Contributor(s): Professor Tariq Modood | Can multicultural inclusivity extend to religious minorities? Can it do so without conflicting with secularism? Tariq Modood is professor of sociology, politics and public policy at Bristol University.

Contributor(s): Aled Fisher, Kate Hudson, Bruce Kent, Walter Wolfgang | To mark CND turning 50 in 2008, the organisation is collaborating with LSE Archives on a touring exhibition, archives project and this roundtable with History Today to tell the story of the movement from the Cold War to Trident and beyond. Aled Fisher is LSESU Environment and Ethics officer. Kate Hudson is chair of CND. Bruce Kent is former chairman and honorary vice-president of CND. Walter Wolfgang is vice president of...

Contributor(s): Professor Jeffrey D Sachs | Jeffrey Sachs argues the need a new economic paradigmQglobal, inclusive, cooperative, environmentally aware, and science basedQbecause we are running up against the realities of a crowded planet. The alternative is a series of cascading threats to global well-being, all of which are solvable but potentially disastrous if left unattended. Prosperity must be maintained through new strategies for sustainable development that complement market forces,...

Contributor(s): Professor John Hooker | Professor Hooker will argue that the world is evolving towards a new economic equilibrium based on cultural comparative advantage, leading to cultural deglobalisation, not globalisation. John Hooker is professor of business ethics and professor of operations research at Carnegie Mellon University.

Contributor(s): Howard Davies, David Green, John McFall, Sir Steve Robson, Gillian Tett | As international financial markets have become more complex, so has the regulatory system which oversees them. The Basel Committee is just one of a plethora of international bodies and groupings which now set standards for financial activity around the world, in the interests of investor protection and financial stability. These groupings, and their decisions, have a major impact on markets in developed...

Contributor(s): Dr Rowan Williams | The idea of human rights is often traced back to the characteristically religious insight that every individual is unique in the eyes of God. This explanation of why human dignity is important held sway for centuries, but it has lost much of its grip on society in these uncertain, post-modern times. Many adherents of human rights today see no need to root their beliefs in any religious (or specifically Christian) set of beliefs. Indeed some would go so far...

Contributor(s): Nicholas C Garganas | The introduction of the euro posed unique challenges for monetary policy. Some observers took the view that a single monetary policy for all euro-area countries would not succeed because the euro area did not fulfil the pre-requisites of on Optimum Currency Area (OCA). In his lecture Mr Garganas will argue that the traditional way of thinking about OCAs overlooks the fact that the criteria used to judge optimality are, to some extent, endogenous. He will...

Contributor(s): David Goodhart, Professor John Keane, Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh | Capture started: 2008-04-29 18:31

Contributor(s): Professor Spike Peterson | This lecture considers how tremendous growth of licit and illicit informal sector activities tends to exacerbate gender, race, class and geopolitical hierarchies and ultimately fuels conflicts at multiple levels, including civil wars. Spike Peterson is the Leverhulme visiting professor, LSE Gender Institute and the Department of International Relations.

Contributor(s): Sir John Holmes, Professor James Putzel | Emergency relief efforts face multiple challenges in the next five years: preserving 'humanitarian space' and staying independent of political/military action in places like Darfur, Iraq and Somalia; increasing effective coordination of the many humanitarian actors in the field; rising to the challenge of ever more natural disasters from the effects of climate change; and coping with the immediate consequences for the poorest of the...

Contributor(s): Steve Coll | Steve Coll's new book 'The Bin Ladens: The Story of a Family and its Fortune' charts the rise of a family, and the story of the Saudi royal family they loyally served. Steve Coll is most recently the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Ghost Wars. He also won a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. He covered Afghanistan and the Washington Post's South Asia bureau chief between 1989 and 1992 and was the Washington Post's managing editor from...

Contributor(s): The Honourable Kevin Rudd MP, Prime Minister of Australia | The Australian Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, was elected to office in November last year and moved quickly to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and deliver a national apology to the Stolen Generations of Indigenous Australians. He has identified fighting inflation, acting decisively on climate change, improving the health and hospital system, investing in education and putting fairness back into Australian workplaces as his...

Contributor(s): President Michelle Bachelet | Michelle Bachelet, was born on September 29, 1951. She is a trained paediatrician and public health specialist who also holds degrees in military science. A member of the Socialist Party and mother of three, Dr. Bachelet was the first woman in Chilean and Latin American history to hold the Health and Defence portfolios. On January 15, 2006 she became Chile's first-ever woman president.