Contributor(s): Ferenc Gyurcsány | The lecture will focus on Hungary's economic development, reform process and energy security. The Prime Minister will also touch on Hungary's unique opportunity to be a leader in the knowledge base economy.

Contributor(s): Don McKinnon | On the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala at end-November 2007, Secretary-General Don McKinnon will set the 53-nation family of nations in the context of the challenges facing a fast-changing, interdependent world - above all in entrenching a genuine culture of democracy and in bringing the benefits of economic and social development to the world's poor, with 800 million Commonwealth citizens living in official poverty.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Baum | Is it possible to regulate for impartiality in a post 2012 world or is the public service ethos doomed? Emily Bell is a journalist for The Guardian. Evan Davies is BBC Economics Editor. Richard North is a journalist and commentator for the BBC. Elinor Goodman is former political editor for Channel 4 news.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Baum | Why exactly is a scientific approach to medicine preferable to so-called 'alternative' approaches? Michael Baum is professor emeritus of surgery and visiting professor of medical humanities at University College London.

Contributor(s): Howard Davies | Howard Davies is chair of the judges for the 2007 Man Booker prize. Following the award of the prize on 16 October he reflects on the judging process and what it reveals about the state of the English novel.

Contributor(s): Professor John Mearsheimer, Professor Stephen Walt | A look at the nature and activities of the 'Israel lobby' in the United States, and how various groups and individuals have encouraged policies that are unintentionally harmful to both US and Israeli interests. John Mearsheimer is at the University of Chicago. Stephen Walt is at the John F Kennedy School of Government.

Contributor(s): Mandira Sharma, Arnold Tsunga | In this seventh 'Field notes' event held in conjunction with Human Rights Watch UK, frontline human rights defenders will discuss monitoring human rights violations in Nepal and Zimbabwe: their different personal experiences, methods of collecting and evaluating information and the ways in which they develop advocacy campaigns both locally and at an international level.

Contributor(s): Dora Bakoyannis | Dora Bakoyannis is Greek minister of foreign affairs and a leading member of the governing New Democracy Party.

Contributor(s): Richard J Gnodde | The global capital markets are being transformed by the emergence of new actors, new flows and new partnerships - creating opportunities as well as challenges for business, government and civil society. In this lecture, Richard Gnodde will share the lessons of global businesses operating in this new environment, and reflect on the ways in which global capital markets can be a force for progress for business as well as society.

Contributor(s): Howard Davies | Howard Davies, who has advised the Chinese government on financial reform for the last four years, reviews the implications of China's rise for the world's financial markets.

Contributor(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.

Contributor(s): Baroness Jane Campbell DBE, Francesca Klug OBE, Trevor Phillips | The new Equality and Human Rights Commission has just started its work in Britain. Its goal is to be an 'independent influential champion whose purpose is to reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations between people and protect human rights.' Its remit reaches the whole community, seeking to secure equality of respect for all, and it also plans to take 'an active role in helping to...

Contributor(s): Professor Sarah Franklin, Professor Peter Lipton, Professor Chris Mason, Dr J Craig Venter | The 1970s introduced genetic modification, the 1990s cloning and GM food, and the human genome was sequenced in 2000. Synthetic biology is heralded as the next frontier. But what is synthetic biology and how do we imagine its future directions? What are the implications of this new field for scientists, lawyers, regulators and ethicists? What social and political challenges does it...

Contributor(s): Dr Stephen Cretney | Legal biographies and autobiographies are a rich and important source of information about the legal system, statute law and the legal profession. Stephen Cretney is an emeritus fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.

Contributor(s): Professor Lucy Riall, Professor John Breuilly | The Italian revolutionary leader Giuseppe Garibaldi was not only worshipped as national hero in his country but he was also a hugely popular global figure in his lifetime - an estimated 500,000 people turned out to greet him on his arrival in London in 1864. The lecture, which marks the bicentenary of Garibaldi's birth, examines the charismatic leader's emergence as global symbol in the context of nineteenth-century globalization...

Contributor(s): John Monks | John Monks will explore the prospects for workers in a world increasingly dominated by the free movement of capital and the increased movement of goods and people. Who wins, who loses? Is free movement dangerous to workers? Is a return to protectionism on the cards? What should be the trade union, Government and EU approaches to globalisation?

Contributor(s): Dr Costas Simitis | This lecture will cover aspects of politics and policy in contemporary Greece in relation to recent developments in Europe. Costas Simitis, an alumnus of LSE, was prime minister of Greece from 1996-2004.

Contributor(s): Professor John Gray | In his lecture Toby Lanzer looks at the challenges of kick starting and managing a humanitarian and development campaign for one of the world's forgotten crises, that of the Central African Republic.

Contributor(s): Shrenik Rao | The UK premier of a new documentary, Zimbabwe Revealed, by former LSE student Shrenik Rao, followed by a panel debate on media freedom in Zimbabwe.

Contributor(s): Sam Frankhauser, Abyd Karmali, Ralf Martin, Professor Michael Mainelli, Jan-Peter Onstwedder, Martin Wolf | How 'The London Accord' has focused City Research on Climate Change. This introduction to the London Accord will be followed by a debate on two different approaches to Climate Change - Tax versus Carbon Trading.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Collier | The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which track poverty among 5 billion people, miss the key future challenge for development policy. This is that around 50 countries, now at the bottom of the world economy, are economically stagnant and so are diverging from the rest of mankind at an accelerating rate. The lecture analyzes why these countries, with around a billion people, are diverging - why globalization generates both convergence for most of...

Contributor(s): Professor John Gray | Where does the utopian impulse in politics originate, and does it have a future? John Gray argues that though they often claimed to be rooted in a scientific analysis of history and society the revolutionary political movements of the past.

Contributor(s): Professor John Gray | The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Antonio Miloaoski, will present a picture of the political and economic situation in this small but fascinating Balkan country, of the relations in the region, as well as of the impending challenges on its road to full-fledged membership of the European and Euro-Atlantic family.

Contributor(s): President Tarja Halonen | In a globalised world, can the welfare state model - such as the one in Finland and other Nordic states be successful and survive? Can the pursuit for competitiveness and welfare state be combined? Tarja Halonen was elected Finland's first female head of state in 2000, and re-elected 2006.

Contributor(s): Neil Duxbury, Professor Lisa Jardine, Professor Nicola Lacey, Geoffrey Lewis | Legal biographies and autobiographies are a rich and important source of information about the legal system, statute law and the legal profession. Lisa Jardine is centenary professor of renaissance studies at Queen Mary, University of London. Nicola Lacey is professor of criminal law at LSE. Neil Duxbury is professor of law at Manchester University. Geoffrey Lewis is author of the biographies of...