Spring 2010 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Ingeborg Grssle, Tanja Fajon | It has been said that EU enlargement in the Western Balkans is about completing the Union. The key question is when and how to do it. Or whether it can be done at all! This public debate between two experienced MEPs aims to explore the argument from all sides. Ingeborg Grssle is a Member of the European Parliament in Germany and Tanja Fajon is a Member of the European Parliament in Slovenia.

Contributor(s): Javier Solana | After ten years of serving as EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana reflects on the achievements and challenges ahead for Europe as a global security actor with Professor Mary Kaldor. Javier Solana is a Senior Visiting Professor at the LSE Global Governance. He was formerly the Secretary General of the Council of the EU and EU High Representative for CSFP (October 1999 - December 2009). Prior to that, he was the Secretary General of NATO from 1995 - 1999. He is a former physics professor and long time Spanish cabinet member

Contributor(s): Vince Cable MP, Greg Hands MP, James Plaskitt MP | Keeping in context the events that unfolded in the recent economic crisis, the fiscal burden of the associated policies enacted during that period, and with the likely possibility of a general election soon, the LSE Economics Society is proud to play host to an inter-party debate featuring key members from the three main contending parties of this year's General Election.

Contributor(s): G. Asenath Andrews, Stuart Gulliver, Bruce Katz, Richard Sennett | Detroit was once America's fourth largest city. Built by the car, with its groundbreaking suburbs, freeways and shopping centres, it was the embodiment of the American dream. With its intense race riots that brought the Army into the city, and violent union struggles against the fierce resistance of Henry Ford and the Big Three, it was also the scene of American 'nightmares'.

Contributor(s): Arun Kundnani, Nira Yuval-Davis, Joseph Harker | With immigration issues increasingly taking centre-stage during New Labour's tenure in government, and with the electoral success of the BNP and the rise of the Right arguably signalling a resurgence of racism and xenophobia in British society, this event will discuss the relationship between these two contentious developments.

Contributor(s): Lord Richard Rogers, Bruce Katz, Professor Anne Power, Julia Unwin | This discussion will debate the issues arising from a new book Phoenix Cities which examines seven cities from very different regions of the EU, comparing them with the US experience. Their dramatic decline, intense recovery efforts and actual progress on the ground underline the significance of public underpinning in times of crisis. Innovative enterprises, new-style city leadership, special neighbourhood programme, skills development, environmental reclamation are all explored. The American experience shows that cities left largely to their own devices deliver a slower, more uncertain recovery. The discussion will explore where next for Phoenix Cities, given the economic shocks, the pressures of climate change and the social inequalities that sharply divide these recovering cities.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Stern | Nicholas Stern is IG Patel professor of economics and government at LSE and chairman of the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy.

Contributor(s): Jeremy Rifkin | At this event Jeremy Rifkin will talk about his latest book The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis. His book is a sweeping new interpretation of the history of civilization, that looks at the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development-and is likely to determine our fate as a species.

Contributor(s): Helen Clark | In recent times, the challenges of the developing world have been compounded by multiple crises: the food and fuel crises, the global recession, and devastating natural disasters. There is also the huge climate challenge. How can the international community move the development agenda forward, and stay focused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015?

Contributor(s): John Elkington | This lecture will discuss adapting to climate change within a new economic framework. John Elkington is co-founder of think tank SustainAbility and founding partner and director of Volans.