Explore every episode of the podcast Autumn 2012 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Professor Justin Lin | As a result of the miraculous growth since the market-oriented reform in 1979, China’s status in the global economy has dramatically changed. This speech will reflect on China’s unprecedented growth in the past 32 years, examine the reasons of that growth, and discuss prospects and challenges for China to maintain an eight-percent annual growth rate in the coming decades. Justin Yifu Lin is the former World Bank chief economist and senior vice president, development economics. Lin is the founder and first director of the China Center for Economic Research and a former professor of economics at Peking University and at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Justin Lin is to receive an Honorary Degree from LSE – Doctor of Science (Economics).

Contributor(s): Lina Khatib | Marking the publication of Lina Khatib's latest book Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of the Visual in Political Struggle, this lecture focuses on the evolution of political expression and activism in the Middle East over the past decade, highlighting the visual dimension of power struggles between citizens and leaders in Arab countries undergoing transition. Lina Khatib is the co-founding head of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, a multidisciplinary policy-oriented research program established in 2010 to study democratic change in the Arab world. She is an expert on Middle East politics and its intersection with social, cultural and media issues. At Stanford, she leads research projects on political and economic reform, as well as on political activism in the Arab world, and the political participation of minorities. She is the author of Filming the Modern Middle East: Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World, (2006), and Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and Beyond (2008), and a founding co-editor of the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. Her book Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of the Visual in Political Struggle (IB Tauris, 2012) examines the visual dimension of power struggles between states, political leaders, political parties, and citizens in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Iran, and Lebanon. She is also a consultant and frequent commentator on the Middle East in the media with appearances on CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, and several media outlets around the globe. Dr Aitemad Muhanna is a research fellow at the LSE's Middle East Center pursuing post-doctoral research on gender, religion and sustainable human development in Gaza.

Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Hill | In this lecture, Dr Hill seeks to make the case that Algeria has exerted a profound influence on the discipline of postcolonial studies. He will argue that the country’s legacy is at once political, intellectual and ideological. J.N.C. Hill is a senior lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London. He has published widely on North African security issues. Some of his main publications include Nigeria since Independence: Forever Fragile? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), Remembering the War of Liberation: Legitimacy and Conflict in Contemporary Algeria (Small Wars and Insurgencies, 2012), Islamism and Democracy in the Modern Maghreb (Third World Quarterly, 2011), and Sufism in Northern Nigeria: A Force for Counter-Radicalisation? (United States Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2010), and Identity in Algerian Politics: The Legacy of Colonial Rule (Lynne Rienner, 2009).

Contributor(s): Professor Aziz Al- Azmeh | What is the condition of the relationship between religion and polity in the Arab World following the upheaval of the past two years? What is the relationship between this condition and the long history of secularism and freethinking in the Arab World? Professor Aziz Al-Azmeh will reflect on these questions as well as take questions from the audience during this lecture. Aziz Al-Azmeh is professor in the School of History at the Central European University and author of Islams and Modernities (Verso, 2009). Al-Azmeh has been a visiting professor at Columbia University, Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University and the American University of Beirut. His works in English also include The Times of History: Universal Themes in Islamic Historiography (CEU Press, 2007) and Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred in Muslim, Christian, and Pagan Politics (IB Tauris, 2001).

Contributor(s): Dr Noah Horowitz | Since the 1960s artists have created ephemeral and experiential works of art that were frequently informed by a desire to thwart the market's mechanisms, or simply by ambivalence to economic conventions. How then do these works of art enter the market? By what means can a performance artist make a living without public subsidy? And what challenges and opportunities do conceptual, installation and performance works present to both commercial galleries and collectors? Noah Horowitz is an art historian and expert on the international art market. He is the author of Art of the Deal: Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market (Princeton University Press, 2011), has contributed to publications for The Serpentine Gallery, London; the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo; and the United Kingdom's Intellectual Property Office. His writings and interviews on contemporary art and economics have appeared in The New York Times, The Observer, REUTERS, artinfo.com, Das Handelsblatt and ArtTactic. He received his PhD from The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and formerly served as Director of the inaugural VIP Art Fair - the first- ever online art fair. Horowitz currently lives in New York where he is a member of the faculty of Sotheby's Institute of Art and Managing Director of The Armory Show. BREESE LITTLE is a commercial gallery directed by Josephine Breese and Henry Little. This is the third lecture as part of our ongoing series proudly in association with LSE Arts. Previous lectures have included Melanie Gerlis, Art Market Editor for The Art Newspaper, on Emerging Art Markets (November 2011) and Jeffrey Boloten, Managing Director of Art Insight on The State of the State of the Global Art Market (February 2011).

Contributor(s): Edward Luce | As it stands, the US faces new countries on the ascendant that will compete with it ever more fiercely as its own power is declining. The US must change paths domestically, economically and internationally if it hopes to slow this steady loss of power. It must also restructure to remain the world's most competitive economy. And it must address quality of life issues and fairness at home. But American politics is broken -- competing forces and interests have led to stasis. With change so hard, what now for a country where the middle classes are suffering as they have never suffered before, the pensions crisis is growing, the deficit out of sight, and radicalism waiting in the wings? Edward Luce is the Washington columnist and commentator for the Financial Times. He writes a weekly column, FT's leaders/editorials on American politics and the economy and other articles. Ed has worked for the FT since 1995 as Philippines correspondent, capital markets editor, South Asia bureau chief in New Delhi and Washington bureau chief between 2006 and 2011. In 2000 Ed was the chief speechwriter for Lawrence H. Summers, the US Treasury secretary. His first book, In Spite of the Gods, The Strange Rise of Modern India remains a high seller. His new book is entitled Time To Start Thinking: America and the Spectre of Decline.

Contributor(s): Professor Keith Ansell-Pearson | This lecture will consider the dramatic questions about human existence that Bergson poses in the conclusion to his 1932 text The Two Sources of Morality and Religion. Keith Ansell-Pearson is professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Hennessy | Peter Hennessy will examine the special considerations that apply to writing the history of one’s own times, with particular reference to themes running through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He will talk about Britain’s impulse to punch well about its weight in the world; at the sustenance of the nuclear weapons policy which has accompanied the impulse and at the intelligence operations which underpin it. He will also look at the contrasting styles and achievements of post-war prime minsters from Clement Attlee to David Cameron. Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. He has written several books on contemporary British history including Never Again and Having It So Good. Distilling the Frenzy is his latest book. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Contributor(s): David Aaronovitch, Mehdi Hasan | What right is there under freedom of speech to cause offence? How can we balance ideals of free expression with respect for other faiths and beliefs? The sometimes violent reaction to the American-made film about the Prophet has polarised opinion within and between different countries and communities. We bring together David Aaronovitch, Times columnist and author of Voodoo Histories with Mehdi Hasan, Political Director of The Huffington Post UK and co-author of ED: The Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader to debate what is at stake.

Contributor(s): Dr William H Janeway, Professor Dimitri Vayanos | In this talk William Janeway will discuss his new book, Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy: Markets, Speculation and the State. The Innovation Economy begins with discovery and culminates in speculation. Over some 250 years, economic growth has been driven by successive processes of trial and error: upstream exercises in research and invention, and downstream experiments in exploiting the new economic space opened by innovation. Drawing on his professional experiences, William H. Janeway provides an accessible pathway for readers to appreciate the dynamics of the Innovation Economy. He combines personal reflections, from a career spanning forty years in venture capital, with the development of an original theory of the role of asset bubbles in financing technological innovation and of the role of the state in playing an enabling role in the innovation process. Today, with the state frozen as an economic actor and access to the public equity markets only open to a minority, the Innovation Economy is stalled; learning the lessons from this book will contribute to its renewal. William H. Janeway has lived a double life of "theorist-practitioner," according to the legendary economist Hyman Minsky who first applied that term to him twenty-five years ago. In his role as "practitioner," Bill Janeway has been an active venture capital investor for more than 40 years. During that time he built and led the Warburg Pincus Technology Investment team that provided financial backing to a series of companies making critical contributions to the internet economy, including BEA Systems, Veritas Software and, more recently, Nuance Communications, the speech recognition company. He remains actively engaged as a Senior Advisor and Managing Director at Warburg Pincus. As a "theorist," Janeway received a Ph.D in Economics from Cambridge University where he was a Marshall Scholar. His doctoral study on the formulation of economic policy following the Great Crash of 1929 was supervised by Keynes' leading student, Richard Kahn (author of the foundational paper on "the multiplier"). Janeway went on to found the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance. Currently he serves as a Teaching Visitor at the Princeton University Economics Department and Visiting Scholar in the Economics Faculty of Cambridge University. Janeway is a director of Magnet Systems, Nuance Communications, O'Reilly Media and a member of the Board of Managers of Roubini Global Economics. He is a member of the board of directors of the Social Science Research Council, and a co-founder and member of the Governing Board of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). Mr Janeway will be signing copies of his book, which will be available for sale with a 20% discount on the night. Dimitri Vayanos is Professor of Finance and Director of the Paul Woolley Centre for the Study of Capital Market Dysfunctionality at LSE.

Contributor(s): Dr Ha-Joon Chang | It has been four years since the global financial crisis broke out. If this were a normal downturn, the economy should have already recovered. Instead, we are talking about the prospect of a ‘lost decade’. Unemployment, especially youth unemployment, stays stubbornly high, while the financial elite keep drawing huge salaries and bonuses, even as their shenanigans are constantly exposed. What has gone wrong? In the talk, the author debunks the prevailing myths – 23 of them, to be exact – and show how our economic system, especially the financial system, needs to be completely re-wired if we are to build a more dynamic and fairer economy. Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Kicking away the Ladder and Bad Samaritans. He is the winner of 2003 Gunnar Myrdal Prize and 2005 Wassily Leontief Prize. His latest book is 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism.

Contributor(s): Robert Cooper, Richard Corbett, John Peet | In a period during which much is being made of fundamental changes in the balance of power, how can Europe redefine itself and its role in the wider international system? This event will launch the IDEAS Special Report, Europe in an Asian Century. Robert Cooper is former director-general for external and politico-military affairs at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. Richard Corbett is a former member of the European Parliament and advisor to President Herman Van Rompuy. John Peet is European editor of the Economist.

Contributor(s): John McCain | On the eve of a Presidential election and with the United States ‘pivoting’ to Asia, Senator John McCain of the US Senate's Armed Services Committee, and the Republican Presidential candidate in 2008 will address an LSE audience and invite guests to participate in an interactive Q&A session. John McCain was elected to the United States Senate in 1986, after serving two terms in the U.S. House. As the son and grandson of distinguished Navy admirals, John attended college at the United States Naval Academy, and launched a 22-year career as a naval aviator upon his graduation. Senator McCain's last Navy duty assignment was to serve as the naval liaison to the United States Senate. He retired from the Navy in 1981. His naval honours include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Senator McCain currently serves on the following Senate Committees during the 112th Congress: Ranking Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee; Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Committee on Indian Affairs.

Contributor(s): Professor Christian List | Science, especially the idea that everything in the universe is physically determined, is often thought to challenge the notion that we, humans, have free will and are capable of choosing our own actions. The aim of this lecture is to argue that there is room for free will in a world governed by the laws of physics. Christian List is professor of political science and philosophy at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Barney Nyameko Pityana | A programme of the Steve Biko Foundation, the Steve Biko Memorial Lecture is a platform to reflect upon the legacy of the late anti-apartheid activist; particularly in relation to issues of consciousness, leadership and the African development agenda. The Revd Canon Professor Nyameko Barney Pityana is Rector of the College of the Transfiguration in Grahamstown, South Africa. A lawyer, theologian, academic and notable human rights activist, Pityana was a founder of the Black Consciousness Movement alongside Steve Biko. Today he writes extensively and gives lectures on ethics, public morality and contemporary South African politics.

Contributor(s): Professor Sir Mervyn King | Since 2008, we have experienced the worst financial crisis and recession since the 1930’s. What challenges does this pose to the intellectual foundations of monetary policy? Do we need a new approach? Mervyn King is the Governor of the Bank of England. Before joining the Bank he was Professor of Economics at the LSE, and a founder of the Financial Markets Group.

Contributor(s): Mary Hockaday | Mary Hockaday is one of the BBC’s leading journalism executives. Her latest mission was to oversee the historic move of the BBC journalists into one brand new high tech, multi-media newsroom. This event is part of the POLIS Media Agenda 2012 series.

Contributor(s): Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt | Europe is in crisis. How did we get here? What didn’t work? Faced with such an emergency, are the euro zone states not creating an undemocratic monster? Is euroscepticism not reactionary? Could a federation of 27 actually work? For Europe is a call. A wake up call directed to every citizen. It is an exercise in lucidity that encourages reflection. And it is also an alarm bell. The tone is frank, passionate. The arguments hard hitting : “Europe must once and for all get rid of the navel gazing of its nation-states. A radical revolution is needed. A large European revolution. And a European federal Union must emerge. A Union that enables Europe to participate in the postnational world of tomorrow. By laziness, cowardice and lack of vision, too many of our Heads of State and Government prefer not to see what is at stake. Let’s wake them up. Let’s confront them with their impotence. And give them no respite until they have taken the European way, the way to a Europe of the future, towards a Europe for Europeans. The era of empty summits and statements is over. Now is the time for action.” Daniel Cohn-Bendit was born on 4 April 1945 in Montauban, France, as a second son to German-Jewish parents. After obtaining his abitur at the Odenwaldschule, Germany, he decided to study Sociology at the University of Nanterre, Paris. He became the student leader and spokesperson in the social unrests in May 1968. Because of this role and his German nationality, Daniel Cohn-Bendit was expelled. He worked as a childcare worker and bookseller in the alternative-anarchist scene of Frankfurt am Main, where he co-founded the magazine Pflasterstrand (beach of cobblestone, from the French 1968 slogan "Sous les pavés, le sable"). In 1984, he was founding member of the German green party "DIE GRÜNEN". In 1989, he became honorary Head of Department in the Office for Multicultural Affairs in Frankfurt. Daniel Cohn-Bendit presented the Swiss TV programme Literaturklub from 1994 to 2003. He was elected Member of the European Parliament for the first time in 1994 on a German conscription list. Since 2002, he is co-chairman of the group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. He won his current mandate as head of the list in Ile-de-France / Paris. Daniel holds an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Tilburg, Netherlands. He won the Hannah Arendt prize for Political Thinking, and the Trombinoscope award "Political Personality" for special contributions in the field of politics (2009). Guy Verhofstadt was born in 1953, and attended school and university in Ghent, where he studied the law. In 1972, he became President of the Liberal Flemish Students' Union in Ghent and, four years later, was elected as a City Councillor there. Keen to follow his interest in national politics, Guy went on to take a number of high profile posts including Political Secretary to Willy De Clercq, National President of the Party for Freedom and Progress (PVV), an MP in the House of Representatives, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Budget, a Senator, and National President of the PVV and National President of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD). In July 1999 he became Prime Minister of Belgium, heading three separate governments over the course of nearly ten years. In June 2009 Guy Verhofstadt was elected to the European Parliament where he will pursue his interests in European politics after winning the unanimous support of the ALDE Group in their leadership contest. In addition to his duties as a politician, Guy has written a number of books including, The United States of Europe (2006), The New Age of Empires (2008) and Emerging from the Crisis: How Europe can Save the World (2009).

Contributor(s): Professor Manuel Castells | This event will present the analyses contained in a new book Aftermath: The Cultures of the Economic Crisis, edited by Manuel Castells, João Caraça, and Gustavo Cardoso. It will retrace the financial crisis that unfolded since 2008 in the United States and Europe as well as discuss the policies dealing with the crisis, the reasons for the rampant euro-crisis, and the alternative social movements opposing financial capitalism and delegitimized governments in the aftermath of the crisis. Manuel Castells is Professor of Sociology, and Director of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), in Barcelona. He is as well University Professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, and Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for 24 years. He is the winner of the 2012 Holberg Prize. Paul Mason is the Economics Editor of BBC 2's Newsnight programme. His books include Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed; and Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions. He blogs at Paul Mason.

Contributor(s): Luis de Guindos | Luis de Guindos is Spanish Minister of the Economy and Competitiveness.

Contributor(s): Kofi Annan | Kofi Annan has been at the centre of the major geopolitical events of our time. With over forty years of service to the United Nations – the last ten as Secretary-General – he provides a unique, behind-the-scenes view of international diplomacy during one of the most tumultuous periods in global politics. Annan’s candid stories of world leaders and public figures of all striped contrast powerfully with his descriptions of the courage and decency of ordinary people everywhere struggling for a new and better world. Kofi Annan was the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, serving two terms between 1997-2006. In 2001, Annan and the United Nations were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. His memoir, Interventions: A Life in War and Peace| is published by Allen Lane Books. William Shawcross is a widely renowned writer and broadcaster, who’s works have appeared in the Sunday Times, Time, Newsweek and the International Herald Tribune. He is the author of numerous acclaimed books including Deliver Us From Evil: Warlords and Peacekeepers in a World of Endless Conflict, Allies: The US, Britain, Europe and the War in Iraq and most recently Justice and the Enemy: From the Nuremberg Trials to Khaled Sheikh Mohammed.

Contributor(s): Gurbaksh Chahal | Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal will discuss the lessons learned in his experiences on how people can achieve their dreams. Gurbaksh is a die-hard internet entrepreneur. In January 1999, he started his first company, ClickAgents at the age of 16. It was one of the first ad networks focused around performance based advertising. Eighteen months later he sold it for $40 million to ValueClick. In January 2004, he launched his second company, BlueLithium. The company focused on data, optimization, and analytics and became a pioneer in behavioural targeting. BlueLithium was named one of the top 100 private companies in America for three years in a row by AlwaysOn, and in 2006, the company received the highest honour of Top Innovator of the Year. (Previous winners included Google, Skype, and Salesforce.com.) On 4 September 2007, Yahoo! announced that it was acquiring BlueLithium for $300 million in cash. Some of his television appearances include The Oprah Winfrey Show, Bonnie Hunt, EXTRA and Neil Cavuto, among others. He has also been profiled in such publications as The New York Times, Entrepreneur magazine, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Chahal is also an international best-selling author of The Dream the inspirational tale of his entrepreneurial journey. In September 2009, Chahal launched gWallet, now re-branded as RadiumOne. On April 29, 2010, Chahal was awarded the Leaders In Management Award and an Honorary Doctorate degree in Commercial Science from Pace University for his career achievements as an entrepreneur.

Contributor(s): Aggrey Tisa Sabuni | Aggrey Tisa Sabuni, Economic Advisor to the President, will discuss the successes and challenges of building core Government institutions in South Sudan. Mr. Sabuni will discuss the role of the international community in this process, and identify where the development of these institutions has succeeded and where there is still more work to be done. Aggrey Tisa Sabuni is currently the Economic Advisor to the President, having previously served as Undersecretary (Permanent Secretary) to the Ministry of Finance. He holds a Masters in Development Economics from the University of Glasgow and a Bachelors in Statistics from the University of Khartoum.

Contributor(s): Stephen Hester | Stephen Hester took over as Royal Bank of Scotland CEO after the UK Government was forced to rescue the bank from the brink of collapse during the financial crisis. Three and a half years after launching its recovery plan, the bank is in much stronger health. But like the rest of the banking industry, RBS continues to confront serious reputational damage as past mistakes slowly come into full view of regulators, media, and the wider public. Hester will explain how a key linking factor behind the scandals currently affecting the industry has been its approach to customers. And he will argue that improving that approach is the key to fixing both the culture and performance of the banks we all rely on. Stephen Hester was appointed group chief executive of RBS Group on 21 November 2008. He was previously chief executive of The British Land Company PLC, chief operating officer of Abbey National plc and prior to that held positions with Credit Suisse First Boston including chief financial officer, head of fixed income and co-head of European investment banking. In 2008 he served as a non-executive director of Northern Rock plc.

Contributor(s): Professor Gillian Hart | In the light of the conflicting forces that have unfolded in South Africa over the last decade, Gillian Hart takes a fresh look at the nation’s transition from apartheid. Based on Professor Hart’s forthcoming book, this lecture will explore the simultaneous processes of South African de-nationalization, re-nationalization and ‘elite pacting’, before examining how this fits within contemporary debates over passive revolution. Gillian Hart is Professor of Geography and Co-chair of Development Studies and the University of California, Berkeley, and an Honorary Research Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Contributor(s): Professor Anatol Lieven | This lecture will describe how the economic decline of the American white middle classes (which in US terms includes parts of what in Europe are called the working classes) is producing a form of radical conservatism which while it has specifically American features, also has sinister echoes of the European past. This event marks the publication of a new edition of America Right or Wrong - An Anatomy of American Nationalism. Anatol Lieven is a professor in the War Studies Department at King's College London, and a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC.

Contributor(s): Dr Omotunde E.G. Johnson, Dr Louis Kasekende, Dr Ijaz Nabi, Dr Abdul Hafiz Shaikh | The developed world has recently fallen behind in the numbers game, as African and Asian countries have experienced enviable growth. However, this debate will focus on the challenges that the two continents now face in maintaining this positive trend and the policies that are necessary to ensure that growth is sustainable. Omotunde E.G. Johnson is the IGC Sierra Leone country director. Dr Johnson has taught at the University of Sierra Leone, the University of Michigan and George Mason University. He was a staff member of the International Monetary Fund for 26 ½ years. Since his retirement from that organisation in November 2000, he has been an independent researcher as well as a consultant for organisations including the IMF, UNCTAD, African Peer Review Mechanism of the African Union, African Development Bank and the West African Monetary Institute. Dr Louis Kasekende is deputy governor at the Bank of Uganda. He recently served at the African Development Bank as chief economist, a position he held for three and a half years. Previously he served as Alternate Executive Director and later as Executive Director at the World Bank for Africa Group 1, including 22 countries mostly from Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a member of the United Nations Group of Eminent Persons for the Least Developed Countries and was recently appointed to the Financial Stability Board taskforce on Emerging Markets and Developing Economies. Ijaz Nabi is the IGC Pakistan Country Director and a former professor of economics and dean of the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law at Lahore University of Management Sciences. He is also member of the prime minister’s economic advisory council, chief minister of Punjab’s advisory council and the monetary policy committee of the State Bank of Pakistan. Dr Nabi returned to Pakistan in 2008 after 22 years at the World Bank in Washington where he worked on Mexico, Korea, Thailand (leading the World Bank team during the East Asian financial crisis), Malaysia, Korea, Laos and Myanmar. Dr Abdul Hafiz Shaikh is Pakistan’s minister for finance, revenue, economic affairs, statistics and planning and development. Dr Shaikh has previously worked at Harvard University and The World Bank. Dr Shaikh served as minister for finance, planning & development in Sindh Province from 2000 to 2002, and was the architect of the financial recovery of Sindh. From 2003 to 2006 he served as the federal minister for privatisation & investment. Dr Shaikh was awarded Pakistan’s “Man of the Year” in 2004 by the business community in recognition of his contributions to the country. Dr Shaikh has a Ph.D in economics and has authored many publications including a book on Argentina.

Contributor(s): Professor Lawrence M. Krauss | The question, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" has been asked for millenia by people who speculate on the need for a creator of our Universe. Today, exciting scientific advances provide new insight into this cosmological mystery: Not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing. Lawrence Krauss will present a mind-bending trip, based on his bestselling new book, back to the beginning of the beginning and the end of the end, reviewing the remarkable developments in cosmology and particle physics over the past 20 years that have revolutionized our picture of the origin of the universe, and of its future. In the process, it has become clear that not only can our universe naturally arise from nothing, but that it probably did. Lawrence M. Krauss is a renowned cosmologist and science popularizer, and is Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. Hailed by Scientific American as a rare public intellectual, he is also the author of more than three hundred scientific publications and nine books, including the international bestseller, The Physics of Star Trek, and his most recent bestseller entitled A Universe from Nothing, now being translated into 17 languages. He received his PhD from MIT in 1982 and then joined the Society of Fellows at Harvard, and was a professor at Yale University and Chair of the Physics Department at Case Western Reserve University before taking his present position. Internationally known for his work in theoretical physics, he is the winner of numerous international awards, and is the only physicist to have received major awards from all three US physics societies, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, and the American Association of Physics Teachers. Krauss is also a commentator and essayist for newspapers such as the New York Times, and the Wall St. Journal, and has written regular columns for New Scientist, Scientific American, and Slate, and appears regularly on radio and television. He serves as co-chair of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and on the Board of Directors of the Federation of American Scientists.

Contributor(s): Ben Akabueze, Professor Paul Collier, Professor Tony Venables | Urban areas are the most productive parts of the developing world, yet concentrated urban poverty presents some of the biggest policy challenges. By 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population was living in urban areas and it is projected that by 2030 this number will swell to almost 5 billion, with urban growth concentrated in Africa and Asia. This discussion will address the potential and the challenges of economic development in urban areas. Ben Akabueze is commissioner for economic planning & budget of Lagos State, Nigeria. A distinguished banker, accountant, economist and administrator, he holds a first class B.Sc degree in Accounting from the University of Lagos and an Advanced Management Programme Certificate from the Lagos Business School. He has served as Lagos State commissioner for economic planning & budget since January 2007, having first been appointed by Governor Tinubu and then re-appointed for two terms now by Governor Fashola. Paul Collier is professor of Economics and director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies, Oxford University. He took a five year Public Service leave, 1998-2003, during which he was director of the Research Development Department of the World Bank. He is academic director of the International Growth Centre. In 2008 Paul was awarded a CBE ‘for services to scholarship and development’. He is the author of The Bottom Billion, which in 2008 won the Lionel Gelber, Arthur Ross and Corine prizes and in May 2009 was the joint winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book prize. His second book, Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places was published in March 2009; and his latest book, The Plundered Planet: How to reconcile prosperity with nature was published in May 2010. Tony Venables CBE is professor of Economics at the University of Oxford where he also directs the Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies. He is a member of the International Growth Centre’s Steering Group. He is a fellow of the British Academy and of the Econometric Society. Former positions include chief economist at the UK Department for International Development, professor at the London School of Economics, research manager of the trade research group in the World Bank, and advisor to the UK Treasury.

Contributor(s): Pierre Moscovici | Pierre Moscovici will address both the policy outlook in France and the ongoing crisis management developments at the European level. Pierre Moscovici was appointed Minister of the Economy and Finance on 16 May 2012, following the election of President François Hollande. He has been involved in European and international affairs as well as in national politics, in particular on fiscal issues. He was first a member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1997, and became one of its vice-presidents from 2004 to 2007. In the meantime, he was elected to France's National Assembly in 1997 (and was later re-elected in 2007 and 2012), in the constituency of Doubs in eastern France, and was appointed Minister for European Affairs in the government of Lionel Jospin from 1997 to 2002, where he was specifically involved in finalizing the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997 and negotiating the Nice Treaty in 2000. He was also involved in negotiating the European Constitutional Treaty of 2004 and was a vigorous advocate of its adoption in France. Before holding elected office, he worked for the French Socialist Party, which he joined back in 1984 as an expert on fiscal issues. Pierre Moscovici joined the Audit Court (Cour des Comptes) after graduating from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in 1984.

Contributor(s): Heiner Flassbeck, Professor Robert Wade | In the context of the ongoing fall-out from the global financial crisis, income distribution is back to the centre of economic analysis and policies. The Trade and Development Report 2012 explores the linkages between income distribution, growth and development. The still unresolved financial crisis and its negative effects on global economic growth make a new approach towards inequality all the more urgent. Heiner Flassbeck is the Director of the Division on Globalisation and Development Strategies at UNCTAD and has led the research team behind the annual Trade and Development Reportsince 2005 as well as policy initiatives by UNCTAD since the global crisis, especially on financialisation of the world economy and reform of the international monetary system. Robert Wade is Professor of Political Economy and Development in the Department of International Development at LSE. A New Zealander, educated Washington DC, New Zealand, Sussex University. Worked at Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, 1972-95, World Bank, 1984-88, Princeton Woodrow Wilson School 1989/90, MIT Sloan School 1992, Brown University 1996-2000. Fellow of Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton 1992/93, Russell Sage Foundation 1997/98, Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin 2000/01. Fieldwork in Pitcairn Is., Italy, India, Korea, Taiwan. Research on World Bank 1995-continuing. Author of Irrigation and Politics in South Korea (1982), Village Republics: The Economic Conditions of Collective Action in India (1988, 1994), Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asia's Industrialization (1990, 2003). He won the American Political Science Association's award of Best Book in Political Economy, 1992. Established in 1964, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. UNCTAD has progressively evolved into an authoritative knowledge-based institution whose work aims to help shape current policy debates and thinking on development, with a particular focus on ensuring that domestic policies and international action are mutually supportive in bringing about sustainable development.

Contributor(s): Apostolos Doxiadis, Pavlos Eleftheriadis, Michael Jacobides, Andreas Koutras, George Prokopakis | The first part of the discussion focused on (a) what should be the long-term “vision” for Greek economy and society, and (b) what obstacles are preventing the evolution towards that vision and what ways exist to circumvent them. There were four talks by a panel of speakers, which was chaired by Dimitri Vayanos, followed by a Q&A session. The second part of the discussion, chaired by Nikitas Konstantinidis, focused on how diaspora Greeks could help with the resolution of the crisis. The event took place under the auspices of the Hellenic Observatory at the LSE.

Contributor(s): Patrick Dunleavy, Chris Thong, Sir Adrian Smith, Nicola Dandridge, Simon Bastow, Victor Henning, Ziyad Marar, Jason Priem, Jane Tinkler, Julia Lane, Cameron Neylon, David Sweeney, Stephen Curry, Mark Thorley, Robert Kiley, Jude England | The Future of Academic Impacts was an all day conference hosted by the LSE’s Impact of Social Sciences project team held on Tuesday, 4th December at Beveridge Hall, Senate House, London. The event is to mark the end of the three-year Impact of Social Sciences project based at the London School of Economics that has been funded by HEFCE. Working with colleagues at Imperial College London and the University of Leeds, we have looked at the nature and measurement of impact of academic research in the social sciences on government and policymaking, business and industry, and civil society. The conference will draw the research project to a close, discuss the results and outcomes of the project and seek to look forward to how impact research and measurement might develop over the next ten year period looking beyond REF2014. 10.00 – 11.30 Session 1: The Economic Impact of Academic Research. Speakers: Patrick Dunleavy – LSE, Chris Thong – Cambridge Economics, Sir Adrian Smith – Vice Chancellor, University of London, Nicola Dandridge – Chief Executive, Universities UK, Simon Bastow – LSE Chair. 11.45 – 13.15 Session 2: Impact and the New Digital Paradigm. Speakers: Victor Henning – Co-Founder & CEO - Mendeley Ltd, Ziyad Marar – Global Publishing Director - Sage, Jason Priem – ImpactStory, Jane Tinkler – LSE Chair. 14.00 – 15.30 Session 3: Next Steps in Assessing Impact. Speakers: Julia Lane – Senior Managing Economist - American Institutes of Research, Cameron Neylon – Senior Scientist - Science and Technology Facilities Council/ Advocacy Director PLoS, David Sweeney – Director (Research, Innovation and Skills) - HEFCE, Patrick Dunleavy – LSE Chair. 16.00 – 17.30 Session 4: Impact as a Driver for Open Access. Speakers: Stephen Curry – Imperial College London, Mark Thorley – RCUK Research Outputs Network, Robert Kiley – Head Digital Services - Wellcome Trust, Chair: Jude England – Head of Social Sciences -The British Library.

Contributor(s): Patrick Dunleavy, Chris Thong, Sir Adrian Smith, Nicola Dandridge, Simon Bastow, Victor Henning, Ziyad Marar, Jason Priem, Jane Tinkler, Julia Lane, Cameron Neylon, David Sweeney, Stephen Curry, Mark Thorley, Robert Kiley, Jude England | The Future of Academic Impacts was an all day conference hosted by the LSE’s Impact of Social Sciences project team held on Tuesday, 4th December at Beveridge Hall, Senate House, London. The event is to mark the end of the three-year Impact of Social Sciences project based at the London School of Economics that has been funded by HEFCE. Working with colleagues at Imperial College London and the University of Leeds, we have looked at the nature and measurement of impact of academic research in the social sciences on government and policymaking, business and industry, and civil society. The conference will draw the research project to a close, discuss the results and outcomes of the project and seek to look forward to how impact research and measurement might develop over the next ten year period looking beyond REF2014. 10.00 – 11.30 Session 1: The Economic Impact of Academic Research. Speakers: Patrick Dunleavy – LSE, Chris Thong – Cambridge Economics, Sir Adrian Smith – Vice Chancellor, University of London, Nicola Dandridge – Chief Executive, Universities UK, Simon Bastow – LSE Chair. 11.45 – 13.15 Session 2: Impact and the New Digital Paradigm. Speakers: Victor Henning – Co-Founder & CEO - Mendeley Ltd, Ziyad Marar – Global Publishing Director - Sage, Jason Priem – ImpactStory, Jane Tinkler – LSE Chair. 14.00 – 15.30 Session 3: Next Steps in Assessing Impact. Speakers: Julia Lane – Senior Managing Economist - American Institutes of Research, Cameron Neylon – Senior Scientist - Science and Technology Facilities Council/ Advocacy Director PLoS, David Sweeney – Director (Research, Innovation and Skills) - HEFCE, Patrick Dunleavy – LSE Chair. 16.00 – 17.30 Session 4: Impact as a Driver for Open Access. Speakers: Stephen Curry – Imperial College London, Mark Thorley – RCUK Research Outputs Network, Robert Kiley – Head Digital Services - Wellcome Trust, Chair: Jude England – Head of Social Sciences -The British Library.

Contributor(s): Patrick Dunleavy, Chris Thong, Sir Adrian Smith, Nicola Dandridge, Simon Bastow, Victor Henning, Ziyad Marar, Jason Priem, Jane Tinkler, Julia Lane, Cameron Neylon, David Sweeney, Stephen Curry, Mark Thorley, Robert Kiley, Jude England | The Future of Academic Impacts was an all day conference hosted by the LSE’s Impact of Social Sciences project team held on Tuesday, 4th December at Beveridge Hall, Senate House, London. The event is to mark the end of the three-year Impact of Social Sciences project based at the London School of Economics that has been funded by HEFCE. Working with colleagues at Imperial College London and the University of Leeds, we have looked at the nature and measurement of impact of academic research in the social sciences on government and policymaking, business and industry, and civil society. The conference will draw the research project to a close, discuss the results and outcomes of the project and seek to look forward to how impact research and measurement might develop over the next ten year period looking beyond REF2014. 10.00 – 11.30 Session 1: The Economic Impact of Academic Research. Speakers: Patrick Dunleavy – LSE, Chris Thong – Cambridge Economics, Sir Adrian Smith – Vice Chancellor, University of London, Nicola Dandridge – Chief Executive, Universities UK, Simon Bastow – LSE Chair. 11.45 – 13.15 Session 2: Impact and the New Digital Paradigm. Speakers: Victor Henning – Co-Founder & CEO - Mendeley Ltd, Ziyad Marar – Global Publishing Director - Sage, Jason Priem – ImpactStory, Jane Tinkler – LSE Chair. 14.00 – 15.30 Session 3: Next Steps in Assessing Impact. Speakers: Julia Lane – Senior Managing Economist - American Institutes of Research, Cameron Neylon – Senior Scientist - Science and Technology Facilities Council/ Advocacy Director PLoS, David Sweeney – Director (Research, Innovation and Skills) - HEFCE, Patrick Dunleavy – LSE Chair. 16.00 – 17.30 Session 4: Impact as a Driver for Open Access. Speakers: Stephen Curry – Imperial College London, Mark Thorley – RCUK Research Outputs Network, Robert Kiley – Head Digital Services - Wellcome Trust, Chair: Jude England – Head of Social Sciences -The British Library.

Contributor(s): Patrick Dunleavy, Chris Thong, Sir Adrian Smith, Nicola Dandridge, Simon Bastow, Victor Henning, Ziyad Marar, Jason Priem, Jane Tinkler, Julia Lane, Cameron Neylon, David Sweeney, Stephen Curry, Mark Thorley, Robert Kiley, Jude England | The Future of Academic Impacts was an all day conference hosted by the LSE’s Impact of Social Sciences project team held on Tuesday, 4th December at Beveridge Hall, Senate House, London. The event is to mark the end of the three-year Impact of Social Sciences project based at the London School of Economics that has been funded by HEFCE. Working with colleagues at Imperial College London and the University of Leeds, we have looked at the nature and measurement of impact of academic research in the social sciences on government and policymaking, business and industry, and civil society. The conference will draw the research project to a close, discuss the results and outcomes of the project and seek to look forward to how impact research and measurement might develop over the next ten year period looking beyond REF2014. 10.00 – 11.30 Session 1: The Economic Impact of Academic Research. Speakers: Patrick Dunleavy – LSE, Chris Thong – Cambridge Economics, Sir Adrian Smith – Vice Chancellor, University of London, Nicola Dandridge – Chief Executive, Universities UK, Simon Bastow – LSE Chair. 11.45 – 13.15 Session 2: Impact and the New Digital Paradigm. Speakers: Victor Henning – Co-Founder & CEO - Mendeley Ltd, Ziyad Marar – Global Publishing Director - Sage, Jason Priem – ImpactStory, Jane Tinkler – LSE Chair. 14.00 – 15.30 Session 3: Next Steps in Assessing Impact. Speakers: Julia Lane – Senior Managing Economist - American Institutes of Research, Cameron Neylon – Senior Scientist - Science and Technology Facilities Council/ Advocacy Director PLoS, David Sweeney – Director (Research, Innovation and Skills) - HEFCE, Patrick Dunleavy – LSE Chair. 16.00 – 17.30 Session 4: Impact as a Driver for Open Access. Speakers: Stephen Curry – Imperial College London, Mark Thorley – RCUK Research Outputs Network, Robert Kiley – Head Digital Services - Wellcome Trust, Chair: Jude England – Head of Social Sciences -The British Library.

Contributor(s): Ulrike Guérot, Mark Leonard, Anthony Teasdale, José Ignacio Torreblanca | The euro crisis has dealt a powerful blow to the EU’s political system. Many European leaders have been ousted, more radical parties are becoming more powerful, and questions are increasingly being asked about the legitimacy of the European Union. European leaders find themselves trapped between the need for a more integrated Europe and the demands of voters: the necessity and impossibility of "more Europe". Ulrike Guérot is ECFR Representative for Germany. Previously she was Senior Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund and she headed the European Union unit at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin. Mark Leonard is Co-Founder and Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the first pan-European Think Tank. Anthony Teasdale is Director, EU Internal Policies, in the secretariat of the European Parliament and Senior Visiting Fellow at the LSE. José Ignacio Torreblanca is El Pais columnist and Head of ECFR Madrid. In May 2011, Foreign Policy en español has ranked him amongst the 10 most influential new intellectuals in Spain and Latin-America. He is a Professor at the UNED and previously worked as Senior Analyst for EU affairs at Elcano Royal Institute for International Affairs. This event is organised by the ECFR and LSE European Institute in partnership with the EU Commission Representation in the UK.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul de Grauwe | The eurozone experiences an existential crisis. What can we do about it? This event is part of the eurocrisis@lse series. Paul De Grauwe is John Paulson Chair in European Political Economy and head of the European Institute, LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Sir Roy Goode QC | An admired academic at the top of his field, Professor Goode discusses the reshaping of the law governing security and quasisecurity interests in personal property. Ask your question and join the debate @LSELaw. Roy Goode is emeritus professor of law at the University of Oxford. He is the founder of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.

Contributor(s): Professor Chris Bertram | What can Rousseau’s recently reconstructed fragment Principles of the Right of War tell us about war and “humanitarian intervention” today? Are the principles of just war theory simply a fig leaf for power? Chris Bertram is professor of social and political philosophy at the University of Bristol.

Contributor(s): Professor Craig Calhoun | Drawing on his decades of research on social protest, Professor Calhoun will explore the roots of radicalism and the relationship between social movements and social change. Professor Calhoun is a world-renowned social scientist whose work connects sociology to culture, communication, politics, philosophy and economics. He took up his post as LSE Director on 1 September 2012, having left the United States where he was University Professor at New York University and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and President of the Social Science Research Council. Professor Calhoun is an American citizen but has deep connections with the United Kingdom. He took a D Phil in History and Sociology at Oxford University and a Master's in Social Anthropology at Manchester. He co-founded, with Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology at LSE, the NYLON programme which brings together graduate students from New York and London for co-operative research programmes. He is the author of several books including Nations Matter, Critical Social Theory, Neither Gods Nor Emperors and most recently The Roots of Radicalism (University of Chicago Press, 2012). Describing his own approach to academic work, Professor Calhoun says: "We must set high standards for ourselves, but in order to inform the public well, not to isolate ourselves from it."

Contributor(s): Professor Margaret Boden, Professor Gregory Currie, Professor Nicholas Royle | Creativity is among the most treasured human traits, and many of us admire and strive for more creativity in our lives. But what exactly constitutes creativity, and how is it possible? Is creative thinking something that can be learned? Can it be modelled on computers? And if so, what can we learn from such modelling? This panel will discuss these and related questions from the perspectives of philosophy, literature and cognitive science. Margaret Boden is Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex. Gregory Currie is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham. Nicholas Royle is Professor of English at the University of Sussex.

Contributor(s): Nir Rosen | Journalist Nir Rosen spent eight months in Syria during the current uprisings with unprecedented access to all parties to the conflict, from opposition leaders and activists on the ground, to insurgent leaders and fighters on the ground, to Syrian army, security and loyalist militias (leaders and fighters on the ground). He spent a lot of his time in cities and villages in Daraa, Damascus and its suburbs, Homs, Hama, Tartus, Latakia, Idlib and Aleppo city, talking with Christians, Druze and Ismailis as well as Sunnis and Alawites. Born in New York in 1977, Nir Rosen began reporting in Iraq in April 2003 where he has spent most of the last 10 years. He has also reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Mexico, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Turkey and Egypt. He has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and most major American publications. He has filmed documentaries and consults for international NGOs on the Middle East. His first book, In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq was published in 2006. His new book Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America’s Wars in the Muslim World was published in 2010 and is about occupation, resistance, sectarianism and civil war from Iraq to Lebanon to Afghanistan. Rosen is currently a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Contributor(s): Victoria Glendinning | How the East India Company, a dysfunctional commercial entity too big to fail, elevated and then spat out the controversial reformist visionary who lost the Company money but founded a world city - Singapore. Victoria Glendinning is a prizewinning biographer, the author of Elizabeth Bowen, Vita, Edith Sitwell, Trollope and Leonard Woolf. She has also written three novels, The Grown-Ups, Electricity and Flight. She is a Vice-President of English PEN and fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Born in Yorkshire, she now lives in Somerset.

Contributor(s): Professor M V Lee Badgett | Same-sex couples on four continents—including eleven countries and six American states—can now legally marry. The experiences of these countries allow a glimpse into the future about what will happen if and when the UK opens marriage to same-sex couples. Will gay people change marriage? Will marriage change lesbian, gay, and bisexual people? Is the world moving too quickly to recognize same-sex couples, or should we have different legal institutions for same-sex couples? With one side worried about the end of civilization and the other side scratching their heads in bewilderment, it is difficult to see room for reasoned discussion. Badgett bridges that gap by drawing on data, interviews, and stories from actual American and Dutch couples and from other countries. M. V. Lee Badgett is a professor of economics and director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is also the research director of the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy at UCLA. Her most recent book, When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage (NYU Press, 2009), focuses on the U.S. and European experiences with marriage equality for same-sex couples. Professor Badgett has testified on her work before Congress and many state legislatures, and she was an expert witness in California’s Prop 8 trial. In 2008, Curve Magazine named her one of the twenty most powerful lesbians in academia. Badgett received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California-Berkeley in 1990, and has a BA in economics from the University of Chicago (1982). The LGBT Alliance brings together the LSE LGBT community in a way that fosters a great community on campus, and protects the rights of LGBT people. Headed by a committee of self-defining LGBT students, the Alliance organises events and campaigns that are fun, engaging and relevant to LGBT students at LSE. We regularly work with other LGBT Societies and Campaigns across London, and indeed the whole country, to ensure you’ve got access to the best range of social, campaigning and careers events. Spectrum is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Staff Network at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Contributor(s): Professor Perry Link | In this lecture, Professor Perry Link will discuss the thinking of Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, and the prospects for political change in China. Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his long struggle on behalf of democracy in China while serving an 11-year prison sentence for "incitement to subvert state power". His main crime was to draft "Charter 08", a petition calling for an end to Communist Party rule, that was signed by a large number of Chinese intellectuals. Perry Link, emeritus professor of East Asian studies at Princeton University who now teaches at the University of California at Riverside, is a leading expert on Chinese literature, has made Liu’s nonviolent philosophy accessible to a foreign audience by compiling and editing a collection of his essays and poems. Published by Harvard University Press, with an introduction by Vaclav Havel, under the title No Enemies, No Hatred, the book has been described as an aid to reflection for Western readers who might take for granted the values Liu has dedicated his life to achieving for his homeland. In 2011 it was named Wall Street Journal book of the year. If Liu serves his full sentence, he will not be freed until 2020.

Contributor(s): Professor Conor Gearty, Professor Francesca Klug, Dr Michael Pinto-Duschinsky | A debate on the value of the Human Rights Act against a British Bill of Rights. Conor Gearty is professor of law at LSE. Francesca Klug is a professorial research fellow at LSE and director of the Human Rights Futures Project. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky is a senior consultant on constitutional affairs at Policy Exchange and was formerly a member of the UK commission on a bill of rights.

Contributor(s): Professor Geir Lundestad | While the United States has been the world’s leading power from 1945 into the new millennium, it is now being challenged, primarily by China. In many respects the world is without a clear leader. Geir Lundestad is director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. His new book is The Rise and Decline of the American “Empire”: power and its limits in comparative perspective.

Contributor(s): Martin Ravallion | Relative deprivation, shame and social exclusion matter to the welfare of people everywhere, but this fact is ignored by standard measures of economic performance, including poverty. The lecture will argue that such social effects on welfare call for a reconsideration of how we assess global poverty, but they do not support widely used measures of relative poverty. It is argued instead that a new class of measures is called for, and new estimates of global poverty are presented. The lecture will discuss the implications for thinking about development policy, including setting global development goals. Martin Ravallion is Director of the World Bank’s Research Department and (from 2013) holds the Edmond D. Villani Chair of Economics at Georgetown University. He served as acting Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics at the World Bank succeeding Justin Yifu Lin, and holding the post until Kaushik Basu took up the post. His main research interests over the last 25 years have concerned poverty and policies for fighting it. He has advised numerous governments and international agencies on this topic, and he has written extensively on this and other subjects in economics, including three books and 200 papers in scholarly journals and edited volumes. In 2012 he was awarded the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize. Prior to joining the Bank, Martin was on the faculty of the Australian National University (ANU). He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and has taught economics at LSE, Oxford University, the Australian National University, Princeton University and the Paris School of Economics.

Contributor(s): Professor Frances Fox Piven | Professor Piven will examine a number of pivotal movements in American history, including the mobs of the revolutionary era, the abolitionists, and the labor, civil rights and feminist movements. Frances Fox Piven is distinguished professor of political science and sociology at The Graduate Center, CUNY