Contributor(s): Alex Salmond MSP | Alex Salmond will set out his vision for Scotland's future, including the opportunities provided by independence, setting the context for the Scottish government's plans for a referendum. Alex Salmond is the first minister of Scotland. He was born in Linlithgow in 1954. He attended Linlithgow Academy before studying at St Andrews University, where he graduated with a joint honours MA in Economics and History. He became the first ever SNP First Minister of Scotland in May 2007 and won the Aberdeenshire East constituency at the May 2011 election, when the SNP won a majority of seats of in the Scottish Parliament. MSPs re-elected him unopposed for a second term as First Minister on May 18 2011.

Contributor(s): Loretta Napoleoni | In this lecture, which coincides with the publication of her latest book Maonomics, Professor Napoleoni will argue that current global economic turmoil is the beginning of the collapse of capitalism and the victory of "communism with a profit motive" (Commi-Capitalism), that the balance of power in the world is shifting from West to East, and that the Chinese Communist economic model is winning out over the Western system. Loretta Napoleoni is an expert on terrorist financing and money laundering, and advises several governments and international organizations on these issues. She also advises several banks on strategies to counter the current economic crisis. She is a regular media commentator for CNN, Sky and the BBC, and writes about terrorism, money laundering and the economy for several European national papers including El Pais, The Guardian and Le Monde.

Contributor(s): Professor Roger Brownsword, Professor Neil Levy, Professor Sir Michael Rutter | Will developments in the neurosciences change our moral and legal notions of criminality and responsibility – and if so, how? Roger Brownsword is professor of law at King's College London. Neil Levy is deputy director of the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics and the Florey Neuroscience Institute, University of Melbourne. Michael Rutter is professor of developmental psychopathology in the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.

Contributor(s): Nicholas Wapshott | Eighty years ago at the LSE, Friedrich Hayek launched an assault upon the new economic thinking of John Maynard Keynes. The clash was so bitter and vituperative that it scandalized the cloistered world of academia. Eighty years on, the differences between the two men have still not been finally resolved and their conflicting approaches to the economy continue to define the profound chasm between politicians of left and right. Nicholas Wapshott is a columnist for Reuters and regular contributor to Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is the author of Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics and Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage. He is a former senior editor for The Times and the New York Sun and editorial consultant to Oprah Winfrey.

Contributor(s): Professor Fawaz Gerges | Islamist parties from Tunisia to Morocco to Egypt, and most likely in Libya when elections take place soon, have won majorities in Parliaments. After decades of being persecuted and outlawed, religious-based activists will take ownership of the seats of power in the Arab heartland. What does the rise of Islamists to power mean to the future of the Middle East and the region's international relations? How will Islamists coming to power affect transition from authoritarianism to pluralism, including institution-building, civil-military dynamics, civil society, and rights of minorities? To what extent will the Islamist moment transform the geostrategic architecture of the Middle East, especially the Arab-Israeli conflict and the new Cold War between the Saudi-led alliance and the Iranian coalition? How will the Western powers respond to the rise of Islamist-led governments, and will both camps dust off a forgotten chapter of co-existence and cooperation during the Cold War? Fawaz Gerges, who has researched religiously-based social movements for more than two decades, will reflect on the causes and implications of the new Islamist moment in the Middle East. Fawaz A. Gerges is a Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also holds the Emirates Chair of the Contemporary Middle East and is the Director of the Middle East Centre at LSE. He earned a doctorate from Oxford University and M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gerges has taught at Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia, and was a research scholar at Princeton and was a chairholder (the Christian A. Johnson Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs) at Sarah Lawrence College, New York. His special interests include Islam and the political process, social movements, including mainstream Islamist movements and jihadist groups (like the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda), Arab politics and Muslim politics in the 20th century, the international relations of the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, state and society in the Middle East, American foreign policy towards the Muslim world, the modern history of the Middle East, history of conflict, diplomacy and foreign policy, and historical sociology. Gerges is author of three recently acclaimed books: The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda: What American and Western Politicians Don't Want You to Know? (Oxford University Press, 2011); Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy (Harcourt Press, 2007), and The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (Cambridge University Press, 2005). The Washington Post selected The Far Enemy as one of the best 15 books published in the field. Journey of the Jihadist was on the best-selling list of Barnes and Nobles and Foreign Affairs Magazine for several months.

Contributor(s): Jonathan Steele, Francesc Vendrell | Jonathan Steele's new book, Ghosts of Afghanistan, is the definitive study of the Soviet and US wars in Afghanistan, by one of the few reporters who has covered both occupations. Jonathan Steele is a columnist, author and former chief foreign correspondent of the Guardian. Francesc Vendrell was the EU special representative for Afghanistan, 2002-2008 and is a visiting fellow at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Christopher Pissarides | Labour markets across the OECD reacted differently to the financial crisis of 2008 and the debt crisis that followed. Professor Pissarides will review these different responses, seek explanations for them, and draw conclusions about labour market policy in recession. The focus will be on unemployment and how to contain its rise in light of the negative shocks to economic activity. Christopher Pissarides is the Norman Sosnow Chair in Economics, LSE, and recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences.

Contributor(s): Nicola Dandridge, Professor Sue Mendus | When does freedom of speech threaten the cohesion of a university as a learning community? Should there be any limits on what can be said in a university? Nicola Dandridge is chief executive of Universities UK. Sue Mendus is professor of political philosophy at the University of York. This event is jointly organised with the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method and the LSE Chaplaincy.

Contributor(s): Thomas Frank | Economic meltdown usually brings calls for change – or it's supposed to. But when Thomas Frank set out to find these, all he heard were loud demands that the losers be hit harder and that the winners get more. In his new book, Pity The Billionaire, which he will discuss in this talk Frank takes us a wild road-trip through the strange landscape of the American Right, the Tea Party and Glenn Beck, makes sense of a topsy-turvy world and shows how instead of complying with the new speed limit, conservative America has stamped hard on the accelerator. It is essential reading for understanding how we all got to where we are, and how we might get out. The founding editor of the Baffler, Thomas Frank is the author of One Market Under God, The Conquest of Cool, What's the Matter with America? and The Wrecking Crew. He is also a contributor to Harper's, The Nation and the New York Times.

Contributor(s): Professor Roderick MacDonald | Universities are facing increasing pressure to be relevant for students entering the job market. Yet law faculties are under increasing pressure to become less professional and to broaden their curriculum with interdisciplinary courses in the liberal arts. Might the study of law reclaim the central role that it played in the University a millennium ago? Roderick MacDonald is F R Scott Professor of Constitutional and Public Law at McGill and visiting professor at LSE Law.