Contributor(s): Lord Nat Wei | Lord Wei will give a lecture in memory of Lord Michael Chan, the first ever ethnic Chinese member of the House of Lords, who passed away in 2006. Nat Wei is the youngest and only ethnic Chinese peer in the House of Lords.

Contributor(s): Dr Jason McKenzie Alexander, Dr Keith Jensen, Dr Andrew Pinsent | What generates our capability to act morally? How much is it part of our basic biology? How is it socialised? Is it reasoned, emotional, or does it derive from some other source entirely? Jason McKenzie Alexander is reader in philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE. Keith Jensen is lecturer in comparative and developmental psychology at the School of Biological and Chemical...

Contributor(s): Andrew Dilnot | Achieving a sustainable and fair system for funding the support required by people with social care needs represents a growing challenge to governments across the world. In his address, Andrew Dilnot will introduce the rationale for the recommendations made by the independent Commission on the Funding of Care and Support set-up by the coalition government and which reported in July 2012. How do the Commission's proposals allocate responsibility between...

Contributor(s): Juan Manuel Santos Calderón | Juan Manuel Santos Calderón is President of the Republic of Colombia. Born in Bogota on August 10, 1951. He was a cadet at the Navy Academy in Cartagena; he studied Economics and Business Administration and carried out graduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Harvard University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He was Chief of the Colombian delegation before the International Coffee Organization (ICO)...

Contributor(s): Kamalesh Sharma | Kamalesh Sharma will reflect on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in October 2011, which is expected to adopt reforms that will renew the focus and increase the impact of the Commonwealth. Kamalesh Sharma is the Commonwealth secretary general. He previously served as India's high commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Contributor(s): Paulina Bozek, Vyacheslav Polonski, Christina Kerr | This is the second year of events where invited alumni share a stage with current students in a public talk. This is a unique opportunity for LSE students, staff and alumni to meet and share their experience in an informal forum. Paulina Bozek is the CEO of INENSU, a start-up game company making social and innovative games for the connected generation. Prior to founding INENSU, she was the Development Director of the Atari...

Contributor(s): Professor Ralf Michaels | We are witnessing a paradigmatic shift in the reality and theory of law. The new transnational law – international commercial arbitration, non-state codifications like the UNIDROIT Principles, the alleged emerging convergent legal order– cannot be safely grounded, as law has been for a long time, in the state. Yet what its foundations are, or should be, remains unclear. In this situation, a remarkable number of authors shift from rational of political...

Contributor(s): Dan Sperber | Many social scientists and philosophers - John Searle in particular in The Construction of Social Reality - argue that social facts exist in virtue of being collectively recognized. I want to debunk this view and offer a truly naturalistic (but non-reductionist) alternative. I characterize social facts in terms of causal chains where the causal links are alternatively mental and environmental. I suggest a way to reconceptualise the social domain that raises new...

Contributor(s): Professor Gilles Kepel | From the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings to their suppression in Bahrain and Syria; from civil war in Yemen and Libya to the challenges arising from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – what are the prospects for the Arab revolt(s)? Gilles Kepel is professor and chair, Middle East and Mediterranean Studies, at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

Contributor(s): John Tirman | US author John Tirman argues that while Americans are rightly concerned about the number of US troops killed in battle, they can seem indifferent, often oblivious, to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those they fight and those they fight for. John Tirman is executive director of MIT's Center for International Studies. This lecture marks the publication of his new book The Death of Others.

Contributor(s): Dr Chaloka Beyani, Ignacio Llanos, Professor Sir Adam Roberts | The UN has a responsibility to protect populations from genocide and crimes against humanity, but to what effect? Experts will consider how recent events, such as those in Libya, challenge the international concept of 'Responsibility to Protect'. Chaloka Beyani is senior lecturer in law, LSE. Ignacio Llanos is counsellor of the Embassy of Chile in the UK. Adam Roberts is president of The British Academy.

Contributor(s): Brian Moore | Former England rugby player turned journalist and media commentator gives his forthright views on a whole range of topics from the failings of the England football team to the rights and wrongs of Twitter. Moore speaks out on corruption in cricket, the downward spiral of boxing, the state of British tennis, the politicization of the Ryder Cup and of course, the world of rugby. Brian will be signing copies of his book More Thoughts of Chairman Moore after the...

Contributor(s): Professor Daniel Kahneman, Professor Lord Richard Layard | Two systems drive the way we think and make choices: System One is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System Two is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Over many years, Daniel Kahneman has conducted groundbreaking research into this – in his own words – "machinery of the mind". Fast thinking has extraordinary capabilities, but also faults and biases. Intuitive impressions have a pervasive influence on our...

Contributor(s): Robin Harris | Drawing on his new book, The Conservatives-A History, Robin Harris will review the different styles, strengths and weaknesses of successive Conservative leaders, and analyse the problems which they and the Party faced at different junctures. He will consider whether there are lessons to be drawn from this historical experience for the present and future. Robin Harris began to work for the Conservative Party in 1978, becoming Director of the Conservative...

Contributor(s): Professor John Breuilly, Professor Sir Francis Jacobs, Professor Umut Özkirimli | This series of events explores how our understanding of Europe's identity can be enhanced and developed in a new way by taking in a distinctively Turkish perspective. John Breuilly is professor of nationalism and ethnicity at the Government Department, LSE. Francis Jacobs is professor of law and Jean Monnet Professor at King's College London's School of Law. Umut Özkirimli is visiting professor,...

Contributor(s): Laura Oldfield Ford | In this talk, artist, writer and zine maker Laura Oldfield Ford will be showing traces and relics from her psychogeographic drifts around the ruined landscapes of London's hinterlands. This event marks the publication of Laura's new book Savage Messiah. Laura Oldfield Ford, originally from Halifax, West Yorkshire, studied at the Royal College of Art and has become well known for her politically active and poetic engagement with London as a site of social...

Contributor(s): Sven Lindqvist | This lecture marks the centenary of aerial bombardment. More than just a military revolution, this development redrew the legal and moral boundaries between civilians and combatants and spread the theatre of war into cities and domestic spaces. Sven Lindqvist is the author of over 30 widely translated books including A History of Bombing. The lecture is part of a joint initiative of LSE Sociology and the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Contributor(s): Professor Robert H. Frank | Who was the greater economist--Adam Smith or Charles Darwin? The question seems absurd. Darwin, after all, was a naturalist, not an economist. But Robert Frank, New York Times economics columnist and best-selling author of The Economic Naturalist, predicts that within the next century Darwin will unseat Smith as the intellectual founder of economics. Frank's new book is entitled The Darwin Economy. In this conversation with Paul Mason, economics...

Contributor(s): Dr Michael Spindelegger | Dr Michael Spindelegger is Vice-Chancellor of the Republic of Austria and Federal Minister for European and International Affairs. He graduated from the University of Vienna with a doctorate in law. This event is part of the LSESU Austrian Society's Global Business and Politics from an Austrian Perspective lecture series. LSE's European Foreign Policy Unit| (EFPU) based in the International Relations Department acts as a focus for research and...

Contributor(s): Professor Norman Davies, Maurice Fraser | The history of Europe is not just the story of Britain, France and Germany. Norman Davies examines the lives and afterlives of extinguished kingdoms that no longer have advocates. Norman Davies, FBA, Professor Emeritus of London University. His latest book Vanished Kingdoms – The History of Half-Forgotten Europe will be launched at this lecture. Maurice Fraser is a Senior Fellow in European Politics at LSE.

Contributor(s): Constantine Partasides | Few aspects are as crucial in the practice of international arbitration as having the right people on the tribunal. Constantine Partasides explores both the ethic and the tactic dimension of finding the right arbitrator also with reference to Jan Paulsson's vanguard call of abolishing unilaterally appointed arbitrators. Constantine Partasides is Head of Arbitration at Freshfields London.

Contributor(s): Professor David Kynaston | David Kynaston's ground-breaking history of the City of London, published in four volumes between 1994 and 2001 and now edited into a single volume, is a modern classic. Kynaston tells a story as dramatic as any novel, while explaining the mysteries of the financial world in a way that we can all understand. Educated at Wellington College, New College, Oxford, and the LSE, David Kynaston has been a professional historian since 1973. He is now a...

Contributor(s): Stephen Perry | Stephen Perry will discuss the early days of the 48 Group, the oldest Western trading partners with the People's Republic of China, and doing business with China today. Stephen Perry is the chairman of the 48 Group Club.

Contributor(s): Melanie Gerlis | With China now the second or even first biggest art market in the world, this lecture looks at the emerging markets for art in India, Middle East, China, Russia and Latin America. It tracks the volume of sales, the main collectors, museum projects and cultural infrastructrure. Melanie Gerlis has been art market editor of The Art Newspaper since June 2007, prior to which she worked as a book reviewer and art market writer for the paper for a year. She...

Contributor(s): Erkki Tuomioja | Minister Tuomioja will outline his views on international security challenges and the responses that are urgently needed. He will comment on the state of the European Union and argue for a new, comprehensive foreign and security policy strategy for the EU. He will also set out the prospects for the further deepening of Nordic co-operation. Erkki Tuomioja is Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs, a position he has held since June 2011. He previously served as...