London School of Economics: Public lectures and events

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 adapted to the new climate of opinion after 11 September 2001 and to the new militarism of the Bush years? What are the key challenges that human rights NGOs face in the world today? With an eye to the future, what is the current state of health of the human rights ideal?

Speaker(s): Professor Lawrence Hirschfeld | This event presents recent findings about representations of social categories that have potential relevance for anthropology, psychology and evolutionary biology.Lawrence Hirschfeld is professor of psychology and anthropology at the New School for Social Research, New York.

Speaker(s): Dr Robert Kagan | The years immediately following the end of the Cold War offered a tantalising glimpse at the possibility of a new kind of international order, but that was a mirage.Robert Kagan is senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

Speaker(s): Jacqui Smith MP | Jacqui Smith is Home Secretary, a position she has held since June 2007. Prior to this she held several ministerial posts. From 1999 she served for two years as parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for Education. In 2001 she was promoted to minister of state for health with responsibility for social services. She was promoted again to be minister of state at the Department for Trade and Industry, and deputy minister for women. After the 2005 general election she became minister of state for schools. In May 2006 she joined the cabinet as chief whip.

Speaker(s): Professor Nicola Lacey | Only by understanding the institutional preconditions for a tolerant criminal justice system can we think clearly about the possible options for reform within the British system.

Speaker(s): Gérard Errera | Most would agree that what unites those 'sweet enemies', France and Britain, is much greater than what divides them. But how can shared perspectives and interests be translated into practical strategies which will make a real difference to the world? Girard Errera is French ambassador to the UK.

Speaker(s): Helen Epstein | This lecture is one event in the LSEAIDS series of Public Lectures on HIV/AIDS, Infectious Diseases and Reproductive Health funded by the Department for International Development (DFID).

Speaker(s): Sir Ronald Cohen | Sir Ronald Cohen is a founder of the private-equity industry in Europe and one of the world's leading private equity investors. At the age of 26, he co-founded the firm that became Apax Partners. When he stepped down from the chairmanship thirty-three years later, Apax was the largest global private-equity firm founded in Europe. He is currently chairman of Bridges Ventures and The Portland Trust. He was knighted in 2001 for his services to venture capital.

Speaker(s): Sam Hirsch, Iain McLean | One person, one vote is a core principle of a democratic system. Electoral districting in the UK and US is far from satisfactory and seriously compromises claims to democracy.Sam Hirsch specialises in election law, voting rights, and re-districting. Iain McLean is director of the Public Policy Unit, Oxford University.

Speaker(s): Professor Carol Berkin | Was the US constitution the work of confident demigods and innovators or the handiwork of anxious political leaders who relied on longstanding Anglo-American political traditions to save a republican in crisis? Carol Berkin is presidential distinguished professor of history at Baruch College and The Graduate Centre, CUNY.

Speaker(s): Sir Roderic Lyne | Under Vladimir Putin, Russia's relations with many Western states has become increasingly edgy. What are the prospects for policy developments after Putin? Roderic Lyne was UK ambassador in Moscow in 2000-04.

Speaker(s): Ambassador John R. Bolton | This lecture and question and answer session marked the launch of Ambassador Bolton's new book Surrender in Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad (Simon and Schuster, November 2007). John R. Bolton currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Prior to arriving at AEI, Ambassador Bolton served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 1, 2005 to December 9, 2006. From May 2001 to May 2005, Ambassador Bolton served as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, also in the Bush Administration.

Speaker(s): Daniele Archibugi, Armine Ishkanian; Dr Iain King | Democracy promotion became a key foreign policy issue pursued by Western governments after 1989. To what extent are external democracy promotion efforts effective?

Speaker(s): Ed Richards, Damian Tambini | The countdown to the end of British public service broadcasting has begun. In 2012 analogue is switched off as the digital competition threatens to shatter the status quo. Is this a cultural disaster in the making or an opportunity to create a more open and creative broadcast media?

Speaker(s): Professor David Laibson | Over three lectures, David Laibson will challenge many standard assumptions in economics and show how a combination of psychology and economics can better predict behaviour.David Laibson is professor of economics at Harvard University.