The Role of Inter-governmental, State and Non-governmental Players in Conflict Resolution [Audio]
Speaker(s): Martti Ahtisaari | Martti Ahtisaari will draw attention to both challenges and opportunities of multi-stakeholder co-operation in conflict resolution. Mr. Ahtisaari's lecture is based on his extensive experience as a peace mediator, civil servant and board member of a number of non-governmental organisations.
Human Rights in the 21st century: problems and prospects [Audio]
Speaker(s): Kenneth Roth | In the past decade, Human Rights Watch has emerged as one of the leading human rights organisations in the world, its reports increasingly acclaimed for their accuracy and for the depth of their human rights advocacy. Executive Director Kenneth Roth discusses the human rights landscape in the Centre's annual Human Rights Day lecture: What have been the main challenges that Human Rights Watch has faced as it has worked to achieve this position? How has the organisation
Oil, War and Geopolitics: the struggle over what remains [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Michael Klare | Professor Klare will look at how both old and new industrial powers are girding up for a global struggle over the world's remaining supplies of oil, natural gas and other vital sources of energy.
Iraq: The Way Out [Audio]
Speaker(s): Jonathan Steele | Jonathan Steele will argue that the occupation has failed, not because of a lack of pre-war planning, but because of a lack of informed political analysis by US decision-makers and the British Foreign Office. They failed to see that Islamists, Sunni and Shia, would fill the post-Saddam vacuum and that most Iraqis would quickly come to resent yet another Western intervention in the Middle East.
Beyond the Banality of Evil [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Steve Reicher | This lecture critically addresses Hannah Arendt's hypothesis on the banality of evil arguing that those who commit extreme acts are not aware of the consequences of their actions: rather, they celebrate these consequences as moral. Steve Reicher is professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrew's, Scotland
Thinking Like a Social Scientist: a lecture by Professor John Sidel [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor John Sidel | In this new series of lunchtime lectures, nine of LSE's most senior academics explain the latest thinking on how social scientists work to address the critical problems of the day. They survey the leading ideas and contributions made by their discipline, explain the types of problems that are addressed and the tools that are used, and explore the kinds of solutions proposed. John Sidel is Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics.
Green Peace: Energy, Europe and the Global Order [Audio]
Speaker(s): Rt Hon David Miliband | David Miliband was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in June 2007.
The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means [Audio]
Speaker(s): George Soros and Howard Davies | In the midst of the worst financial upheaval since the Great Depression, George Soros explores the origins of the crisis and its implications for the future. Soros, whose breadth of experience in financial markets is unrivalled, places the current crisis in the context of decades of study of how individuals and institutions handle the boom and bust cycles that now dominate global economic activity. "This is a once in lifetime moment", says Soros in ch
Inhuman and Degrading Treatment: the words themselves [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Jeremy Waldron | Many human rights charters contain prohibitions on inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners and detainees. Terms like "inhuman" and "degrading" are difficult to interpret, but they are certainly not meaningless. It is important to attend to attend to the meanings of the words themselves, as well as to the decisions that courts have made about particular practices. Reflection on the meanings of these highly-charged terms reveals important complexity, whi
Kosovo's Independence and the Balkans: regional implications and challenges [Audio]
Speaker(s): Jelena Bjelica, Anna Di Lellio; Enver Hoxhaj; Tim Judah | Uncertainty over the status of Kosovo had undermined stability in the Balkans since the early 1990s. The panel of experts discusses Kosovo's declaration of independence and its political, economic and security impact on the Balkans. Jelena Bjelica is the editor-in-chief of the weekly Gradjanski Glasnik, Kosovo. Anna Di Lellio is the editor of the book The Case for Kosova: passage to independence. Enver Hoxhaj is the current mi
Human Rights in United Nations Action: Norms, Institutions and Leadership [Audio]
Speaker(s): Navanethem Pillay | Navanethem Pillay is UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, she took up office on 1 September 2008. Ms. Pillay, a South African national, was the first woman to start a law practice in her home province of Natal in 1967. Over the next few years, she acted as a defense attorney for anti-apartheid activists, exposing torture, and helping establish key rights for prisoners on Robben Island.
The Age of Mobility: Can we make migration work for all? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Peter Sutherland | Peter Sutherland is the United Nations special representative for migration. He is the chairman of Goldman Sachs International and chairman of BP. He is the chairman of the LSE Court of Governors.
Fiscal responsibility and the recession [Audio]
Speaker(s): David Cameron MP | In December 2005 David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative Party. Prior to this he held the position of Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills. He was elected to parliament in 2001 representing Witney. Before he became an MP, David worked in business and government. He worked as a Special Adviser in government, first to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and then to the Home Secretary. Afterwards he spent seven years at Carlton Communications, o
The Global Economic Crisis - Meeting the Challenge [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Tim Besley, Professor Francesco Caselli; Professor Chris; Professor Danny Quah | A panel discussion on the current global economic crisis: its origins, transmission, and possible impact and resolution. Tim Besley, Francesco Caselli, Chris Pissarides and Danny Quah are all economics professors at LSE.
LSE Literary Weekend - In Conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist [Audio]
Speaker(s): Hans Ulrich Obrist, Adrian Searle | Editor's note: Unfortunately, owing to technical difficulties, the last few minutes of this event are missing from the audio podcast. Hans Ulrich Obrist was born in Zurich in May 1968. He joined the Serpentine Gallery as Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects in April 2006. Prior to this he was Curator of the Musie d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris since 2000, as well as curator of museum in progress, Vien
LSE Literary Weekend - Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire [Audio]
Speaker(s): Iain Sinclair, Jerry White; Patrick Wright | Editor's note: Unfortunately, owing to technical difficulties, the last few minutes of this event are missing from the audio podcast. Iain Sinclair is a writer, poet and film-maker and widely regarded as one of London's greatest chroniclers. Jerry White has been writing about London for thirty years. His London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People won the Wolfson History Prize 2001. Patrick Wright is a writer with an interest i
Social Justice and Sustainability: arguments from political theory [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Simon Caney, Professor Paul Kelly; Baroness Onora O'Neill | Three distinguished political philosophers examine and discuss how theories of social justice and sustainability can be related to each other.
Fool's Gold [Audio]
Speaker(s): Gillian Tett | Gillian Tett takes us inside the shadowy world of complex finance and derivatives and explains how the business of slicing and dicing debt led us to the devastating global credit crunch. Gillian Tett has worked as a journalist for the Financial Times for fifteen years. In 2008 she won the British Press Award for the Financial Journalist of the Year. This event marks the publication of her latest book Fool's Gold :How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Glob
Documentary Photography: the long term project [Audio]
Speaker(s): Jessica Dimmock | Jessica Dimmock outlines the issues and obstacles relating to documentary photography, and the value of the long term project. She explores the process of engaging with subjects and the stories resulting from such sustained focus. This talk also considers the development of story ideas for the freelance photographer.
How did HIV/AIDS affect rural communities in Africa? The answer to the question [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Stefan Dercon, Dr Janet Seeley | The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa is almost 30 years old yet a number of the worst-case scenarios on the impact of AIDS in Africa have not come to pass. What did happen? The speakers give their answers using data from recent research in Tanzania and Uganda. Stefan Dercon is a quantitative economist, University of Oxford. Janet Seeley is an anthropologist at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia.
