LSE Podcasts

We live in turbulent times. Globalized challenges like climate change, pandemics, migration, and supply chain disruptions are rising in urgency. With these and other challenges in mind, in June 2023, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the LSE Phelan US Centre convened the Lloyd George Study Group on Global Governance.

For this episode of the Ballpark, we asked each of the ten members of the Lloyd George Study Group on Global Governance one question: What do you take to be the defining global challenges of the coming decades? Their answers tell us a great deal about what global challenges we face, and how we might begin to tackle them.

This Extra Inning was produced by Chris Gilson and Anderson Tan.

Contributors: Wu Xinbo (Fudan University), Eghosa Emmanuel Osaghae (University of Ibadan, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs), Selina Ho (National University of Singapore), Peter Trubowitz (LSE Phelan US Centre), Charles Kupchan (Georgetown University), Cornelia Woll (Hertie School), Bahgat Korany (The American University in Cairo), C. Raja Mohan (Asia Society Policy Institute), Monica Herz (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro), Chris Gilson (Phelan US Centre).

In March 2023, the Phelan US Centre’s Chris Gilson and Mohid Malik spoke to Samuel Bazzi, Associate Professor in the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Department of Economics at the University of California, San Diego about his new research on The Confederate Diaspora. They discussed how white migration from the early American South soon after the Civil War helped to diffuse and entrench Confederate culture across the United States, holding back civil rights and economic equality for Black Americans, and how the diaspora continues to influence on contemporary American politics.

This Extra Inning was produced by Chris Gilson, Mohid Malik, and Anderson Tan.

Contributors: Professor Samuel Bazzi (University of California, San Diego), Chris Gilson (Phelan US Centre), Mohid Rehman Malik (Phelan US Centre)

In March 2023, the Phelan US Centre’s Chris Gilson and Mohid Malik spoke to Professor Yasheng Huang, Epoch Foundation professor of global economics and management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management about his new book, The Rise and Fall of the EAST, which will be published by Yale University Press in August 2023. They also discussed Chinese technological development over the last three decades, and the challenges China currently faces in developing and maintaining its talent and human capital to support innovation.

This Extra Inning was produced by Chris Gilson, Mohid Malik, and Anderson Tan.

Contributors: Professor Yasheng Huang (MIT), Chris Gilson (Phelan US Centre), Mohid Rehman Malik (Phelan US Centre)

In March 2023, the Phelan US Centre’s Chris Gilson and Mohid Malik spoke to Professor Pinelopi Goldberg, Elihu Professor of Economics and Global Affairs and Affiliate of the Economic Growth Center at Yale University about her new book, The Unequal Effects of Globalization, which will be published by MIT Press in August 2023. They also discussed the rise of scepticism towards globalisation, the role of international institutions like the WTO, hyper-globalisation, and whether globalisation can be fair. This Extra Inning was produced by Chris Gilson, Mohid Malik, and Anderson Tan.

Contributors: Professor Pinelopi Goldberg (Yale University), Chris Gilson (Phelan US Centre), Mohid Rehman Malik (Phelan US Centre)

This episode examines the intersection between climate change and global security. Professor Neta Crawford (University of Oxford) and Sherri Goodman (Wilson Centre) discuss how the American military can be implicated in making climate change worse through either direct conflict, or by its own carbon footprint. They also discuss how climate change induced natural disasters contribute to destabilisations that may eventually call upon military actions to address the problem. Do we need to change our understanding of security to include how the role of the military may make us more vulnerable to climate change?

This episode was produced by Mohid Malik, Anderson Tan, and Chris Gilson.

Contributors: Professor Neta Crawford (University of Oxford) and Sherri Goodman (Wilson Centre), Mohid Rehman Malik (Phelan US Centre)

This podcast investigates how the knowledge surrounding Chinese investments in Africa is produced through Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). The SGR was one of Kenya’s most expensive infrastructure projects ($3.6 billion) and connects Mombasa to Nairobi. The project’s primary contractor was the China Road & Bridge Corporation (CRBC), and 90% of the initial financing was provided by the Chinese Export - Import Bank, also known as the Exim Bank. Our focus lies on the debate around Chinese Debt Trap Diplomacy, how the arguments in the debates evolved and on what information and knowledge they are based.

In this episode, we examine the interaction of climate change with migration. Through this lens, we explore America’s role in engaging with climate related forced movement in Latin America, and from Latin America to the US. Professor Sarah Bermeo (Duke University) and Professor Susana Beatriz Adamo (Columbia University) discuss the implications of climate change induced migration, including whether it is even possible to attribute this migration to climate change. This episode begins to uncover the deep-rooted, structural problems that need to be overcome to offer a robust solution to climate change migration, as well as the potential inadequacies of development aid to address climate change related issues in the developing world.

This episode was produced by Mohid Malik, Anderson Tan, and Chris Gilson.

Contributors: Professor Sarah Bermeo (Duke University), Professor Susana Beatriz Adamo (Columbia University), Mohid Rehman Malik (Phelan US Centre)

What is the US’ role in the climate crisis, and can a climate change framework exist without addressing climate change reparations and the different experiences of climate change across the globe? In the first episode of Climate Change: America and the World, Professor Kathryn Hochstetler and Christopher Callahan discuss the experiences of climate change in the Global North and Global South. The discussion examines the role that international climate frameworks, including annual global COP summits, play in providing a venue for developing nations to voice their climate grievances, and whether financial compensation is needed to effectively address unequal climate damages.

This episode was produced by Mohid Malik, Anderson Tan, and Chris Gilson.

Contributors: Kathryn Hochstetler (LSE International Development); Christopher Callahan (Dartmouth College); Mohid Rehman Malik (Phelan US Centre)

This month we’re re-running an episode from 2021 which asks, ‘What’s it like to be an animal?’ Since this episode was recorded the UK Animal Welfare Act 2022 has become law. This extends animal welfare protections to animals such as octopuses, lobsters and crabs - a direct result of the findings of LSE academic Dr Jonathan Birch – featured in this episode - that animals are sentient. They have the capacity to experience pain, distress or harm.

For this episode, James Rattee travels to the local park to find out how smart dogs are, he’ll hear about a campaign arguing that chimpanzees are animals deserving of their own rights and, finally, he’ll ask whether insects and other invertebrates have feelings.

The episode features Jonathan Birch, Associate Professor in LSE's Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, Professor Kristin Andrews, the York Research Chair in Animal Minds at York University (Toronto) and Dr Rosalind Arden, Research Fellow at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science.

Research

Foundations of Animal Sentience Project

Chimpanzee Rights: The Philosophers’ Brief, Kristin Andrews, Gary L Comstock, Crozier G.K.D., Sue Donaldson, Andrew Fenton, Tyler M John, L. Syd M Johnson, Robert C Jones, Will Kymlicka, Letitia Meynell, Nathan Nobis, David Pena-Guzman and Jeff Sebo.

A general intelligence factor in dogs, Rosalind Arden, Mark James Adams, Intelligence

Volume 55, March–April 2016, Pages 79-85

LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

In February 2023, the Phelan US Centre’s Mohid Malik spoke to Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations about his new book, Beijing's Global Media Offensive: China's Uneven Campaign To Influence Asia and the World. They also discussed the effectiveness of China’s efforts to expand its global media influence, from its pitfalls to successes. This Extra Inning was produced by Chris Gilson, Mohid Malik, and Anderson Tan.

Contributors: Joshua Kurlantzick (Council on Foreign Relations), Mohid Rehman Malik (Phelan US Centre)