Contributor(s): Professor Tim Mitchell | This lecture explores the politics of oil and how we can seek to understand it, at a time when uncertainty is presenting new challenges to the claims of objective knowledge. Tim Mitchell is professor of Arab studies at Columbia University, New York. Sam Ashenden is managing editor of Economy and Society and senior lecturer in Sociology, Birkbeck College.

Contributor(s): Ambassador Ma Zhengang | The world today is undergoing tremendous development, changes and adjustments. The international community is facing increasing opportunities and challenges. The present international system and structure are not able to cope with this new situation fully and effectively, and reform is the general demand of the world people at large. Both China and UK are global actors of significant importance. How the two countries should behave in handling the situation? It is a fact that China and UK are different in many aspects. Is it possible for the two countries to join hands in perfecting global governance for the general benefits of the whole world as well as their own? The answer should be, yes, we can.

Contributor(s): Peter Head | By changing patterns of urban behaviour, cities can meet the challenges of climate change. How can advanced technologies help create sustainable cities and self-sufficient urban form?

Contributor(s): Professor Tariq Ramadan | Tariq Ramadan's latest book, What I Believe, lays out the basic ideas he stands for in clear and accessible prose. He describes the book as a work of clarification, directed at ordinary citizens, politicians, journalist and others who are curious (or sceptical) about his positions. Aware that that he is dealing with emotional issues, Ramadan tries to get past the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding to speak directly, from the heart, to his Muslim and non-Muslim readers alike.

Contributor(s): Professor Gilles Kepel | 9/11 set off a major conflict between the United States and Al Qaeda. How and why did the Bush administration define the issue of terrorism in terms of a 'war on terror' and with what consequences for the stability of a region containing 60% of the world's oil reserves and several of America's more important global allies?

Contributor(s): Howard Davies | Howard Davies sits on the International advisory councils of the China banking and securities regulatory commissions. In the fifth 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.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael J. Sandel | The financial crisis raises hard questions about justice, ethics, and the role of markets. In this lecture, Michael Sandel will examine the moral limits of markets, one of the themes of his new book, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

Contributor(s): Dr Justin Yifu Lin | The Optimal Financial Structure of a specific stage of development in an economy is determined by the structures of industries and firm sizes in the economy. These, in turn, are determined by the economy's factor endowments at that stage. This lecture will discuss the existence on an endogenously determined optimal composition of various financial arrangements, that is, optimal financial structure, for an economy at different stages of development.

Contributor(s): Gordon Bajnai | Gordon Bajnai has been the Prime Minister of Hungary since 14 April 2009. Prior to this between 2008-2009 he was a Minister in the Ministry for National Development and Economy. Between 2007-2008 he was a Minister for the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. Prior to this he was CEO of Wallis Rt., an investment company from 2000-2005.

Contributor(s): Professor Richard English | Drawing on a wide range of case studies, Richard English argues that we have as yet failed to understand terrorism properly, and that this is at the root of our disastrous failure to respond effectively to terrorism in the post-9/11 crisis.Richard English is professor of politics, director of research and chair of the Irish Studies International Research Initiative at Queens University Belfast. His latest book is entitled Terrorism: how to respond.