LSE: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Professor G. John Ikenberry, Professor Mary Kaldor | The world famous theorist of international politics John Ikenberry of Princeton has for many years been insisting that the liberal world order created by the USA after WW2 has proved remarkably durable. Now, however, a series of major shifts in the world - the rise of China, the emergence of Russia as a spoiler power, the election of the very illiberal Donald Trump in the United States, and the more general populist backlash against globalisation- has placed the liberal order under immense strain. In this Roundtable Professor Ikenberry will be in conversation with leading LSE public intellectual Professor Mary Kaldor. Professor G. John Ikenberry is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University in the Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also Co-Director of Princeton’s Center for International Security Studies. Professor Mary Kaldor is Director of the Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit at the Department of International Development, LSE. Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. The event is organised by LSE IDEAS. LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems.

Speaker(s): Professor Danny Quah | For nearly a century, America has provided the world a simple narrative: "If you’re with us, you get international rule of law. If not, you have to deal with arbitrary exercise of power." Obviously, to most nations the latter proposition is untenable. Only under a multilateral rules-based system can lesser states stand toe to toe and resolve disputes on equal footing with great powers: In this view the right choice - an American-centered world order - is clear. But both America's own international conduct and academic scholarship suggest the increasing hollowness of this narrative. What forces will now shape the international system? Is disorder the only logical outcome with the breakdown of our current world order? This lecture suggests how an economic marketplace model for great power competition can help answer these questions, and guide thinking for constructing a world order that works for all the international community. Danny Quah (@DannyQuah ) is Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics and Dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His research interests include income inequality, economic growth, and international economic relations. Quah's current research takes an economic approach to world order - with focus on global power shift and the rise of the east, and alternative models of global power relations. Quah is Commissioner on the Spence-Stiglitz Commission on Global Economic Transformation: Member, Executive Committee, International Economic Association: and Senior Fellow, Asian Bureau of Finance and Economics Research. Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. In addition, he is currently working on a history of LSE. He helped establish the Cold War Studies Centre in 2004 and expand it into IDEAS, a foreign policy centre based at the LSE which aims to bring the academic and policy words together, in 2008. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems.

Speaker(s): Sam Byers, Dr Orla Lynskey, Dr Alison Powell | As technology and media continue to change our society at a rapid rate, what are the implications for our privacy, democracy and role as citizens? Sam Byers (@byers90) is the author of Idiopathy (2013) and Perfidious Albion (2018). His work has been translated into ten languages and his writing has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, The Spectator, and The Times Literary Supplement. Idiopathy was included on the Waterstones 11 list of debut novels to watch out for; shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Prize and the Desmond Elliot Prize; and won a Betty Trask Award. Dr Alison Powell (@a_b_powell) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE, where she was inaugural programme director for the MSc Media and Communications (Data and Society). She researches how people’s values influence the way technology is built, and how technological systems in turn change the way we work and live together. Dr Orla Lynskey (@lynskeyo) is an Associate Professor and joined LSE Law in September 2012. She teaches and conducts research in the areas of data protection, technology regulation, digital rights and EU law. She holds an LLB (Law and French) from Trinity College Dublin, an LLM in EU Law from the College of Europe (Bruges) and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Professor Charlie Beckett (@CharlieBeckett) is the founding director of Polis, the think-tank for research and debate around international journalism and society in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE Charlie is also director of the Media Policy Project and Lead Commissioner for the LSE Truth, Trust & Technology Commission (T3). This event is organsied by the Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE), a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. The LSE Truth, Trust and Technology (T3) Commission deals with the crisis in public information. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems. The full programme will be online in January 2019.

Speaker(s): Michael Anderson, Dr Mathias Koenig-Archibugi, Ken Shadlen, Catherine Wilkosz | Growing resistance to antibiotics is one of the most significant current threats to global public health. Estimates suggest that in the European Union and the United States alone infections from multidrug resistant bacteria cause around 50,000 deaths a year, with substantial economic burdens associated with these infections. These figures will likely worsen, in the absence of new antibiotics to replace those with declining effectiveness. Existing systems of global health governance and drug development need to be reconfigured in order to respond to new threats. Coordinated international action is needed to address an impending global crisis – but how best to mobilise divergent private and public sector interests and forestall pending disorder? The interdisciplinary panel sitting across International Development, Health Policy, Government and International Relations will each address the challenge of growing resistance to antibiotics, providing a solution from their disciplinary viewpoint with questions and comments submitted in the days leading up to the event fed into the discussion. Michael Anderson is a Research Officer in Health Policy at the Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Medical Doctor undertaking General Practice specialty training. Mathias Koenig-Archibugi is Associate Professor of Global Politics at the Department of Government. He joined the LSE in 2000 and is currently Senior Lecturer in Global Politics. After completing his secondary and undergraduate education in Rome, Italy, he received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Florence (2000). Ken Shadlen is Professor of Development Studies in the Department of International Development. Ken works on the comparative and international political economy of development, with a focus on understanding variation in national policy responses to changing global rules. Catherine Wilkosz is a nurse from Ann Arbor, Michigan who recieved her BSN from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She worked primarily in intraoperative orthopaedic trauma surgery before pursuing her masters in Global Health Policy at LSE. Ernestina Coast (@LSE_ID ) is Professor of Health and International Development at the Department of International Development. Ernestina’s research is multidisciplinary and positioned at an intersection of social science approaches including health, gender and development. As a social scientist with training in demography and anthropology, her research uses mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) to understand the inter-relationships between social context and health-related behaviours, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems.

Speaker(s): Dr Alexandru Filip, Professor Sara Hobolt, Dr Benjamin Martill | The recent wave of populist parties and politicians throughout Europe and the world has been portrayed as a monolithic phenomenon that transcends national borders. On the right and on the left, populists have been portrayed as polarising forces that reinforce existing divisions in society and pull each side further from the centre. But is this the case? This event explores two counterintuitive arguments about Europe’s populist parties. First, that populist parties may find more in common with traditional parties in their home countries than with their counterparts in other European contexts; second, that populist parties on the left and the right have more in common with each other than with the traditional parties they separated from. Dr Alexandru Filip (@AlexFilip_87) is a Dahrendorf Forum Post-Doctoral Fellow based at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. Sara Hobolt (@sarahobolt) is Sutherland Chair in European Institutions and professor in the Department of Government and the European Institute at LSE. Dr Benjamin Martill is a Dahrendorf Forum Post-Doctoral Fellow based at the London School of Economics. Dr Rosa Balfour (@RosaBalfour) is a Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund and Associate Fellow at LSE IDEAS. This event is co-organised by the Dahrendorf Forum at LSE IDEAS. The Dahrendorf Forum (@DahrendorfForum) is a joint initiative between the LSE and the Hertie School of Governance, funded by the Mercator Stiftung. LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems.

Speaker(s): Professor Michael Cox | One British university above all others came to be associated with student rebellion in the 1960s - the LSE - later referred by one of the original rebels as that 'utopia at the end of the Kingsway rainbow - for a period'. But why the LSE? What did the students hope to achieve? And what legacy did they leave behind? Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. In addition, he is currently working on a history of LSE. He helped establish the Cold War Studies Centre in 2004 and expand it into IDEAS, a foreign policy centre based at the LSE which aims to bring the academic and policy words together, in 2008. Since joining the LSE he has also acted as Academic Director of both the LSE-PKU Summer School and of the Executive Summer School. Sue Donnelly joined LSE in 1989 and as LSE Archivist is responsible for the development of LSE’s institutional archive and raising awareness of the School’s unique and fascinating history. Her work has included creating content for the LSE History blog and developing a campus history tour to introduce staff and students to the history of LSE. The event is organised by LSE IDEAS. LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems.

Speaker(s): Minouche Shafik, Professor Andrés Velasco | Why are people in some of the richest countries in the world so miserable when so much of the economic and social data show massive material progress? Where did all that anger and anxiety come from that is manifested in populism, terrorism, and worsening well-being and mental health? Are we, despite the massive gains in material progress in recent decades, living in an age of insecurity? Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is the inaugural Dean of the new School of Public Policy. He was the Minister of Finance in Chile between 2006 and 2010 and held professorial roles at the Harvard Kennedy School and Columbia University´s School of International and Public Affairs. He has advised governments around the world and formulated policy at the highest levels. Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is Department Head of International Relations and Director of the US Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Associate Fellow at Chatham House, Royal Institute of International Affairs. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Stephanie Flanders is unfortunately no longer able to speak at this event. We apologies for any inconvenience cause. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems.

Speaker(s): Professor Michael Cox, Professor Annika Mombauer, Professor David Stevenson | A century after the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, this session will reappraise the peace settlement that followed the First World War. On 28 June 1919 the Versailles peace treaty was signed between Germany and its First World War opponents, including Britain, America, France, Italy, and Japan. The treaty was intensely controversial, and has remained so. Disillusioned liberals such as John Maynard Keynes condemned it as unjust and unworkable, and much of German opinion agreed them. It has been blamed for inflaming German nationalism, enabling Hitler's rise, and causing the Second World War. Yet other commentators have seen the treaty as too weak, or as being neither consistently conciliatory nor consistently repressive, thus falling between two stools. This session will reappraise the 1919-20 peace conference, an exceptional moment when it briefly seemed possible to reshape the international order. It will include presentations on the 'war guilt' question and German attitudes; on Keynes, reparations, and the economic settlement; and on security, disarmament, and the League of Nations. Three contributions by experts on the settlement will be followed by a round-table discussion and by questions from the audience. Professor Michael Cox is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the LSE. He has published extensively on international relations and international history, and is now researching on J. M. Keynes. Professor Annika Mombauer is Professor of Modern European History at the Open University. She has many publications on German history before and during the First World War. Professor David Stevenson is Stevenson Professor of International History at the LSE. He has published on the causes, course, and consequences of the First World War. Professor Matthew Jones is an expert on British and American foreign policy, and especially on the British nuclear deterrent. He is Head of the LSE International History Department. LSE's Department of International History (@lsehistory) teaches and conducts research on the international history of Britain, Europe and the world from the early modern era up to the present day. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems.

Speaker(s): Catherine Arnold, Dr Stephen Roberts, Dr Seema Yasmin | One hundred years after the influenza pandemic, a novelist, a science writer and a population health specialist discuss the social impact of pandemics through time, and how virus, quarantine and contagion continue to inspire our dystopian literary imaginations. Catharine Arnold (@London_darkside) read English at Cambridge and holds a further degree in psychology. Catharine's latest book is Pandemic 1918: The Story of the Deadliest Influenza in History. Catharine's other titles include Necropolis London and its Dead and Underworld London, a history of capital punishment in London. Stephen Roberts is LSE Fellow in Global Health Policy. He is a module convenor on the MSc Global Health Policy and a member of the LSE Global Health Initiative. Dr Roberts is also an Associate Researcher at the Centre for Global Health Policy (CGHP) at the University of Sussex. Seema Yasmin (@DoctorYasmin) is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, author and medical doctor. Her first book charts the course of HIV/AIDS pandemic and the life of a scientist who fought to end the outbreak. She teaches science journalism and global health storytelling at Stanford University. Justin Parkhurst is an Associate Professor of Global Health Policy in the LSE Department of Health Policy. He is co-director of the MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing programme, and the current serving Chair of the LSE Global Health Initiative. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEFestival This event forms part of the “New World (Dis)Orders” series, held in the run up to the LSE Festival, a week-long series of events taking place from 25 February to 2 March 2019, free to attend and open to all, exploring how social science can tackle global issues. How did we get here? What are the challenges? And, importantly, how can we address them? The full LSE Festival programme is online.

Speaker(s): Dame Louise Casey, Professor Mary Kaldor, Rupert Reid, Dame Heather Rabbatts, Jamie Bartlett | Public trust in the establishment is waning, but an age of disruption requires good leadership. So how can leaders lead in a post-deferential age? Jamie Bartlett (@JamieJBartlett) is writer and technology industry analyst at the think tank Demos. Mary Kaldor is Professor of Global Governance at LSE. Louise Casey is former head of the Respect Task Force, the UK’s first Victims’ Commissioner, director general of Troubled Families. Rupert Reid is Director of Research and Strategy at Policy Exchange. Previously based in Downing Street and Parliament as Special Adviser to the then Chief Whip, Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP. Heather Rabbatts is former chief executive of the London boroughs of Lambeth, Merton, and Hammersmith and Fulham. Anne McElvoy (@annemcelvoy) is Senior Editor at The Economist, a presenter of BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking and BBC Radio 4 Moral Maze, and a London Evening Standard columnist. This event will be recorded and broadcast BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking on Wednesday 27 February and will be available as an Arts & Ideas podcast from BBC Sounds.

Speaker(s): Professor Vernon Bogdanor, Dr Catherine Haddon | Vernon Bogdanor discusses his forthcoming publication on the Constitution’s role within the future relationship between the UK and Europe. Vernon Bogdanor is Research Professor in the Centre for British Politics and Government at King’s College London. Catherine Haddon (@cath_haddon) is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government, which she joined in 2008 after a career in academia. She has led the Institute’s work on Whitehall reform, managing changes of government and general elections, evidence and policy making and now also runs their professional development and ministers programme. She advises and gives evidence to parliamentary select committees, has featured on radio and at party conferences, and is regularly cited in the press. Tony Travers is Associate Dean of the School of Public Policy and Professor in Practice in the Department of Government. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. The School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. We are an international community where ideas and practice meet. Our approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.

Speaker(s): Rahm Emanuel | Rahm Emanuel will discuss the role of cities as world leaders in the 21st century. Cities have risen as global centers for innovation and energy across economics, entrepreneurship, culture and public policy. As the leader of the City of Chicago, Mayor Emanuel has been uniquely positioned to address the complex challenges and opportunities posed by education, health care, technology, immigration, infrastructure, climate change, and much more. Rahm Emanuel (@ChicagosMayor) was elected Mayor of Chicago in 2011 and re-elected in 2015. Mayor Emanuel has led major investments across education, youth programming, neighborhood development, transportation, infrastructure, public health, public safety, and the fight against climate change. Prior to this, Mayor Emanuel served as the White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama and served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Chicago’s 5th District. He previously served as a member of the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1998, rising to serve as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy. Caroline Daniel (@carolinefdaniel) is a partner at Brunswick and former editor of FT Weekend, consulting editor of FT Live/FT Conferences, and FT assistant editor. LSE Cities (@LSECities) studies how people and cities interact in a rapidly urbanising world, focusing on how the design of cities impacts on society, culture and the environment. Through research, conferences, teaching and projects, the centre aims to shape new thinking and practice on how to make cities fairer and more sustainable for the next generation of urban dwellers, who will make up some 70 per cent of the global population by 2050. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs (@chicagocouncil) studies the influence of cities in solving global challenges and shaping world affairs. This event has been jointly organised by LSE Cities, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and World Business Chicago.

Speaker(s): Ruchir Sharma | On the eve of India’s General elections in April and May, Ruchir Sharma will in this event, which marks the publication of his new book, offer a portrait of how India and its democracy work. Sharma has covered every election for the last two decades on the road talking to farmers, shopkeepers and CEOs from Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu, and interviewing leaders from Narendra Modi to Rahul Gandhi. Sharma will explain how the complex forces of family, caste and community, economics and development, money and corruption, Bollywood and Godmen, have conspired to elect and topple Indian leaders since Indira Gandhi. The message of his travels is that, while democracy is retreating in many parts of the world, it is thriving in India. Ruchir Sharma is author of the international bestsellers The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ten Rules of Change of in the Post-Crisis World. He is Head of Emerging Markets and Chief Global Strategist at Morgan Stanley, and a contributing opinion writer with The New York Times. His new book is Democracy on the Road. Mukulika Banerjee (@MukulikaB) is Director of the South Asia Centre at LSE. Mukulika’s current research interests are on the cultural meanings of democracy. Her most recent publication is Why India Votes? (2014) in which she explores the reasons behind India's rising trends of voter participation. She is currently completing a manuscript based on 15 years of engagement with a village in India to explain the sources of democratic thinking in Indian social life. Established in June 2015, the South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE) harnesses LSE's research & academic focus on South Asia, whose particularities constantly challenge conventional thinking in the social sciences.

Speaker(s): Dr John William Devine, Dr Vanessa Heggie, Professor David Papineau | World-class athletes push themselves beyond normal limits and transform their bodies through training and diet. But in the wake of various scandals across the world of sport, we know pharmaceuticals can also play a role. Doping is considered a form of cheating, but should it be? And with the arrival of ‘smart drugs’, this is no longer only a worry for sports. Can we ensure a level playing field, in sports and beyond, or will the advances in drug development always outpace regulation? We explore the philosophy behind all things doping, competing, and cheating. John William Devine is Lecturer in Sports Ethics and Integrity at Swansea University. Vanessa Heggie is Lecturer in the History of Medicine at the University of Birmingham. David Papineau is Professor of Philosophy at KCL. Clare Moriarty (@quiteclare) is a Fellow at the Forum for Philosophy. The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK.

Speaker(s): Professor Michael Kremer | The rapid spread of mobile phones in developing countries, coupled with recent advances in our ability to analyze big data through tools such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, has generated considerable excitement about the potential of ICT for development. How does the reality of ICT use for development stack up to this excitement? And, which institutional arrangements best promote the use of ICT for development? Michael Kremer begins to answer these questions by examining the case of mobile-phone enabled agricultural extension for smallholder farmers. Recent changes in technology have made it possible to disseminate personalized agricultural information to smallholder farmers via their mobile-phones. In this lecture, Kremer explores the rapidly accumulating evidence on the impact of mobile-phone based agricultural extension. There appear to be at least some settings where farmers change their behavior and increase their yields in response to advice delivered via their mobile phones. Preliminary evidence suggests this may be highly-cost effective. However, due to market failures and asymmetric information private markets will typically undersupply this public good. Governments tend to fail as well due to design flaws that make their solutions difficult for farmers to understand. Kremer discusses potential hybrid solutions that incorporate elements of both private and public provision and argues that zero (or negative) pricing for such services is likely optimal. Finally, the lecture ends with a speculative vision of a “Netflix for Agriculture” in which farmers would provide information, knowing that this would allow the system to make better recommendations for them, and this would in turn improve the performance of the system in offering recommendations to other farmers. This event is a Kapuscinski Lecture (@kapulectures). Kapuscinski Development Lectures is a series organised by the European Commission, UNDP and partner universities. The series is funded by the European Commission. Michael Kremer is Gates Professor of Developing Societies, Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a Presidential Faculty Fellowship, and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Kremer’s recent research examines education, health, water, and agriculture in developing countries. He has been named as one of Scientific American’s 50 researchers of the year, and has won awards for his work on health economics, agricultural economics, and on Latin America. Oriana Bandiera (@orianabandiera) is Sir Anthony Atkinson Professor of Economics and Director of STICERD, LSE. STICERD (@STICERD_LSE) brings together world-class academics to put economics and related disciplines at the forefront of research and policy. Founded in 1978 by the renowned Japanese economist Michio Morishima, with donations from Suntory and Toyota, we are a thriving research community within the LSE. The Department of Economics (@LSEEcon) is one of the leading economics departments in the world. It is a large department that ensures mainstream areas of economics are strongly represented in research and teaching.