Summer 2009 | Public lectures and events | Audio and pdf

Contributor(s): Professor Mick Cox | November 4th 2008 marked one of the great political moments in American history when the first black man was elected to the White House. Immensely charismatic and politically astute, Barack Obama immediately raised US standing around the world. However he also confronted the most daunting set of challenges. Catapulted into office as America's answer to George W. Bush and the near collapse of the world financial system following the fall of Lehman Brothers, President Obama faced at least six big tests when he took up office. How to bring order to the Middle East? How to repair America's bridges with the Moslem world? How to deal with a newly assertive Russia? How to work with communist China? How to save capitalism? And how to ensure America's continued position at the head of the international table. Professor Mick Cox of the LSE - one of Europe's leading commentators on the United States - will seek to answer these and any other questions in this wide-ranging address.

Contributor(s): Professor Andrew Gamble | Professor Andrew Gamble made his early reputation writing on British decline, the theory of Marxism and the rise and fall of that long-debated and most controversial political phenomenon in Britain: Margaret Thatcher and 'Thatcherism'. One of the most incisive analysts of British politics with over twenty books - and a raft of prizes to his name - he reflects here on the deeper causes of the current world economic crisis and why the crisis has been especially acute in the Anglo-American world. This public lecture is timed to coincide with the publication of his long-waited new book - The Spectre at the Feast: Capitalist Crisis and the Politics of Recession - and promises to be a memorable one.

Contributor(s): Ali A. Allawi | The increasing religiosity of Muslim societies and the spectacular rise of political Islam have served to mask the seeping of vitality from Islamic civilization. If Muslims do not muster the inner resources of their faith to fashion a civilising outer presence, then Islam as a civilisation may indeed disappear. Ali A. Allawi has served as Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance in the Iraqi postwar governments. A graduate of Harvard University and MIT, he is Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College, Oxford. He has written two books: The Crisis of Islamic Civilization (Yale 2009) and The Occupation of Iraq (Yale 2007).

Contributor(s): Professor Amartya Sen | Amartya Sen explores the ways in which, and the degree to which, justice is a matter of reason, and of different kinds of reason. This event marks the launch of Professor Sen's new book The Idea of Justice. Amartya Sen is Lamont University Professor at Harvard and an honorary fellow of LSE. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 and was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge 1998-2004. His books include Development as Freedom (OUP), The Argumentative Indian (Allen Lane/Penguin) and Identity and Violence (Allen Lane/Penguin), and have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Contributor(s): Mary Kaldor | Mary Kaldor is a prolific author who has written widely on a range of key issues over the years ranging from the 'Baroque Arsenal' (1982) a study that challenged the logic of militarism and the belief that more weapons meant more security, through to her groundbreaking 'New Wars'(1999) a book that reveals the new forms that organized violence will take in the 21st century. Mary Kaldor today is one of the most influential and respected alternative voices in the field of applied international politics who over the last few years has forced the wider policy community to rethink the meaning of war and the foundations of what she has called 'human security'. An immensely influential figure who has shaped debates at both the United Nations and in the European Union, in this long awaited public lecture she will reflect on what it means to be secure and how security can be achieved in an age of increasing turbulence.

Contributor(s): Dr André Broome, Professor Herman Schwartz, Professor Leonard Seabrooke, Professor Mat Watson | Residential property is the single largest asset in people's everyday lives and its associated mortgage debt constitutes one of the biggest financial assets in most economies. Yet political economy largely ignores both. We know that the kind of housing people occupy and their level of debt affects their preferences for the level of public spending, taxation, and inflation. Housing is intimately tied to welfare systems and can be seen as a social right or as a means to acquire wealth over one's life. Housing systems are built from political struggles over the distribution of welfare and wealth. The organization and transformation of housing finance systems affects both national economies and international financial stability. This public event provides a brief presentation and a discussion of these concerns.

Contributor(s): Neil MacGregor, Nicholas Serota | In this 60th anniversary year of publishers Thames & Hudson, Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, and Nicholas Serota, director of Tate, will be in conversation exploring the various roles of national, and other, collections in the 21st century. This rare joint appearance by two of today's most influential figures in the international world of arts and culture promises to provide a stimulating discussion touching on topics of contemporary global significance.

Contributor(s): Howard Davies, Stephen Green | As the world's financial order is in a state of flux, how do we align our desire to improve material human wealth, and capitalism, with our spiritual and psychological needs? Do businesses and banks in particular have a duty to society that goes beyond the creation of profit? Does open market capitalism remain our best hope for creating wealth that benefits all of society? Green and Davies discuss history, politics, religion and economics. This event marks the launch of Stephen Green's book Good Value.

Contributor(s): Fareed Zakaria | In this lecture, Fareed Zakaria will expound on the The Post-American World; a world in which the United States no longer dominates the global economy, orchestrates geopolitics or overwhelms cultures. He will explain how the 'rise of the rest' - the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others - is the great story of our time. He will also explain how economic growth in any given country produces political confidence, national pride, and international problems. What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria will answer this question with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination.

Contributor(s): Walter Russell Mead | The rise of China and the global economic crisis have led many observers to speculate about whether the decline of American power, often predicted in the past, has now finally begun. The picture is more complex; a survey of world conditions suggests that while the American role is changing, the U.S. will continue to be a unique force in the international arena.

Contributor(s): Dr Tim Lewens, Professor David Papineau | The speakers will discuss the importance of Darwin's thinking to central philosophical issues, including creationism, the human mind, and the nature of morality.

Contributor(s): Ernest Aryeetey, Surjit Bhalla, Richard Portes, Yu Yongding | A meeting that will present perspectives on the global crisis from leading figures in the field of growth and international development. Presentations will focus on the effects of the global economic downturn on developing countries, how those countries are managing the impact of the crisis, and what more might be done to assist them. This event is being organized in cooperation with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).

Contributor(s): Professor Dani Rodrik | Capitalism needs to be reinvented for a new century in which the forces of economic globalization are much more powerful than before. Just as Adam Smith's minimal capitalism was transformed into Keynes' mixed economy, we need to contemplate a transition from the national version of the mixed economy to its global counterpart. We have to imagine a better balance between markets and their supporting institutions at the global level. Sometimes, this will require extending institutions outward from nation states and strengthening global governance. At other times, it will mean preventing markets from expanding too much and going beyond the reach of institutions that must remain perforce national. Dani Rodrik is Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University and teaches in the School's MPA/ID Program.

Contributor(s): Hussain Abdul Hussain | From military intervention in Iraq, to supporting an uprising in Lebanon, forcing elections in the Palestinian Territories and imposing international isolation on Syria, the world has tried several scenarios to spread democracy in Middle Eastern countries. In light of the Lebanese elections on June 7, Hussain Abdul-Hussain will explore the status of democracy in the Middle East as well as look at broader impact of these elections on the regional balance of power between Iran and the US. Hussain Abdul Hussain is a visiting fellow at Chatham House, and author of the forthcoming paper Confrontation through the Ballot Box: Middle East Elections and the US-Iranian Relationship. An Iraqi-born journalist, Hussain is the former managing editor of Beirut's Daily Star and an expert on the Levant region of the Middle East.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Krugman | The global economic crisis has shaken a lot of what we thought we knew about economics. Over three consecutive evenings, Professor Krugman will cover the causes of the crisis; the deeply vexed question of how and when the world economy can recover; and the implications of the whole mess for economics and economists. Paul Krugman is centenary professor at LSE and professor of economics and international affairs at Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. In 2008 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Krugman | The global economic crisis has shaken a lot of what we thought we knew about economics. Over three consecutive evenings, Professor Krugman will cover the causes of the crisis; the deeply vexed question of how and when the world economy can recover; and the implications of the whole mess for economics and economists. Paul Krugman is centenary professor at LSE and professor of economics and international affairs at Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. In 2008 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Krugman | The global economic crisis has shaken a lot of what we thought we knew about economics. Over three consecutive evenings, Professor Krugman will cover the causes of the crisis; the deeply vexed question of how and when the world economy can recover; and the implications of the whole mess for economics and economists. Paul Krugman is centenary professor at LSE and professor of economics and international affairs at Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. In 2008 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

Contributor(s): Renzo Martens | Renzo Martens will present a special screening of his film Episode III, (88 minutes). Episode III – 'Enjoy Poverty' investigates the emotional and economic value of Africa’s most lucrative export: filmed poverty. As with more traditional African exports such as cocoa and gold, the suppliers of this new African commodity hardly benefit from it at all. Deep in the interiors of the Congo, Dutch artist Renzo Martens launches an emancipatory programme that helps the poor become aware of their primary capital resource: poverty. Over several years, Martens single handedly undertakes an epic journey. Combining investigative journalism, satire and self awareness in a deeply singular view, Episode III – 'Enjoy Poverty' is ingeniously provocative and ironic, despite the sad reflection staring back in the mirror that he holds up.

Contributor(s): Bill Gates Sr., Howard Davies | Bill Gates Sr., is a prominent lawyer, civil activist, and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is the author of Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime, a memoir that shares reflections on lessons from a lifetime of 'showing up' - lessons he learned growing up during the Great Depression, and that he instilled in his children and continues to practice on the world stage as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Contributor(s): Professor Lilie Chouliaraki, Max Houghton, Renzo Martens, Dr Julian Stallabrass | Faced with 'compassion fatigue', how is the practice of filmmakers and photojournalists changing and what are the implications for those who rely on photography and film? How will the internet open up new spaces and change the way in which images are used? Lilie Chouliaraki is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Max Houghton is Editor of Foto 8 and course leader, MA in Photojournalism, Westminster University. Renzo Martens is an artist. Julian Stallabrass is a reader at The Courtauld Institute.