Contributor(s): Alec Ross, Professor Michael Cox | Information is transforming what power means and how it operates. Social media, wikileaks, surveillance and big data represent the battleground of a new contest between individuals, corporations and the state that is redefining the structures of power relations. Alec Ross discusses how the information age is changing global politics. Alec Ross is one of America’s leading experts on innovation. He was appointed Secretary of State Hillary...

Contributor(s): Professor Calliope Spanou | The Ombudsman will focus on the establishment 15 years ago of the Ombudsman institution in Greece, highlighting its place and role in the political-administrative system of the country. She will also present current challenges in the context of economic austerity, lack of trust in institutions as well as demands for a new relationship between citizens and the state in Greece. Professor Calliope Spanou is the Greek Ombudsman, and Professor of...

Contributor(s): Lina Sinjab | In this talk, the BBC's Lina Sinjab will focus on the realities on the ground in Syria and the resilient civil society that is striving to continue amidst the civil war and the Islamic challenges.

Contributor(s): Professor Damian Chalmers, Professor Sebastien Dullien, Yiannos Papantoniou | The single European market has been a remarkable achievement. Its completion could substantially boost growth- especially in the EU’s struggling economies. Has the euro crisis put paid to these hopes? 'The Europe Question: perspectives from the UK’ initiative aims to bridge the evident gap in understanding and mutual distrust between the UK, its European partners and the EU institutions in Brussels,...

Contributor(s): Professor Nick Couldry | Professor Couldry challenges some ‘digital age’ myths about how we gather on social media platforms and the value of ‘big data’, and considers the new forms of agency and injustice emerging alongside them. Nick Couldry is professor of media, communications and social theory and author of Media, Society, World.

Contributor(s): Professor Liu Wei | China has built a relatively well-off society by the end of the 20th century, transforming from a low-income country to a lower-middle-income one. In the first decade of the 21st century, China has further elevated itself to an upper-middle-income country. Based on these achievements, the country sets its new goals for economic development: a sustainable economic growth to double its scale, a high-income economy with a higher per capita GDP, a...

Contributor(s): Professor Liu Wei | China has built a relatively well-off society by the end of the 20th century, transforming from a low-income country to a lower-middle-income one. In the first decade of the 21st century, China has further elevated itself to an upper-middle-income country. Based on these achievements, the country sets its new goals for economic development: a sustainable economic growth to double its scale, a high-income economy with a higher per capita GDP, a...

Contributor(s): Professor Yongjin Zhang | Is there any significant international thought in antiquity beyond the West? If there is, what insights can it offer? Inspired by Martin Wight’s profound contributions to international relations so steeped in historical and philosophical depth, this lecture explores how order as a pivotal idea of international relations is deliberated in ancient Chinese political thought. It investigates how alternative visions of order in international relations are...

Contributor(s): Professor Mike Savage , Professor Bev Skeggs | In his inaugural lecture, Professor Savage will unravel "the paradox of class": that overt class politics and consciousness decline as divisions become more entrenched. He draws on research from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey and the public reaction to its findings. Mike Savage is professor of sociology at LSE. Beverley Skeggs is head of the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, London. She is soon to be an ESRC...

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox | It has become the truism of our age that power is fast ebbing away from a declining West to the East and the "rest". Some indeed predict that the 21st Century will either be Asian or dominated by the so-called BRICs. But how far has this process really gone? Michael Cox is founding co-director of LSE IDEAS and professor of International Relations at LSE.

Contributor(s): Dr Rachel Cooper, Professor Eileen Munro, Professor Emily Simonoff | The classification, identification and treatment of mental illnesses in children raises particular challenges. For example, what are the appropriate criteria for diagnosing children with a mental disorder? How can we avoid the risk of stigmatisation that some children and their families experience? What are the risks of not identifying mental illness in children and how does it impact on their well-being,...

Contributor(s): Professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger | The progressive left lacks the imagination to tackle the fundamental problems of society. Renowned social theorist Roberto Unger calls on fellow progressives in Britain to think beyond current institutional arrangements. Roberto Mangabeira Unger is the Roscoe Pound Professor of Law at Harvard University. He served as a minister in the Brazilian government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2007-2009. Jo Fidgen is a presenter and...

Contributor(s): Dr Andrew Blick, Bernard Donoughue, Professor George Jones | Discreet, inconspicuous, prudent... the perfect Prime Ministerial aide should always be in the background, a low-profile figure unknown outside the Westminster bubble. When reality falls short of the ideal – as when Cameron’s head of communications Andy Coulson was arrested in connection with the News of the World phone hacking affair – the impact upon the Prime Minister can be drastic. However, for as long as there...

Contributor(s): Professor Roger Brownsword, Dr Sarah Edwards, Dr Sarah Richmond | The continuing development of brain imaging technologies is now bringing into reach the correlation of brain activity with psychological states and traits, such as personality traits, mental health vulnerabilities, (unconscious) preferences and desires, or truthfulness. At the same time, different groups, such as employers, advertisers, health insurers and the government, all have strong interests in the...

Contributor(s): Charles Haswell | Blame for the financial crisis has been firmly placed on bankers. But there were failings in other areas, too, notably in macroeconomic theory and some of the assumptions that underpinned monetary policy and the behaviour of central bankers. As Mark Carney has said, “It is safe to say that most policy-makers didn’t see the crisis coming. In part this was because central banks underappreciated the scale of endogenous liquidity creation in the system.” ...

Contributor(s): Jesse Norman MP | Edmund Burke and Michael Oakeshott are often considered as the intellectual founding fathers of British conservatism. But in fact they disagree on some fundamental issues. What are those issues, and who is right? Jesse Norman is Member of Parliament for Hereford and South Herefordshire. His book Edmund Burke: Politician, Philosopher, Prophet has been recently published to wide acclaim. He was awarded Parliamentarian and Backbencher of the Year in 2012.

Contributor(s): Dr Carrie Friese, Professor Charis Thompson | The natural world is marked by an ever-increasing loss of varied habitats, species extinctions, and new kinds of dilemmas posed by global warming. At the same time, humans are working to actively shape this natural world through contemporary bioscience and biotechnology, as humans seek scientific solutions to environmental crisis. Cloned endangered animals in zoos sit at the apex of these trends. In her new book Carrie Friese...

Contributor(s): Professor Brendan Simms | If there is a fundamental truth of geopolitics, it is this: whoever controls the core of Europe controls the entire continent, and whoever controls all of Europe potentially dominates the world. Over the past five centuries, a rotating cast of kings and conquerors, presidents and dictators have set their sights on the European heartland, desperate to seize this pivotal area or at least prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. From Charles V and...

Contributor(s): Michael Kumhof | Michael Kumhof will discuss his 2012 paper on the Chicago Plan, a radical reform plan for the banking industry that would eliminate banks’ power to create money. Based on proposals developed by members of the Chicago School in the US in the 1930s, Kumhof’s plan represents the most far-reaching and decisive proposal to eliminate the risks associated with fractional reserve banking. Michael Kumhof is deputy division chief of the Modelling Division at the IMF...

Contributor(s): Professor George Loewenstein | George Loewenstein is professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his PhD from Yale University in 1985 and has held positions at the University of Chicago, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Russell Sage Foundation and Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin.

Contributor(s): Eve Harris, Lloyd Bradley, Fatima Manji | This week’s Media Agenda Talk was about London’s identity and culture. Three panellists – Author Eve Harris, music critic Lloyd Bradley and Channel 4 Reporter Fatima Manji – presented their unique perspective on the city, stemming from their professional experience and their life as Londoners. Does London have a culture of its own, or should we be speaking of a culture of neighbourhoods? Do its inhabitants identify more as ‘Londoner’...

Contributor(s): Joaquín Almunia | The online world is of crucial importance to consumers and businesses. Its role in providing innovation and connectivity means that it can boost productivity and competitiveness across many sectors of the economy. The proper functioning of the internet therefore needs to be safeguarded by making sure that gatekeepers (such as search engines, operating systems, patent holders and network operators) do not abuse their position by preventing competitors from...

Contributor(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | The life of Gandhi is one of the most remarkable and potent in the modern era – yet few know what shaped him in his formative years. Renowned historian and public intellectual, Ramachandra Guha, paints a vivid portrait of a man whose ideas were fundamentally shaped before his return to India in 1915. At the dawn of his international reputation, Guha explains how Gandhi was the sometimes unwilling leader in the midst of race and class, living in a world...

Contributor(s): Charles Shamas | In July the European Commission published "guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards." This step has been variously described as a 'political earthquake', a sanction targeting Israeli settlements and settlement policies, and a confrontational move to save the two-State solution and the Middle East...

Contributor(s): Lionel Barber | After four successive crisis years, an economic recovery in Europe is within sight. The euro's survival - which was in question as recently as a year ago - appears assured. But the crisis remains chronic, if not fatal. Without further steps - closer economic integration and a banking union - the single currency will be at risk and the eurozone divided between northern creditors and southern debtors. And there are fresh signs that at the very least Greece,...