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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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