Contributor(s): Professor Philip Schlesinger | Media and cultural policies are shaped by the few with access to political power. What role can academics play in current policy debates? Philip Schlesinger is director of the Centre for Cultural Policy Research at the University of Glasgow.

Contributor(s): Xavier Rolet | The last 18 months have seen unprecedented shocks to the financial system which have had significant implications for the wider economy. As we recover, financial services and the stock markets can and should play a vital role in funding a sustainable economic recovery and social development in the UK and worldwide.

Contributor(s): President Rafael Correa Delgado | Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado is the current President of the Republic of Ecuador after being re-elected for a second consecutive term in April 2009, he was first elected in late 2006. He served as Minister of Economy from April 2005- August 2005. President Correa Delgado has a Phd in Economics and a Masters in Economic Sciences both from the University of Illinois as well as a Master of Arts in Economía from the Catholic University of Lovaina the New in Belgium. From 1993 - April 2005 he was Principal Professor of the Department of Economics, "San Francisco de Quito" University, Quito - Ecuador.

Contributor(s): Wilfried Martens | Centre-right parties dominate at national and European levels. To what do they owe their success - even during this so-called 'crisis of capitalism'? Wilfried Martens is president of the European People's Party and former prime minister of Belgium. This lecture marks the release of his memoirs, I Struggle, I Overcome. Damian Chalmers is Professor of European Union Law based in the Law Department and the European Institute, LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Saadi Lahlou | Changing individual behavior is a major stake for policies and management, but humans think and act as social beings rather than rational agents. The lecture will introduce Installation Theory, the principles of which can be used for governance. Saadi Lahlou is director of the Institute of Social Psychology at LSE.

Contributor(s): Daniel Ayalon | Daniel Ayalon is the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel. He was born in Israel in 1955. He completed his army service in the Armoured Corps with the rank of Captain (res.). He has a B.A. degree in Economics as well as an M.B.A. Daniel Ayalon served as Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, from March 2001 through July 2002, and as Israel's Ambassador to the United States, from July 2002 through November 2006. He has also served as a Member of the Executive Board, University Center, Ariel; Vice Chair of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce, and a Board Member of the America-Israel Friendship League. He received the Brandeis Award of the Jewish Community of Baltimore in 2005 and the Builder of Jerusalem Award of Aish Hatorah in 2008. Daniel Ayalon was elected to the 18th Knesset in February 2009 on the Yisrael Beitenu list and in April 2009 was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Contributor(s): Professor Andrew Gamble, Will Hutton, Professor Danny Quah | The collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008 set off the most acute crisis in the history of capitalism since 1929. Why was Lehmans not saved? Why did its collapse have the massive impact it did? And a year on, how is the capitalist world coping?" Andrew Gamble is a professor at Cambridge University. Will Hutton is chief executive of the Work Foundation. Danny Quah is professor of Economics at LSE. This event is organised in association with the European Consortium for Political Research.

Contributor(s): Christian Lander | When Christian Lander started a blog as a joke he never imagined that his inside joke would turn into a New York Times Bestseller and a piece of internet history with more than 60 million hits to his site. Here Lander investigates, explains and offers advice for anyone wanting to interact with the caucasian persuasion and needing to understand their ways.

Contributor(s): Dr David Priestland | Communism was one of the most powerful political and intellectual movements of the modern world, and its collapse in 1989 had an enormous impact on our views of international affairs and economics. David Priestland argues that we have found it difficult to understand Communism, and the lessons we have learnt have contributed to many recent policy failures, from the 'War on Terror' to extreme neo-liberal economic policies. He revisits the history of Communism, explaining the reasons for its rise and fall, and argues that we need to learn a new set of lessons if we are to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Contributor(s): Dr Joan Costa-i-Font, Dr Caroline Rudisill | In this lunchtime series of 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.