Contributor(s): Dr John Darwin | It was perhaps no coincidence that Halford Mackinder, the most famous exponent of geopolitical theory, wrote his seminal essay in 1904 when British world power seemed on the verge of a secular crisis. This lecture examines how far the insights contained in Mackinder's four major works explain the geopolitical fortunes of the British world system in its age of blood and iron.

Contributor(s): Professor Ha-Joon Chang | Ha-Joon Chang is a reader in the political economy of development at Cambridge University. This event is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.

Contributor(s): Professor Tim Jackson | This lecture will discuss a new vision of shared prosperity. It will consider the capability of human beings to flourish within the ecological limits of a finite planet. Tim Jackson is professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey and economics commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission.

Contributor(s): Professor Rayna Rapp | Over the last three decades, an escalating proportion of US school children have been classified for special education. At the same time, scientists have focused increasingly on juvenile brains. This lecture looks at the work of both neuroscientists and psychiatric epidemiologists.

Contributor(s): Len Curran, Andrew Heiron | Fierce price competition, painstaking cost-cutting, and widespread volatility is making life in the auto industry incredibly challenging. How has Renault adapted, and where does it see the auto industry heading? As a fledgling technology (and one of the great hopes for reducing global carbon emissions) can any electric car concept overcome such an inhospitable environment? Renault Group Commercial Director Len Curran and Electric Vehicles chief Andrew Heiron will both be offering their insights.

Contributor(s): Professor Robert Baldwin, Julia Black | 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.

Contributor(s): Professor Sally Healy, Dr Jeremy Lind, David Peppiat, Elizabeth Winter | The Obama administration has abandoned the term 'War on Terror' and taken steps to undo the worst excesses of the post-9/11 security regime. However the legislation, structures and practices introduced after the attacks remain deeply embedded. The event is followed by the launch of Jude Howell and Jeremy Lind's new book Counter-terrorism, Aid and Civil Society.

Contributor(s): Stephen Green, Dr. M. Umer Chapra | This lecture discusses the growing role alternative financing arrangements, such as Islamic finance, have on the global financial markets. It explains how morality or faith based forms of finance can continue to enhance modern finance in the future.

Contributor(s): Professor Gilles Kepel | This lecture will assess how successful President Obama's engagement with the Muslim world has been. Gilles Kepel is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS.

Contributor(s): Professor Leszek Balcerowicz | Leszek Balcerowicz is an economist, a Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics, Former President of the National Bank of Poland and Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the first non-communist Polish Government after the Second World War.