Contributor(s): Professor Jeremy Waldron | Many human rights charters contain prohibitions on inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners and detainees. Terms like "inhuman" and "degrading" are difficult to interpret, but they are certainly not meaningless. It is important to attend to attend to the meanings of the words themselves, as well as to the decisions that courts have made about particular practices. Reflection on the meanings of these highly-charged terms reveals important complexity, which we can unpack in a way that enables us to better focus our debate about the proper treatment of prisoners and detainees. Jeremy Waldron is University Professor at New York University School of Law and teaches legal and political philosophy.

Contributor(s): Toomas Hendrik Ilves | Toomas Hendrik Ilves has served as President of Estonia since 2006. Prior to this he was a member of the European Parliament. He has held a variety of diplomatic posts including serving two terms as Foreign Minister. He graduated with a BA from Columbia University and an MA from Pennsylvania University, both in Psychology.

Contributor(s): Howard Davies | Howard Davies sits on the International advisory councils of the China banking and securities regulatory commissions. In the fourth lecture of an annual series he reviews the progress of reform in china's financial markets, and the implications for the rest of the world. Howard Davies is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Prior to this, from 1997-2003 he was Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the single regulator for the UK financial sector, which was created under his leadership from nine separate regulatory agencies. From 1995-1997 he was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England.

Contributor(s): Penny Wong | With its ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in December 2007 and commitment to introduce an emissions trading scheme - the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme - in 2010, the Australian Government has taken the opportunity to approach climate change policy from a fresh perspective. Senator Wong will outline the Government's global and domestic policy approach, with particular emphasis on the key role of market-based mechanisms.

Contributor(s): Professor Kimberly Hutchings | In this lunchtime series lectures, a selection of LSE's academics from across the spectrum of the social sciences explain the latest thinking on how social scientists work to address the critical problems of the day. They survey the leading ideas and contributions made by their discipline, explain the types of problems that are addressed and the tools that are used, and explore the kinds of solutions proposed. Kimberly Hutchings is Professor of International Relations at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Ha-Joon Chang, Cambridge University | The global economy is going through a turbulent time and it is time for a fundamental re-design of the global economic system. In doing this, Korea has a unique set of assets to provide. It is one of the few countries that have transformed itself from one of the poorest to the one of the industrialized in living memory, so it can understand the concerns that span across a huge spectrum of countries. In this lecture, Ha-Joon Chang will discuss how Korea can, and should, contribute to the reform of the global system, by drawing on its unique historical experience and becoming a mediator that genuinely understands the concerns of, say, Swaziland to Switzerland. Ha-Joon Chang is reader in the political economy of development at Cambridge University.

Contributor(s): Thomas L Friedman | Thomas L Friedman takes a fresh and provocative look at two of our biggest challenges - the global environmental crisis and America's surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11 - and shows how they're linked. He argues that we need American commitment and leadership in a green revolution, a revolution that will be the biggest innovation project in history, one that will inspire us to summon all the intelligence, creativity, boldness and concern for the common good that are our greatest human resources.

Contributor(s): Professor Richard Samuels | As the Soviet Union disappeared so did the most serious threat to Japanese security. But it was not long before four TnewU threats took its place. Japan, rarely credited for its foreign policy, has responded with surprising strategic agility. Richard Samuels is Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Contributor(s): Sir David King | Without a new deal between rich and poor countries, climate change will continue to accelerate. How can this be tackled? David King, former chief scientific adviser to the government, is director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University.

Contributor(s): Professor Chen Jian | Few countries have experienced changes as dramatic as did China in the past century - and the past quarter century in particular. From a "revolutionary country" to a "status quo power," and from an "outsider" to an "insider" of the existing international system, the realities of the grand transformation in China's state, society and international outlook have often been obscured by all kinds of myths. For the purpose of highlighting the realities and deconstructing the myths, Professor Chen discusses the origins, processes and implications of China's rise from the perspective of a historian of China's international relations.