London School of Economics: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Enrique García | What are the new challenges and opportunities faced by Latin American countries and the New Global South in the 21st Century? Enrique García has been president and CEO of CAF (Development Bank of Latin America) since December 1991. Dr Chris Alden is a Reader in the Department of International Relations at LSE.

Speaker(s): Emily McTernan | Questions of responsibility play a central role within contemporary political debate. This lecture will revise the currently impoverished conception of responsibility within theories of justice. Emily McTernan is a fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.

Speaker(s): Professor Anne Applebaum | Containing elements of managed democracy and corporate capitalism – and reflecting the culture and values of the 1980s KGB – Putinism is now taught to Russian children and propagated in the media. It has an ostensible goal: along with protecting the power and wealth of Putin and his inner circle, it proposes to make Russia strong and feared again. Anne Applebaum is the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2012-13 academic year.

Speaker(s): Matthew Oakley | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Speaker(s): Phyllis Bennis | While US policy towards Israel remains unchanged, the long-standing assumption that most Americans – even most Jewish Americans – agree with that policy no longer holds. In the media, in popular culture, in universities and particularly within the Jewish community, there are signs of major shifts. In conversation with MEC Director Professor Fawaz Gerges, writer, analyst and activist Phyllis Bennis discusses these changes with reflection on her own political evolution from Zionist youth leader to anti-war internationalist and Palestinian human rights activist. Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at IPS. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She has been a writer, analyst, and activist on Middle East and UN issues for many years. In 2001 she helped found and remains on the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation.

Speaker(s): Professor Sarah Coakley, Professor John Cottingham, Professor John Worrall | The idea that nature displays an inherent purpose, and more generally the hand of a wise designer, may have suffered a blow from Darwinian science, but it seems not to have been a death-blow. Indeed, from both academic and popular wings of theist opinion there is still considerable interest in arguments from design. The classic arguments contended that the natural world is so complex and suited to our survival that we cannot but credit it to the work of a wise designer. In this event we will explore attempts to revive design arguments in a time after Darwin. Sarah Coakley is Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity and fellow of Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge. John Cottingham is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Reading and an honorary fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. John Worrall is professor of philosophy of science at LSE. The Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science and the Forum for European Philosophy gratefully acknowledge the support of the LSE Annual Fund.

Speaker(s): Megan MacInnes, Fred Pearce, Dr Subir Sinha | The theft of land is a global phenomenon. This event will provide an overview of global land grabbing, an analysis of its nature, and discussion of its impact on human rights. Megan MacInnes is the head of the Land Campaign at Global Witness. Fred Pearce is environment consultant at the New Scientist and author of The Land Grabbers: the new fight over who owns the Earth. Subir Sinha is senior lecturer in institutions and development at SOAS.

Speaker(s): Professor Neil Walker | The EU’s early success owed much to the law’s understated role as the motor of integration, but a more emphatic legal approach to the recent European crisis has been less successful. What does this mean for the future of European law, and the EU itself? Neil Walker holds the Regius Chair of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the University of Edinburgh.

Speaker(s): Professor Donatella Della Porta | While liberal democracy is losing trust and legitimacy, social movements of different types are calling for alternatives. This lecture will discuss the potential of participatory and deliberative models of democracy. Donatella Della Porta is professor of sociology at the European University Institute.

Speaker(s): Professor Dominic Lieven | Dominic Lieven asks whether new trends in German and English language scholarship together with the opening of the Russian archives require a fundamental re-thinking of Russia’s role in the outbreak of the First World War. Dominic Lieven is senior research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Speaker(s): Professor Valerie Bunce | Why do publics decide to challenge authoritarian rulers; why do they take different approaches to achieving these ends; and what explains the spread of such challenges across state boundaries? In this lecture, Professor Bunce will compare these three waves of popular challenges to authoritarian rulers providing insights into the MENA dynamic and important issues related to cross-national diffusion. Valerie Bunce is the Aaron Binenkorb Professor of International Studies and Professor of Government at Cornell University. Her research and teaching address comparative democratization, international democracy promotion (primarily by the U.S.); and inter-ethnic cooperation and conflict.

Speaker(s): Gerhard Weiss | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Speaker(s): Professor Tim Besley, Professor Francesco Caselli, Sir Richard Lambert, Rachel Lomax, Professor Lord Stern and Professor John van Reenen | Having sifted through the evidence throughout 2012, the distinguished group of LSE Growth Commissioners launch the report of their findings on the design of a strategy to support UK growth. Tim Besley is LSE professor of economics and political science; co-chair of the commission. Francesco Caselli is professor of economics at LSE. Richard Lambert is chancellor, University of Warwick and former director general of the Confederation of British Industry. Rachel Lomax is non-executive director of HSBC, former deputy governor of the Bank of England and permanent secretary of three government departments. Nicholas Stern is IG Patel chair and director, LSE Asia Research Centre. John van Reenen is director of CEP and professor of economics; co-chair of the commission.

Speaker(s): Professor Craig Calhoun | Craig Calhoun took up his post as LSE Director on 1 September 2012, having left the United States where he was University Professor at New York University and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and President of the Social Science Research Council. Professor Calhoun is a world-renowned social scientist whose work connects sociology to culture, communication, politics, philosophy and economics. Professor Calhoun is an American citizen but has deep connections with the United Kingdom. He took a D Phil in History and Sociology at Oxford University and a Master's in Social Anthropology at Manchester. He co-founded, with Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology at LSE, the NYLON programme which brings together graduate students from New York and London for co-operative research programmes.

Speaker(s): Heriberto Araujo, Juan Pablo Cardenal | Frustrated by the facile, pro-business commentary of so much writing on China and the evasions of Beijing's official pronouncements, two China-based journalists made a drastic decision to see for themselves just how rapidly China is spreading its influence around the world. Many thousands of miles and twenty-five countries later, China's Silent Army is the result: an unprecedented attempt to meet the many Chinese who, through hard work, ingenuity and ruthless business practices are rapidly moving much of the world into Beijing's orbit - from Peruvian mines to Siberian forests, Sudanese dams to Burmese jade mines. The implications of what they are doing - politically, ecologically and economically - are profoundly disturbing and particularly topical in light of the Eurozone crisis and the diminishing economical presence of the West. A disturbing and revealing piece of investigative journalism into the unknown extent of China's global power. Heriberto Araújo arrived to Beijing in early 2007, initially working for the AFP agency as Spanish correspondent in Beijing, and then as a freelance reporter for both French and Spanish media. Juan Pablo Cardenal has been reporting from and about China and the Asia-Pacific region since 2003 - first as Shanghai correspondent for El Mundo, and later from Singapore and Beijing for El Economista. He is currently based in Hong Kong.