London School of Economics: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Professor Gerald Frug | There is a widespread consensus that, everywhere in the world, urban development has to be based on the rule of law. But what is 'the rule of law'? Does any formal legal system qualify - or must it have specific requirements? If there are specific requirements, who says what they are? Does the rule of law inhibit - or does it encourage - the extent of privatisation of urban space? Does it require the abolition of informal settlements and businesses or allow them? This lecture will investigate whether the contested notion of the rule of law contributes to thinking about urban form. Gerald Frug is Louis D Brandeis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Visiting Professor at LSE.

Speaker(s): Hari Sankaran | Financing urban development and infrastructure requires consistent strategic planning. While urban planning adjusts to flexible, short-term and incremental implementation, cities rely on long-term visions. How can capital intense investments become socially and financially sustainable given this critical long-term perspective? Hari Sankaran is managing director of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd.

Speaker(s): Dr Michael Thomas | Most scholars explain America's nearly unconditional support of Israel either as a result of inordinate influence by a small pro-Israel lobby or as the product of strategic choices by presidents. Studies of the Reagan and first Bush administrations demonstrate a more useful way to understand American policy and to predict when it might change. That method involves analysing how policy advocates redefine, institutionally embed, and enforce versions of long-standing American beliefs favourable to their preferred policies, and under what conditions those efforts are less effective.

Speaker(s): Lord Paddy Ashdown | In this lecture Lord Paddy Ashdown discusses his new book - Swords and Ploughshares: Bringing Peace to the 21st Century. There have been 15 UN-led interventions since 1946, and there are at least 74 wars in progress today. From his perspective as a former Royal Marine officer in the 1960s to the High Representative in Bosnia from 2002-6, Lord Ashdown discusses the successes and failures of peace-keeping operations, questions what lessons have been learned - and what lessons keep being forgotten. The men and women of the British armed forces are currently engaged in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans in 'peacekeeping operations'. How do we avoid these missions turning into long-term entanglements, like the current disaster that is Iraq? How do we bring our soldiers home? And what do we do about 'failed states' that are havens for gangsters and terrorists? Paddy Ashdown fears we will soon see major wars between nation states. Many will begin as minor conflicts that will expand into full-scale wars unless the international community intervenes.

Speaker(s): Professor Michael Cole | From its founding as an academic discipline, psychology has been divided in its understanding of itself. The project to create a psychology that unifies experimental, 'physiological' psychology and ethnographic, cultural-historical psychology requires a reconfiguration of the disciplinary landscape of the late 19th century that, from our current perspective, appears inter-disciplinary, including, as it does, scholarship from anthropology, sociology, discourse analysis as well as the neurosciences and evolutionary biology.

Speaker(s): Professor Anthony Giddens, Lord Kinnock; Ed Miliband MP; Mandy Telford; Stephen Twigg | Many children approaching adulthood today will not remember anything other than a Labour government. So ten years on from the dawn of New Labour, what has been achieved and how has Britain changed? Was New Labour just a campaigning vehicle, or did it herald a new philosophical direction for the Labour Party? Is New Labour still relevant today, or does Labour need to find a different way of articulating its purpose?

Speaker(s): Jeremy Rifkin | This lecture critically examines the fossil fuel era and its consequences for industrial civilisation. It explores the nexus of politics, society and business and the massive potential for industry and capital investment. It also considers the future of renewable energy and the hydrogen economy, and how an integrated infrastructure and energy regime can be created in Europe.

Speaker(s): Professor Paul Krugman | Manufactured imports from developing countries have risen sharply since the mid-90s, when the effects of trade on inequality were a major political issue. Should we be reconsidering the link between globalisation and inequality?

Speaker(s): Professor Richard Goldstone and Dr Leslie Vinjamuri | Intuitively all defenders of human rights are in favour of war crime trials. But can the idea of an international code of criminal law survive the realpolitik of states trading insults over who has been most complicit? Will war crimes become as familiar as ordinary criminal trials are today, or is it merely a passing liberal fad?

Speaker(s): Sir Stephen Wall | Tony Blair was at ease in the European Union. He saw the EU as part of the solution to the challenges of economic reform, energy security and climate change. Gordon Brown does not like 'abroad'. Will he be tempted to play the euro sceptic card? Will the EU constitution be, for him, a text too far? Or can Brown do for UK relations with her EU partners what Nixon did for US/China relations?

Speaker(s): Lord Howe, Lord Hurd; Dr Robin Niblett; Lord Owen; Gideon Rachman; Sir Malcolm Rifkind | This public debate marks the launch of British Diplomacy: Foreign Secretaries Reflect edited by Graham Ziegner (Politico's, March 2007). The book includes contributions from five former UK Foreign Secretaries who provide a unique insight into the thoughts and actions of the holders of one of the most difficult and challenging posts within British government, highlighting the problems faced during their time as Foreign Secretary and giving a personal account of how these problems were tackled. Professor Lord William Wallace writes the introductory chapter and a conclusion considering New Labour's foreign policy is provided by Professor Christopher Hill and Tim Oliver.

Speaker(s): Sir John Major in conversation with Elinor Goodman | During the course of this conversation Sir John Major will reflect on his experiences as Prime Minister and discuss current affairs in the UK and across the globe.

Speaker(s): Lord Triesman | Lord David Triesman of Tottenham will discuss the role that public diplomacy plays in the achievement of the government's international objectives. As chair of the Public Diplomacy Board, he will describe the approach that has been developed as a result of Lord Carter's 2005 Review of Public Diplomacy, with a primary focus on engaging with foreign public audiences.

Speaker(s): Lord Adair Turner | As part of LSE's series of lectures looking at the long term challenges facing Britain and British politicians 'after Blair', Adair Turner will examine the issues of pensions, welfare reform and the challenges posed by an ageing society.

Speaker(s): Professor Harvey Brown | Professor Brown will reappraise the reality and origins of the relativistic phenomena of length contraction and time, arguing that the reason why rods and clocks 'measure' the geometry of space-time is often misunderstood.