Contributor(s): Dr Kai Spiekermann | Many airlines allow their customers to 'offset' the emissions caused by flying. Is it permissible to fly purely for pleasure as long as we buy carbon offsets? Kai Spiekermann is lecturer in political philosophy at LSE's Department of Government.

Contributor(s): Professor Diane Elson, Professor Nancy Folbre, Professor Maxine Molyneux | Each speaker will briefly reflect on a theme inspired by or departing from the International Handbook of Gender and Poverty by Sylvia Chant, after which there will be a question and answer session with the audience. Diane Elson is professor of sociology at the University of Essex. Nancy Folbre is professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Maxine Molyneux is professor of sociology...

Contributor(s): Professor Anthony Grayling | Philosophy has an important role in public life. Anthony Grayling is one of the most prominent public faces of philosophy in the UK. He is professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College and a supernumerary fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford.

Contributor(s): Alec Ross | Technology and innovation have changed the conditions for statecraft in the 21st century. Just as the internet has changed economics, culture, and politics, it is also transforming the practice of foreign policy. It is not simply the fact that more people are using ever more sophisticated technologies; the structural and demographic changes that have accompanied these quantum leaps in connection technologies are highly disruptive. Recent events in North Africa and...

Contributor(s): Mary Robinson | The debate on climate change is moving from stopping it to how best to manage its effects. Climate justice links human rights and development to achieve a human-centered approach to the issue, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its resolution equitably and fairly. Mary Robinson was president of Ireland (1990-1997) and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002).

Contributor(s): Sir Michael Lyons | The out-going chairman of the BBC's governing body will give his view on the future of the corporation and its role in British society. Michael Lyons is the outgoing chairman of the BBC Trust.

Contributor(s): Professor Nikolas Rose | Thanks to the insights of genomics and neuroscience we now understand ourselves in radically new ways. Is a new figure of the human, and of the social, taking shape in the 21st century? Nikolas Rose is professor of sociology and director of BIOS at LSE.

Contributor(s): David Miliband MP | For the first time since First World War, governments in Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and Italy come from the centre-right. Is this just an accidental quirk of fate or is it more serious? David Miliband has worked at the top of UK government and politics for over 15 years. He was the youngest Foreign Secretary in thirty years from 2007 to 2010. As Secretary of State for the Environment he pioneered the world's first legally binding...

Contributor(s): John Bruton | John Bruton is chair of IFSC Ireland. He was EU ambassador to the US from 2004 to 2009, and was Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland from 1994 to 1997.

Contributor(s): Gideon Levy | Gideon Levy is a Haaretz columnist and a member of the newspaper's editorial board. In his lecture he will explore how Israeli society deals with the occupation and with the international criticism of this. He will also examine the role of the Israeli media in supporting the occupation. Gideon Levy joined Haaretz in 1982, and spent four years as the newspaper's deputy editor. He is the author of the weekly Twilight Zone feature, which covers the Israeli...

Contributor(s): Gunilla Carlsson | Although the overall trend in reaching the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is positive we still face major challenges in many places of the world. Millions of people suffer from hunger and lack of access to safe drinking water. Africa is particularly hard-hit. Governments that pursue democratic development hand-in-hand with human rights stand a better chance of achieving the Millennium Development Goals. How can we ensure that the developed world delivers...

Contributor(s): Professor John Hills, Dr Polly Vizard, Professor Sir Tony Atkinson, David Darton | At the centre of CASE's work is the understanding of different aspects of inequality and the impacts of public policy on them. At this event, John Hills and Polly Vizard will present findings from the detailed analysis of economic inequalities carried out by the National Equality Panel, and across wider dimensions using the Equality Measurement Framework, as developed by CASE and its partners...

Contributor(s): Lord Brittan | Since 2008 it has looked to many as if the Doha Round trade negotiations were dead, or at best comatose. At the G20 Summit last November, world leaders gave it a shot in the arm, and there are now significant signs of life in Geneva. If concluded, it would provide an insurance policy against future protectionism and economic benefits estimated at over $360 billion. The challenge is to realise the window of opportunity in 2011 in order to seal the deal. On the...

Contributor(s): Professor Mary Kaldor, Javier Solana | This event will reflect on the work of the Human Security Study Group at LSE since 2004 and its impact in the development of European foreign and security policy. Mary Kaldor is professor of global governance at the Department of International Development and co-director of LSE Global Governance, London School of Economics & Political Science. Javier Solana is senior visiting professor at LSE Global Governance and former secretary...

Contributor(s): Archbishop Vincent Nichols | Archbishop Nichols will be speaking about the importance of religious freedom, and arguing that promoting religious freedom increases our capacity to do good in the public square. He will also be drawing out some implications from Catholic social teaching for a richer understanding of human dignity and the role of the state and the market in serving human needs. Vincent Nichols is the 11th Archbishop of Westminster. He was elected president of the...

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Professor Arne Westad | Niall Ferguson argues that the world is now being shaped more by the emerging economies of the East than by the once dominant West. But within the West another kind of power shift is taking place, one that leads to the growing irrelevance of Europe. Is this true? And does it really matter? Michael Cox is professor of international relations at LSE and codirector of LSE IDEAS. Arne Westad is professor of international history at...

Contributor(s): Adam Brett, Deborah Doane, Julia Clark, Robin Murray | In this discussion event, a range of speakers look back over 15 years of the Fairtrade Mark and consider whether the movement for a fairer trading system has been ambitious enough. Is Fairtrade catalysing broader social change? Should Fairtrade be working with big corporates and retailers? Is Fairtrade moving producers up the value chain? Is it time to make the rules harder? Adam Brett co-founded Tropical Wholefoods, and...

Contributor(s): Professor Sir Tony Atkinson | Fifty years ago, it was believed that income inequality was falling and that poverty had largely been eliminated. This lecture returns to Richard Titmuss' masterly crossexamination of the evidence about income inequality and argues that we have much to learn, but also to add. Tony Atkinson is the centennial professor at LSE. His most recent book is Top Incomes: a global perspective.

Contributor(s): Professor Niall Ferguson | The decisive breakthroughs in the Cold War occurred in seemingly unrelated fields – nuclear arms control and human rights. But was the collapse of communism a reflection of imperial overstretch or the result of liberal aspirations for freedom? This event celebrates the publication of Professor Ferguson's new book Civilization: The West and the Rest. Niall Ferguson is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2010-11.

Contributor(s): Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu | Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu MP, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party in Turkey, is visiting LSE only months before Turkey goes to the polls in a national parliamentary election. Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu will present and discuss his party's views on political, economic, and social aspects of Turkey. He will specifically address the interrelations between politics and economy in Turkey.

Contributor(s): Professor Fawaz Gerges | Regardless of the outcome of events in Egypt, for Arabs, psychologically and symbolically, this is their Berlin Wall moment. They are on the brink of a democratic wave similar to the one that swept through Eastern Europe more than 20 years ago, hastening the Soviet Union's collapse. The Arab intifada has put to rest the claim that Islam and Muslims are incompatible with democracy. The democratic virus is mutating and will probably give birth to a new...

Contributor(s): Dr Hallvard Lillehammer, Dr Bart Streumer | Is moral thought embroiled in some kind of error? And is the error attributable to moral thought as such or to those who interpret it as erroneous? Hallvard Lillehammer is senior lecturer and Sidgwick Lecturer in Philosophy at Cambridge University. Bart Streumer is lecturer in philosophy at the University of Reading.

Contributor(s): Professor Ernst Fehr | Authority and power permeate political, social, and economic life - yet there is limited empirical knowledge about the motivational origins and consequences of authority. Based on an experimental approach, Ernst Fehr's lecture will explore the psychological consequences of authority for important economic interactions. He will document the human desire to exercise authority, the motivation-enhancing effect of possessing authority and the detrimental...

Contributor(s): Ryan Pyle | Canadian born, award winning, documentary photographer Ryan Pyle first visited China in 2001. After a 3 month trip around the country he was hooked. He has never left since. It was very much Ryan's first trip to China that inspired him to enter the discipline of photography, and since then his imagery has graced the pages of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, The Sunday Times Magazine and the Financial Times Magazine. Ryan will visit...

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Peter Hennessy | World-renowned expert on Cold War intelligence and espionage Peter Hennessy will address recently declassified documents and how history can help us 'catch-up' with the threats of today. Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at QMUL and was recently elected a Fellow of the British Academy as well as being an Honorary Fellow of LSE. Before joining the Department in 1992, he was a journalist for twenty years with...