Explore every episode of the podcast Autumn 2010 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Professor James Ladyman, Professor Martha Nussbaum, Lord Rees of Ludlow, Richard Smith | James Ladyman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol and co-editor of the British Journal of the Philosophy of Science. Martha Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. Lord Rees of Ludlow is President of the Royal Society, Astronomer Royal and Master of Trinity College Cambridge. Richard Smith is a Former editor of the British Medical Journal and Director of the Ovations Institute. Mark Lawson from BBC Radio 4 and The Guardian.

Contributor(s): Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Professor Timothy Garton Ash, Professor Mary Kaldor, Amartya Sen, Maung Zarni and others | Aung San Suu Kyi, the recently released Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate, speaks live via videolink and telephone from Burma to an audience of LSE academics and students about Myanmar's generals, why they maintain power, the country's youth, and puts forward her vision for Myanmar.

Contributor(s): Professor Daniel Hausman | Preferences are the central notion in mainstream economic theory, yet economists say little about what preferences are. This talk argues that preferences in mainstream positive economics are comparative evaluations with respect to everything relevant to value or choice, and it argues against three mistaken views of preferences: (1) that they are matters of taste, concerning which rational assessment is inappropriate, (2) that preferences coincide with judgments of expected self-interested benefit, and (3) that preferences can be defined in terms of choices. Daniel Hausman is Herbert A. Simon Professor in the department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Contributor(s): Thomas Hammarberg | In a lecture marking UN International Human Rights Day, Thomas Hammarberg discusses the gap between human rights standards and realities in the EU. Thomas Hammarberg was elected Commissioner for Human Rights on 5 October 2005 by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. He took up his position on 1 April 2006, succeeding the first commissioner, Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles. Prior to his appointment, he spent several decades working on the advancement of human rights in Europe and worldwide.

Contributor(s): Professor Ranjana Khanna | More often than not, a sense of belonging to a nation or a community has been deemed or imagined positive. This talk explores how many contemporary artists use and cite different forms of technology as a way of proposing a state of unbelonging. Ranjana Khanna is a Professor of English, Literature, & Women's Studies and Margaret Taylor Smith Director of Women's Studies at Duke University.

Contributor(s): Gordon Brown | The financial crisis has held the world firmly in its grip since it began in 2007. In his three years in office, the former Prime Minister was at the centre of the world's response to the crisis. In his new book Beyond the Crash, Brown will offer an insight into the events that led to the financial downward spiral and the reactions of world leaders as they took steps to avoid further disaster. Long admired for his grasp of economic issues, Brown offers measures he believes should be adopted to secure jobs and justice. Beyond the Crash offers a unique perspective on the financial crisis as well as innovative ideas that will help create a sound economic future and will help readers understand what really has happened to our economy.

Contributor(s): Professor Nicholas Baigent | Nicholas Baigent is professor at the Institute of Public Economics at Graz University and president of the Central European Program in Economic Theory.

Contributor(s): János Martonyi | János Martonyi is the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Hungary, which assumes the Presidency of the European Union on 1 January 2011. Mr Martonyi has been Foreign Minister since May 2010. He is actively involved in politics as the President of the Free Europe Centre for European Integration of the Fidesz Hungarian Civic Union, a member of the Executive Board of the Centre for European Studies, a foundation of the European People's Party based in Brussels, a member of the Batthyány Society of Professors and a member of the advisory board of the weekly Heti Válasz. He is a permanent guest of the Fidesz presidium, a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Chairman of the Nézopont Institute, Budapest.

Contributor(s): Professor Ranjana Khanna | In "Asylum: The Concept and the Practice," Professor Khanna will analyse conceptual links among different sites designated by the term "asylum." Extending insights concerning one institutional setting (the mental asylum) to asylum's most expansive version (the nation), she will highlight the manner in which asylums are bound not only by borders but also by strict rules. Ranjana Khanna is a Professor of English, Literature, & Women's Studies and Margaret Taylor Smith Director of Women's Studies at Duke University.

Contributor(s): Jerzy Buzek, Professor Norman Davies | Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament and former prime minister of Poland, in conversation with Professor Norman Davies, author of Europe: a History and God's Playground, a History of Poland.

Contributor(s): Professor Yezid Sayigh | Professor Sayigh will examine Palestinian political dynamics, as a critical element in what will happen in the wider context of relations with Israel and of what outside powers can or should do. Yezid Sayigh is professor of Middle East Studies, King's College London. In 1990-1994 he was an advisor and negotiator in the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks with Israel, and has been a consultant on the permanent status negotiations and on Palestinian reform since 1998. His most recent publications include Policing the People, Building the State: Authoritarian transformation in the West Bank and Gaza, Carnegie Paper, 2010 (forthcoming); Hamas Rule in Gaza: Three Years On, Middle East Brief, No. 41, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, March 2010; "Fixing Broken Windows:" Security Sector Reform in Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen, Carnegie Paper, October 2009; and 'Inducing a failed state in Palestine', Survival, Vol. 49, No. 3, Autumn 2007.

Contributor(s): Lord Browne, Dr Bates Gill, Professor Mary Kaldor, Baroness Shirley Williams | London launch of the 2010 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Yearbook on Nuclear Weapons in Europe, which this year considers world military expenditure increases despite the financial crisis. Lord Browne of Ladyton is convenor of the Top Level Group. He served as parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office 2001-03; Secretary of State for: Defence 2006-08, Scotland 2007-08 and was the Prime Minister's Special Envoy to Sri Lanka 2009. Bates Gill is director of SIPRI. Mary Kaldor is co-director of LSE Global Governance. Shirley Williams served as adviser on Nuclear Proliferation to prime minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. She served as leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 2001-2004. She is also Professor Emerita of Electoral Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Contributor(s): Professor Derek Gregory | Professor Gregory discusses the evolving character of conflicts in the borderlands of former empires and the blurring of the conceptual borders of war itself. Derek Gregory is professor of geography, University of British Columbia, and author of The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq.

Contributor(s): Professor Christian Ingo Lenz Dunker, Professor Stephen Frosh, Professor Ian Parker | This debate will discuss this use of psychoanalytic thought, and its limitations, with reference to the world of politics, social psychology, philosophy and psychosocial studies. Christian Ingo Lenz Dunker is a professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology of the University of São Paulo, and a practising psychoanalyst. Stephen Frosh is the pro-vice master and head of the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College. Ian Parker is professor of psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Contributor(s): Howard Wolpe | Ambassador Wolpe will comment on the Obama Administration's Africa policy and its perceptions of the continent's place in the international community today. Howard Wolpe is former special envoy to the Great Lakes Region for President Barack Obama. Dr Chris Alden is Co-Head of the Africa International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS. Michael Cox is Professor of International Relations at the Department of International Relations at LSE.

Contributor(s): Dame Janet Gaymer | Law aspires to independence, and the value of the rule of law is closely associated with that independence. This is the final event in the Independence of Law? lecture series. Janet Gaymer is commissioner for public appointments in England and Wales and former senior partner of Simmons & Simmons.

Contributor(s): Dr Dana H. Allin | Dr. Allin will speak on the tangle of Middle East crises: Iran's growing nuclear challenge, the impasse on Israel-Palestine, and the consequences of both for President Obama's efforts to recast America's relations with the world's Muslims. This event marks the publication of Dr Allin's latest book The Sixth Crisis: Iran, Israel, America, and the Rumors of War. Dana H. Allin is Editor, Survival, and Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy and Transatlantic Affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. He is also Adjunct Professor of European Studies at the Bologna Center of the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University.

Contributor(s): Daniel Finkelstein, Professor Roger Scruton | The newly reinvigorated Tories describe themselves as liberal, progressive, and even radical. But these ideas have long been an anathema to conservative thinkers. Are the new Conservatives really conservative? Daniel Finkelstein is executive editor and chief leader writer at The Times and is an LSE alumnus. Roger Scruton is resident researcher at the American Enterprise Institute and visiting professor in philosophy, Oxford University.

Contributor(s): Professor John Quiggin | The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism--the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe. The crisis seemed to have killed off these ideas, but they still live on in the minds of many-- even some of those charged with cleaning up the mess. John Quiggin explains how these dead ideas still walk among us--and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid an even bigger financial crisis in the future. John Quiggin is professor of economics at the University of Queensland in Australia.

Contributor(s): Professor Jan Paulsson, Alexis Mourre | Jan Paulsson's recent paper on "Moral Hazard in International Arbitration" questioning the usefulness of having parties themselves appoint "their" arbitrators has stirred much controversy and will be challenged at this event by Alexis Mourre. Prof. Paulsson is Centennial Professor of Law at LSE, co-head of the international arbitration practice of Freshfields LLP and one of the world's leading arbitrators. Alexis Mourre is partner at Castaldi Mourre & Partners in Paris and a leading French specialist in international arbitration.

Contributor(s): Professor Niall Ferguson | Although never a "hot" war between the superpowers, the Cold War was waged partly through a series of proxy wars in Third World countries from Guatemala to Korea to Vietnam. Although a great deal of attention has been devoted to a select number of U.S. Interventions in the Third World, there is an urgent need to see the "Third World's War" in perspective, showing how successful the Soviet Union was in pursuing a strategy of fomenting revolution and how consistently successive U.S. administrations behaved in response. Professor Niall Ferguson is the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Contributor(s): Dr Danilo Türk | Dr Danilo Türk is President of the Republic of Slovenia. Dr Türk assumed the position of Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Nations in 1992. Following the successful conclusion of Slovenia's term (from 1998 to 1999) as non-permanent member of the Security Council, Mr Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Organisation, appointed Dr Türk as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs. For more than five years his tasks included analytical and consulting activity relating to the crisis situations of the time. After thirteen years in New York Dr Türk returned to Slovenia in the summer of 2005. He resumed teaching International Law and related subjects at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, from May 2006 he served as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law. On 11 November 2007 he was elected President of the Republic of Slovenia by 68,03% votes and was inaugurated in the National Assembly on 22 December 2007.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh | A decade after the groundbreaking Runnymede Trust 'Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain' report, its chair, Lord Parekh, revisits the issues of race equality and multiculturalism in Britain. Bhikhu Parekh is emeritus fellow of political theory at the University of Hull and a fellow of the British Academy.

Contributor(s): Alan AtKisson | Coinciding with the reprint of Alan’s classic book, this event will look at how to build a bridge over the sea of despair, and show how to catch the wave to an enticing, sustainable future. Alan will discuss the pioneers who created the ideas, techniques and practices of sustainable living - the people who prove Cassandra's warnings wrong, by believing in them, and taking strategic action. Alan AtKisson is president and CEO of The AtKisson Group, an international sustainability consultancy to business and government.

Contributor(s): Dr Simon Glendinning | Simon Glendinning is reader in European philosophy at the European Institute, LSE, and director of the Forum for European Philosophy.

Contributor(s): Professor Caroline Pauwels, Dr Damian Tambini | The cornerstone of European media policy, public service broadcasting has long been characterised by transitions, questioning and criticism. Now convergence, media cross-over, EU interference and new public service management theories affect its very chances of survival. Caroline Pauwels is the head of the Institute for Broadband Technologies/Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunications at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and was appointed media commissioner by the Flemish Government for the public service broadcaster VRT. Damian Tambini is a senior lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications, LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Costas Markides | Lots of people did many stupid things for us to get into the current financial mess. Now, the government is stepping up efforts to impose stricter financial regulations to ensure that such things do not happen in future. Will more regulation work? If history is any guide, the answer is no. Over the last 100 years, we've had a financial crisis every 15-20 years. Every time one took place, the government would step in and impose more regulation - only for another crisis to occur 15-20 years later. Why is that? Costas Markides is the Robert P. Bauman Chair of Strategic Leadership at the London Business School.

Contributor(s): Dr Simeon Djankov | The recent financial crisis has uncovered several weaknesses in Europe's regulatory system. Belatedly, the European Commission has tried to fix these weaknesses with extensive new regulation, including the creation of several new institutions. Simeon Djankov Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Bulgaria will in this lecture offer an analysis of the most recent developments as well as a perspective on how the financial sector in Europe, and its regulation, will look like in the coming years.

Contributor(s): Babatunde Fashola | Lagos is one the fastest growing cities in Africa, and the seventh fastest growing city in the world. Governor Babatunde Fashola discusses how his administration is managing rapid urbanization and growth of this 17.5 million city, the engine of Nigeria's economy. Central to his strategy is the view that cities must pursue a bottom-up approach to solve the environmental and social challenges of the contemporary city. Babatunde Fashola is the youngest Governor of Lagos State in the History of Nigeria and a lawyer by profession.

Contributor(s): Vuk Jeremić, Nickolay Mladenov | 'Balkans 2020: The Ministerial Debate' marks the launch of the Balkan International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS. The foreign ministers of Bulgaria and Serbia will identify the issues the region faces today and offer their vision of the Balkans in 2020. Can present challenges endanger the region's fragile stability or, will the Balkans forever shed the infamous attribute of being the "powder keg of Europe"? Vuk Jeremić was sworn in as minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Serbia on May 15 2007. Nickolay Evtimov Mladenov was appointed minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria by the 41st National Assembly on January 27 2010.

Contributor(s): Gideon Rachman | In this lecture to mark the publication of his new book Zero-Sum World: Power and Prosperity in the Age of Anxiety, Gideon Rachman argues that the global economic crisis has changed the logic of international relations and ushered in a new and more dangerous era. This will be characterised by rising tensions between America and China and a failure to deal effectively with global problems such as climate change and nuclear proliferation. Gideon Rachman is the chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times.

Contributor(s): Brad Adams, Margo Picken, Simon Taylor | Senior leaders of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime of Democratic Kampuchea are now on trial in Cambodia for the crimes committed between 1975 and 1979 when two million people are estimated to have died. Will these trials help to break the impunity that has characterised Cambodia's recent history and which continues today? Brad Adams is executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division and is a general expert on Asia. Simon Taylor is one of three co-founder/directors of Global Witness, a London and Washington DC based NGO which investigates and campaigns to prevent natural resource-related conflict and corruption and associated environmental and human rights abuses. Margo Picken has worked in the field of human rights for much of her professional career. Most recently, she worked for the United Nations as director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia from 2001 to 2007.

Contributor(s): Professor David Spiegelhalter | There has been a traditional division between 'risk', which can be quantified using probability distributions, and 'uncertainty', which is the surrounding mess of doubt, disagreement and ignorance. Spiegelhalter will use examples from swine flu to climate change to illustrate different approaches to dealing with uncertainty, from ignoring it to trying to fully quantify it, and conclude that we should all try to be aware and open about the magnitude and potential consequences of our ignorance. David Spiegelhalter is Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge as well as senior scientist in the MRC Biostatistics Unit.

Contributor(s): Polly Toynbee, David Walker | We've had Mandelson's memoirs, Blair's book and Brown biographies: in this lecture Polly Toynbee and David Walker look at what the Labour government in power from 1997 meant for people's lives by charting what it accomplished. Polly Toynbee is an author and a political and social commentator for the Guardian. David Walker edits Public and was formerly chief leader writer of the Independent. They are co-authors of 'The Verdict: Did Labour Change Britain?'

Contributor(s): Professor Fawaz Gerges | Fawaz A. Gerges is a Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also holds the Emirates Chair of the Contemporary Middle East and is the Director of the Middle East Centre at LSE. Gerges is author of two recently acclaimed books: Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy (Harcourt Press, 2007), and The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (Cambridge University Press, 2005). The Washington Post selected The Far Enemy as one of the best 15 books published in the field. Journey of the Jihadist was on the best-selling list of Barnes and Nobles and Foreign Affairs Magazine for several months.

Contributor(s): Professor John Van Reenen | The financial crisis and the great recession dealt the global economy a massive shock. How can growth be put back on a sustainable path? What policy lessons have we learned? And how should Britain respond? John Van Reenen is professor of economics at LSE and the director of the Centre for Economic Performance.

Contributor(s): Raghav Bahl | After decades working with foreign investors, multinationals, and his own native government, Raghav Bahl knows that most of the world underestimates and largely misunderstands India and its potential in the global economy, particularly when set against its neighbour and economic powerhouse China. In his new book 'Superpower?' he takes a close look at who is likely to dominate the world over the next decade - India or China - and provides an incisive and in-depth analysis about the race to superpower status between the two Asian giants.

Contributor(s): Álvaro García Linera | The LSE IDEAS Latin America International Affairs Programme is pleased to announce a lecture by Bolivia's vice president Álvaro García Linera as part of its 2010-11 International Peace and Security in Latin America events series.

Contributor(s): Professor David Wootton | Galileo was convicted in 1633 of defending Copernicanism, but he was also seeking to undermine Christianity. Professor Wootton will show that Galileo was no Christian, and that he welcomed the idea of an infinite universe with other inhabited worlds because he wanted to show that the universe was not made for man. David Wootton is Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York, author of Bad Medicine: doctors doing harm since Hippocrates and most recently Galileo: watcher of the skies.

Contributor(s): Dr Paul Slovic | Dr. Slovic will describe the laboratory experiments that led to the concept of risk as feelings and illustrate some insights gleaned from this perspective for behaviours as diverse as cigarette smoking and apathy toward large scale natural and human caused disasters. Dr. Slovic studies judgment and decision processes with an emphasis on decision making under conditions of risk. His work examines fundamental issues such as the influence of affect on judgments and decisions. For further information visit Dr. Slovic's website: www.decisionresearch.org.

Contributor(s): Alexander Stubb | Alexander Stubb, Finland's Foreign Minister is a graduate of the LSE. He became Minister for Foreign Affairs in April 2008. Before that he served for four years as a member of the European Parliament.

Contributor(s): Will Hutton, Dr Christopher Davidson | Will Hutton, executive vice chair of the Work Foundation, former editor in chief of The Observer. Dr Christopher Davidson, senior lecturer at the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham University.

Contributor(s): Professor Ian Clark | International relations theory is weak on how international order is managed under a preponderance of power. This lecture explores the notion of hegemony as a theoretical solution, and develops the thought of Martin Wight in this respect. Ian Clark is E H Carr Professor of International Politics at the University of Aberystwyth and a fellow of the British Academy.

Contributor(s): Zoran Vujic, Zoran Jeftic, Sonja Stojanovic, Bojan Brkic | Zoran Vujic is Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs. Zoran Jeftic is Deputy Minister of Defence. Sonja Stojanovic is Director of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy. Bojan Brkic is Deputy Editor in Chief of Radio Television Serbia.

Contributor(s): Dr Michael O'Malley | When Michael O'Malley first took up beekeeping he thought it would be a nice hobby to share with his son. But he noticed that bees not only work together to achieve a common goal but, in the process, create a remarkably productive organisation. O'Malley's new book The Wisdom of Bees shows what bees can teach managers and provides insight into decision-making, communication and forward planning. This event celebrates the publication of Michael O'Malleys new book The Wisdom of Bees: What the Hive Can Teach Business about Leadership, Efficiency, and Growth.

Contributor(s): Dr. Steve Woolcock, Dr. Jan Kleinheisterkamp and others | The workshop will present a recent study for the European Parliament on the Commissions communication and draft Regulation on the future of investment treaty law after Lisbon, with commentators from the EU Commission, the UK government and investment arbitration practice. Dr Steve Woolcock is the director of the International Trade Policy Unit of the LSE International Relations Department. Dr. Jan Kleinheisterkamp is heading the Transnational Law Project of the LSE Law Department.

Contributor(s): Professor Scott Atran | In this lecture Scott Atran will talk about his new book Talking to the Enemy |which is a courageous exploration of one of the most contentious issues of modern times. Scott Atran asks a question that he is uniquely qualified to answer: Why would someone take their own life through suicide bombing?

Contributor(s): Satish Kumar | When he was nine Satish joined the wandering brotherhood of Jain monks. At 18, he became a campaigner for land reform, working to turn Gandhi's vision of renewed India and a peaceful world into reality. Satish Kumar is a visiting fellow at Schumacher College, a residential centre for study of ecological and spiritual values. He founded the Small School, with ecological and spiritual values in its curriculum.

Contributor(s): Vineet Nayar | Differentiation is crucial to maintaining and growing market share. But many organisations lack the courage to look inwards and discover exactly what their competitive advantage is and change accordingly. However, 5 years ago the Delhi-based IT Service provider HCL Technologies started on a change journey that identified exactly where their strengths and weaknesses lay and culminated in an entirely new management philosophy and organisational culture - one in which, for example, employees are not only accountable to managers but managers are accountable to employees. In this session Vineet Nayar explains the reasoning and methodologies and the dramatic impact the philosophy has had on company results. Vineet Nayar is Chief Executive Officer and whole time Board Director of HCL Technologies Ltd.

Contributor(s): Dr Eric Martin | Eric Martin is a fellow in the Centre for Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences, LSE.