managing Director, Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance since 1999. From 1998–9 he was Director of Macroeconomic Policy and Prospects, and from 1997–98 was the UK's Executive Director to the IMF and World Bank. He has also been Head of the Government Economics Service, the UK's largest employer of professional economists, since 1998. Gus O'Donnell studied economics at the University of Warwick and Nuffield College Oxford. He joined the Treasury as an economist in 1979, having spent four years as an economics lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Subsequent posts in Government included Press Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1989–90) and Press Secretary to the Prime Minister (1990–94).
Contributor(s): Christian Kellermann | Is "decent capitalism" a contradiction in terms? This panel will discuss how capitalism can be made better, within the bounds of possibility. Christian Kellermann is director of the Nordic Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Stockholm. Sebastian Dullien and Christian Kellermann are authors of Decent Capitalism: A Blueprint for Reforming our Economies.
Contributor(s): Dr Katrin Flikschuh | What does it mean to have an "innate right to freedom"? Is the innate right to freedom a natural right? Is it the role of the state to protect individual rights to freedom? Katrin Flikschuh is reader in modern political theory in the Government Department, LSE.
Contributor(s): Jonathan Fenby | In this event to mark the publication of his new book, Tiger Head, Snake Tails: China Today, How it Got There and Where it is Heading, Jonathan Fenby will draw together the political, economic and social aspects of today's China to give a unique overview of the emerging superpower. His book also covers foreign relations, history and its heritage, regional matters, demography, the environment, corruption and the "trust deficit". It concludes with an account of the new leaders who will take over running China from the end of this year and assess the challenges they will face. Jonathan Fenby is a British journalist and former editor of The Observer newspaper 1993-1995 and the South China Morning Post 1995-2000.
Contributor(s): Victoria Borwick, Jenny Jones, Ken Livingstone, Brian Paddick | In the run up to the London mayoral elections, the Fawcett Society has invited the leading mayoral campaigns to debate what they will do for London's four million women. The Mayor of London is the UK’s most powerful directly elected politician, managing a budget of £14.6 billion. The way these resources are used could make a huge difference. The Mayor can affect planning, transport, policing and a number of other services in ways that have an impact on equality between women and men. This event will allow the audience to hear from the leading campaigns and ask: What About Women? Victoria Borwick is an assembly candidate for the Conservative Party. She is a Londonwide Assembly Member, a Kensington and Chelsea Councillor, Chairman of Borough Community Relations. In 2007 she came second to Boris Johnson in the selection process to choose the Conservative Candidate for Mayor. Jenny Jones is the mayoral candidate for the Green Party. She currently represents the Green Party in the London Assembly, having been successful in all three elections since the assembly's creation in 2000. In March 2011, Jones was selected to be the Green Party candidate to be Mayor of London in the 2012 elections. She served as Deputy Mayor of London from May 2003 to June 2004. Ken Livingstone is the mayoral candidate for the Labour Party. He was London’s first elected mayor from May 2000. He has held the following positions in elected Office: 2000-2008, Mayor of London, 1987-2001, Member of Parliament for Brent East, 1981-1986, Leader of the Greater London Council, GLC member for Paddington. He has also been a borough councillor in Lambeth and Camden, and served as a GLC councillor in Hackney before Paddington. He stood as a parliamentary candidate in 1979 in Hampstead. Brian Paddick is the mayoral candidate for the Liberal Democrats. He was, until his retirement in May 2007, Deputy Assistant Commissioner in London's Metropolitan Police Service and the United Kingdom's most senior openly gay police officer. The event will include an introduction from Professor Kate Jenkins, visiting professor in the Government Department at LSE, and vice chair of the LSE Court of Governors.
Contributor(s): Edward Lucas | In this talk, Edward Lucas will discuss his newly published book Deception: Spies, Lies and how Russia Dupes the West, which investigates the modern-day spy wars between the Kremlin's intelligence services and their Western adversaries, and their historical roots. Edward Lucas (Bsc Econ 1983) is international editor of The Economist. He has spent more than 25 years reporting from eastern and central Europe. His 2008 best-seller, The New Cold War: how the Kremlin menaces Russia and the West was translated into 20 languages.