LSE Director's Dialogue with Stephen Green [Audio]
Speaker(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 ma
Housing Markets and the Global Financial Crisis [Audio]
Speaker(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 inti
The Idea of Justice [Audio]
Speaker(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 India
Progressive state reformers v ideological state retrenchers: framing the electoral choice between La
Speaker(s): Lord Mandelson | With less than a year to go before the next general election there is an urgent need for progressive policy debate and discussion in the Labour party to show it has the ideas necessary to meet the social, economic and political challenges of the next decade. Peter Mandelson, one of the government's key figures, will launch Progress's autumn lecture series by setting out how he sees the political divide between the main parties. Lord Mandelson is First Secretary of St
The Ayatollah Begs to Differ - the path to an Islamic Democracy [Audio]
Speaker(s): Hooman Majd | A brief summary of how Iran's political system works, examples of what is most misunderstood about Iran, its leadership and the events leading up to the election (describing some of Hooman's own experiences since he was there). Majd will explain why the election and its aftermath may actually be the best thing to happen to Iran in a very long time, and why the vision of an "Islamic Democracy" which some Iranian leaders have, may come about sooner now than if there had b
Turkey's Economy and the Global Economic Crisis [Audio]
Speaker(s): Ali Babacan | Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy Ali Babacan will discuss the impact of the global economic crisis and Turkey's policy response. Ali Babacan is Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, a position he has held since May 2009. Prior to this he served as Turkish Foreign Minister from 2007-2009. He has been a member of parliament since 2002, serving as Minister of the Economy from 2002-2007, and was also appointed chief negotiator
An Alternative to Statecraft: should diplomacy adapt to a new world environment? [Audio]
Speaker(s): His Excellency Georg Boomgaarden; Dr Mary Martin; Her Excellency Pilar Saborio | The European Union is designing a new external action service as part of the changes to foreign policy proposed under the Lisbon Treaty. This lecture examines the contemporary demands on diplomatic missions. Pilar Saborio is the ambassador of Costa Rica to the UK. Georg Boomgaarden is the ambassador of Germany to the UK. Nick Mabey is chief executive of E3G Third Generation Environmentalism. Mary Martin
Keynes and the Crisis of Capitalism [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Lord Skidelsky | Robert Skidelsky is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three-volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, including the Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations and the Council on Foreign Relations Prize for International Relations. He is the author of The World After Communism (1995) (American edition called The Road from Serfdom). He was made a life peer in
How to be Humanitarian? UN Intervention in Post-Conflict Societies [Audio]
Speaker(s): Lise Grande | This lecture will examine the challenges of humanitarian intervention in post-conflict societies, focusing specifically on the experience of the UN in Southern Sudan. Lise Grande is deputy resident and humanitarian coordinator of the United Nations, Southern Sudan.
Building windmills not walls - Hungary's approach in the economic storm [Audio]
Speaker(s): Gordon Bajnai | Gordon Bajnai has been the Prime Minister of Hungary since 14 April 2009. Prior to this between 2008-2009 he was a Minister in the Ministry for National Development and Economy. Between 2007-2008 he was a Minister for the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. Prior to this he was CEO of Wallis Rt., an investment company from 2000-2005.
Cities and the Environment [Audio]
Speaker(s): Peter Head | By changing patterns of urban behaviour, cities can meet the challenges of climate change. How can advanced technologies help create sustainable cities and self-sufficient urban form?
China - EU Relations in a Changing New World [Audio]
Speaker(s): Ambassador Ma Zhengang | The world today is undergoing tremendous development, changes and adjustments. The international community is facing increasing opportunities and challenges. The present international system and structure are not able to cope with this new situation fully and effectively, and reform is the general demand of the world people at large. Both China and UK are global actors of significant importance. How the two countries should behave in handling the situation? I
The Cocaine Wars: The Mess We're in and How to Get Out of it [Audio]
Speaker(s): Tom Feiling | Tom Feiling analyses the thinking behind drug prohibition and how and why the strategies embarked on to date have failed so spectacularly. His critique draws on research and interviews he conducted with those with first-hand experience of cocaine and the campaign to prohibit cocaine, for his new book The Candy Machine: How Cocaine Took Over the World. He then looks at the advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives to current anti-drugs policies. Finally, he discus
Beijing Inside Out: Caochangdi [Audio]
Speaker(s): Robert Mangurian; Mary-Ann Ray | The speakers examine the problems and possibilities of one of many dynamic new urban villages redefining the city of Beijing. Robert Mangurian and Mary-Ann Ray are both Stirling Lecture Prize-winners and principals of StudioWorks Architects in Caochangdi.
Revolution 1989: what exactly happened? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Victor Sebestyen | How did the mighty Soviet empire collapse so quickly, so completely - and so peacefully? Victor Sebestyen is an author and journalist. This lecture marks the launch of his latest book, Revolution 1989: the fall of the Soviet Empire.
The Situation in the Middle East: the view from Israel [Audio]
Speaker(s): Daniel Ayalon | Daniel Ayalon is the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel. He was born in Israel in 1955. He completed his army service in the Armoured Corps with the rank of Captain (res.). He has a B.A. degree in Economics as well as an M.B.A. Daniel Ayalon served as Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, from March 2001 through July 2002, and as Israel's Ambassador to the United States, from July 2002 through November 2006. He has also served as a Member of
The International economy, and the process of the citizen's revolution in Ecuador [Audio]
Speaker(s): President Rafael Correa Delgado | Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado is the current President of the Republic of Ecuador after being re-elected for a second consecutive term in April 2009, he was first elected in late 2006. He served as Minister of Economy from April 2005- August 2005. President Correa Delgado has a Phd in Economics and a Masters in Economic Sciences both from the University of Illinois as well as a Master of Arts in EconomÃa from the Catholic University of Lovaina the N
Torture and Accountability: where does President Obama go from here? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Karen Greenberg; Professor Philippe Sands | Karen Greenberg and Philippe Sands discuss the issues facing the Obama Administration as it grapples with the consequences of President Bush's 'global war on terror', interrogation practises and other detainee issues, including issues of investigation and criminal liability.
A Discussion with Janet Napolitano, US Homeland Security Secretary [Audio]
Speaker(s): Janet Napolitano | Janet Napolitano is the third Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security. Prior to becoming Secretary, Napolitano was in her second term as Governor of Arizona and was recognized as a national leader on homeland security, border security and immigration. She was the first woman to chair the National Governors Association and was named one of the top five governors in the country by Time Magazine. Napolitano was also the first female Attorney General of Ari
The Long and the Short of It [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor John Kay | It is time for the public to take control of the financial system from the people who have paid themselves so much money to lose so much of ours. John Kay is a visiting professor at LSE and columnist with the Financial Times.













