Public lectures at LSE over the years

Speakers: Judge Sir Christopher Greenwood Chair: Howard Davies This event was recorded on 18 February 2009 in Old Theatre, Old Building While each system of national law seeks to regulate affairs within only one society, international law concerns the entire world. Yet it has almost none of the methods of enforcement available to national legal systems. So, can it change the world? Christopher Greenwood was elected a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in November 2008. He is an authority in international law who taught at LSE for 12 years, and was a practising barrister and has been a QC since 1999. He has appeared as an advocate in several cases at the ICJ.

Speaker: President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev This event was recorded on 2 April 2009 in Old Theatre, Old Building Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was elected President of the Russian Federation in March 2008. In November 2005 he was elected First Deputy Prime Minister, previous to this he was Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.

Speaker: Fareed Zakaria Chair: Professor David Held This event was recorded on 30 June 2009 in Old Theatre, Old Building In this lecture, Fareed Zakaria will expound on the The Post-American World; a world in which the United States no longer dominates the global economy, orchestrates geopolitics or overwhelms cultures. He will explain how the 'rise of the rest' -- the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others -- is the great story of our time. He will also explain how economic growth in any given country produces political confidence, national pride, and international problems. What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria will answer this question with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination.

Speaker: Professor Lord Skidelsky Chair: Professor Mary Kaldor This event was recorded on 7 October 2009 in Old Theatre, Old Building Robert Skidelsky is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three-volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, including the Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations and the Council on Foreign Relations Prize for International Relations. He is the author of The World After Communism (1995) (American edition called The Road from Serfdom). He was made a life peer in 1991, and was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1994. This event celebrates his latest book, Keynes: The Return of the Master

Speaker: Justin Webb Chair: Kirsty Young This event was recorded on 20 October 2009 in Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building Justin Webb will discuss America politics in the context of British media reporting, particularly in the Bush period and coverage of the recent US elections. Justin Webb is North American editor at the BBC.

Speaker: Stephen J Dubner, Professor Steven D Levitt This event was recorded on 9 November 2009 in Peacock Theatre, Portugal Street Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling 4 million copies in 35 languages. Now, four years in the making, arrives the follow up: SuperFreakonomics|. Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner return with a book that is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first. Freakonomics made the world safe to discuss the economics of crack cocaine and the impact of baby names. SuperFreakonomics| retains that off-kilter sensibility (comparing, for instance, the relative dangers of driving while drunk versus walking while drunk) but also tackles a host of issues at the very centre of modern society: terrorism, global warming, altruism, and more.

Speaker: Alain de Botton This event was recorded on 26 November 2009 in Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House This talk will raise a host of questions about the meaning and purpose of work - in particular investigating the effects of industrialisation and modernisation on the individual worker. Alain de Botton is a philosopher, author and entrepreneur.

The Economist as Philosopher: Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes on human nature, social progress and economic change Speakers: Nicholas Phillipson, Professor Lord Skidelsky This event was recorded on 6 October 2010 in Old Theatre, Old Building Robert Skidelsky and Nicholas Phillipson discuss how the philosophies of Keynes and Smith helped shape their influential economic ideas and examine how each has influenced social and political change.

Speaker: Professor Ha-Joon Chang Chair: Professor Robert Wade This event was recorded on 5 October 2010 in Old Theatre, Old Building We may like or dislike capitalism, but surely we all know how it works. Right? Wrong. Today, most arguments about capitalism are dominated by free-market ideology and unfounded assumptions that parade as 'facts'. This lecture in which Ha-Joon Chang will talk about his new book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism| tells the story of capitalism as it is and shows how capitalism as we know it can be, and should be, made better.

Speaker: Patrick French Chair: Professor Stuart Corbridge This event was recorded on 3 February 2011 in Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building Award-winning historian Patrick French looks at the cultural roots of India's transformation: how a stagnant planned economy has become an entrepreneurial powerhouse, who gets super-rich and who remains super-poor - and why. Patrick French is the author of The World Is What It Is, Liberty or Death and Tibet, Tibet. This event marks the publication of his new book, India: A Portrait.