Contributor(s): Professor John Sidel | Over the past several months, an alarmist picture of developments in Egypt has emerged in the media, raising the spectre of Islamization, inter-religious violence, and generalized criminality and disorder. Yet these early signs of trouble are amply familiar to observers of transitions from authoritarian rule to democracy elsewhere in the developing world. In particular, the case of Indonesia is especially instructive, given a set of striking parallels with Egypt today. Against this backdrop, Professor John Sidel, author of Riots, Pogroms, Jihad: Religious Violence in Indonesia (Cornell University Press, 2006) will discuss democratization in Egypt in the light of Indonesia's experience over the past thirteen years since the fall of long-time president Suharto (Indonesia's Mubarak) in 1998. His lecture will reveal what Indonesia's experience of democratization portends for Egypt in the months and years. John Sidel is the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at LSE. Professor Sidel specializes in the study of Southeast Asia and has three main areas of thematic expertise and interest in the study of politics, as reflected in his research, writing, and teaching: local politics, religion and politics, and nationalism and transnational forces.

Contributor(s): Professor Martti Koskenniemi | Martti Koskenniemi is director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights and visiting professor at LSE Law.

Contributor(s): Dr Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis | Placed at the crossroads of three continents, Cyprus remains of key strategic importance in the Eastern Mediterranean. Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis is the minister of foreign affairs for Cyprus.

Contributor(s): Bill Gates, Professor Hans Rosling | The Global Poverty Project has partnered with The Co–operative during the UN Year of Co-operatives to launch a new initiative that will raise awareness and inspire communities to take action for the 1.4 billion people still living in extreme poverty. Bill Gates will speak to the inaugural Global Poverty Ambassadors as part of the London launch of his Annual Letter. In the letter, he will outline the key innovations and commitment needed to continue making progress against global challenges like disease and poverty in 2012. Bill is inviting students from around the world to write their own letters on the most urgent issues we face today. (If you have a big idea you would like to share, please write 300-500 words and email it to [email protected]). Professor Hans Rosling will also address the Ambassadors and students using his extraordinary, interactive graphics, which reveal global trends and the great benefits of development aid. Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Hans Rosling is Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute and co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation.

Contributor(s): Jodi Kantor, Professor Sarah Churchwell | Jodi Kantor will be in conversation with Professor Sarah Churchwell to discuss her new book The Obamas: A Mission, A Marriage which is an intimate portrait of the Obamas in the White House by a New York Times journalist who has been covering the President and first lady for 5 years. The Obamas had never lived together full-time as a family until they moved into the White House - and that's where their political and personal lives became inextricable. Kantor interviewed the Obamas together in the Oval Office and is the only author to be granted access to Michelle Obama's East Wing. Filled with detail and insight into their partnership and personalities, The Obamas: A Mission, A Marriage reveals the hidden aspects of their time in the White House. With a keen eye for the ironies of public life and the realities of power, Kantor brings into sharp focus the question that underpins the Obamas' marriage: can politics achieve real change in society? Jodi Kantor began her journalism career by dropping out of Harvard Law School to join Slate.com in 1998. Four years later, she became the youngest section editor of The New York Times, taking over and revamping the Arts & Leisure section. She began covering the Obamas for the paper in 2007, writing front-page stories that chronicled their biographies and philosophies, and also writing about Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and other major political figures along the way. She is a recipient of the Columbia Young Alumni Achievement Award, she was chosen by Crain's Magazine as one of "40 Under 40" New Yorkers, and she appears regularly on American television, including Today and the Charlie Rose Show. Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities. Her research and teaching expertise are in 20th-21st century and contemporary American literature and culture; American film history and theory, gender theory; cultural studies and popular culture; life-writing and literary theory.

Contributor(s): Rodric Braithwaite, Andrei Grachev, Professor Margot Light | What were the origins of the collapse of the USSR? What did 1991 look and feel like from the inside? What is the legacy of 1991 for the former USSR itself? This expert panel will reflect on how history unfolded. Rodric Braithwaite was British Ambassador to Moscow from 1988 to 1992. Andrei Grachev served on the International Relations Department of the CPSU and was confidant and official spokesman for Mikhail Gorbachev. Margot Light is Professor Emeritus in the Department of International Relations, LSE.

Contributor(s): Dr Roy F Baumeister | A new understanding of how people control themselves has emerged from the past decade of research studies. Self-control depends on a limited energy supply, and each person's willpower fluctuates during the day as various events deplete and then replenish it. Decision making and creative initiative also deplete the same willpower supply, while eating and sleeping can restore it. Some circumstances propel people to perform well despite depleted willpower, including power and leadership roles, local incentives, and personal beliefs. People with high self-control specialize less in resisting temptation than avoiding it. Roy F Baumeister is one of the world's most influential psychologists. He received his PhD from Princeton in 1978 and currently is Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar and head of the psychology programme at Florida State University. He was over 450 scientific publications, and Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength is his latest book.

Contributor(s): Professor Helmut Anheier, Professor Mient Jan Faber, Professor Marlies Glasius, Professor Mary Kaldor | The panel will discuss the political implications of giving power to ordinary people in an era when the nation-state has lost its primacy as a political actor. The event launches the book Bottom-up Politics: an agency-centred approach to globalisation. Helmut Anheier is professor of sociology at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. Mient Jan Faber is Professor Emeritus at the Free Universit, Amsterdam and visiting professor at the University of Houston. Marlies Glasius is Professor of Citizens Involvement in War Zones and Post-Conflict Zones at the Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, and a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Human Security and Civil Society Research Unit. Mary Kaldor is professor of Global Governance and director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, LSE.

Contributor(s): Liam Byrne MP | As we enter the year of the Beveridge Report's 70th Anniversary, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Liam Byrne MP, sets out Labour's case for welfare reform. Liam Byrne is Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and Coordinator of Labour's policy review. Elected in 2004, Liam held several ministerial positions in the Labour Government before becoming Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2009. Before entering politics Liam co-founded the eCommerce business egsgroup.com, and worked as a banker with NM Rothschilds. He was a Fulbright scholar at the Harvard Business School where he took his MBA with honours.

Contributor(s): Professor Yezid Sayigh | The construction of authoritarian power in Arab states over past decades has enmeshed national armies in political, economic, and social structures and dynamics. Democratic transition therefore implicates constitutional debates about the nature of the state with renegotiation of the role and status of the military. Yezid Sayigh is a senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where his work focuses on the future political role of Arab armies, the resistance and reinvention of authoritarian regimes, and the Israel-Palestine conflict and peace process.