Southeast Asia between the Superpowers: Who is Where and Why?

Thursday 16 October 2025 90 minutes

Hosted by LSE IDEAS, LSE Department of International Relations and the LSE Phelan United States Centre

What explains the alignment choices of Southeast Asian states amidst the US-China rivalry and what are the implications of these choices for the region?

Meet our speaker

Yuen Foong Khong is Li Ka Shing Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Centre for Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. He was formerly Professor of International Relations and a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University.

Chair

Peter Trubowitz is Professor of International Relations at LSE, and is also Head of LSE's Phelan United States Centre 

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Listen to the podcast coming soon

Watch the video coming soon

US-Iran relations under Trump 2.0: prospects and challenges

Wednesday 15 October 2025 90 minutes

This event examines how a second Trump administration might reshape US-Iran relations and regional security—whether through renewed maximum pressure, diplomatic engagement, or military action to contain Iran’s nuclear and military ambitions.

Meet our speakers and chair

Dana H Allin is Editor of Survival: Global Politics and Strategy and Senior Fellow at the IISS, based in London. He is also Adjunct Professor of European Studies at the SAIS Bologna Center in Italy. He comments and writes widely on the strategic challenges and historical, political and social roots of US foreign policy.

Anahita Motazed Rad is a Visiting Senior Fellow in the Department of International Relations. She has translated and published two books from English to Persian, the first one Who won the oil wars? by Andy Stern in 2010, and the second one Meditation on Diplomacy, Comparative Cases in Diplomatic Practice and Foreign Policy by Stephen Chan in 2020.

Sanam Vakil is the Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. Her expertise spans Iranian and Gulf politics, regional security dynamics, and US foreign policy, with a particular focus on the evolving strategic landscape of the Middle East and its global connectivity.

Chair:

Peter Trubowitz is Professor of International Relations, and Director of the Phelan US Centre at LSE and Associate Fellow at Chatham House, Royal Institute of International Affairs.

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Listen to the podcast coming soon

Watch the video

Read the student blogger report coming soon

25 Years Beyond 1325: Reimagining the UN Women, Peace & Security Agenda

Wednesday 8 October 2025 90 minutes

Hosted by LSE Gender, LSE International Relations, the Centre for Women, Peace and Security, and the Canadian Research Network on Women, Peace and Security

This roundtable marks the 25th anniversary of the UN Women, Peace, and Security Agenda with a critical yet constructive lens.

Bringing together four leading experts in the policy, practical, and conceptual aspects of gender and international security, the discussion will examine the Agenda’s legacy—its milestones, limitations, and the tensions that have shaped its trajectory.

Meet our speakers and chair

Nancy Annan is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Peace and Security, Coventry University.

Aiko Holvikivi is Assistant Professor of Gender, Peace and Security at the Department of Gender Studies and an Associate Academic at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security, LSE. 

Paul Kirby is Reader in International Politics at Queen Mary University of London. 

Stéfanie von Hlatky is the Canada Research Chair on Gender, Security, and the Armed Forces, Full Professor of Political Studies at Queen’s University, and Fellow with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

Chair:

Katharine Millar is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at LSE.

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Watch the event on YouTube

Listen to the podcast

Reckoning with the past: truth-telling and the British Empire

Saturday 21 June 2025 60 minutes

Hosted by LSE Festival: Visions for the Future

How can we reckon with the complex and painful legacies of the British Empire? What would it mean to create an international truth-telling commission, and why is this conversation so urgent today?

This event explores the vision for a Peoples' International Truth-Telling Commission on the British Empire - a platform to uncover historical injustices, amplify voices silenced by colonial histories, and challenge enduring inequalities. 

Meet our speakers:

Lidia Thorpe is a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung mother, grandmother, and advocate for First Peoples. She is an Independent Senator for Victoria in Australia and represents the Blak Sovereign Movement.

Imaobong Umoren is an Associate Professor of International History at LSE where she specialises in histories of colonialism, racism, women, and political thought in the Caribbean, Britain, and United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

Kofi Mawuli Klu is an independent Pan-Afrikan scholar-activist, community advocate, and educationist specializing in Pan-Afrikan community law and global citizenship education. He is the Chief Executive Commissioner of PANAFRIINDABA, a grassroots Pan-Afrikan community advocacy, research, and think tank organisation. 

Chair:
Asha Herten-Crabb is a Fellow in the LSE Department of International Relations. Her research covers international trade, health policy, and gender equality - and their intersections – with an emphasis on how legacies of imperialism in global governance shape policy making and its outcomes.

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Listen to the podcast

Watch the video

Visit the LSE Festival 2025 homepage

Economic nationalism and global (dis)order

Department of International Relations Martin Wight Memorial Lecture 2024/25

Monday 9 June 2025 90 minutes

Join us for this year's Martin Wight Memorial Lecture which was delivered by Robert Falkner who explores the rise of economic nationalism amidst growing geopolitical rivalry.

The lecture is based on his new co-authored book, The Market in Global International Society: An English School Perspective on International Political Economy.

Meet our speaker and chair

Robert Falkner is Professor of International Relations at LSE and the Academic Dean of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA. He held academic positions at the universities of Oxford, Kent and Essex before joining LSE. 

Katerina Dalacoura is Associate Professor in International Relations at LSE. She was awarded a three-year Major Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust for her project, entitled The International Thought of Turkish Islamists: History, Civilisation and Nation.

Find out more about the speaker and this event

Listen to the podcast

Watch the video

Read the student blogger report

Find out more about Martin Wight and previous memorial lectures.

Revolutions and world order: still the 'Sixth Great Power'?

Department of International Relations Fred Halliday Memorial Lecture 2024/25

Tuesday 27 May 2025  90 minutes

This lecture, held in honour of the renowned scholar Fred Halliday, explores the relationship between revolutions and world order in contemporary geopolitics.

Fred Halliday argued that revolutions were the “sixth great power” of the modern world, a force that sat alongside the five great powers that sought to regulate 19th century world politics. Does Halliday’s assessment of the impact of revolutions remain true today?

This lecture analyses the three main forms that revolution takes today – ‘people power’ movements, ‘restoration revolutions’ and ‘decentralised vanguardism’ – and assesses their impact on contemporary world order. It argues that revolutions remain central to contemporary world politics, not as a “sixth great power”, but still as the primary means through which people around the world mobilise against injustice, inequality and domination.

Meet our speakers and chair

George Lawson is a professor in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University. 

Jasmine Gani is Assistant Professor in International Relations Theory at LSE. She specialises in anti-colonial theory and history, and the politics of empire, race and knowledge production. 

Chair:

Toby Dodge is a Professor in the Department of International Relations at LSE. He is also Kuwait Professor and Director of the Kuwait Programme at the Middle East Centre at LSE.

Find out more about the speakers and this event

Listen to the podcast

Watch the video

Read the student blogger report

Find out more about Fred Halliday and previous memorial lectures.

Greenland, Iceland and the meltdown of the old order in the North Atlantic

Tuesday 6 May 2025 90 minutes

President Trump’s determination to increase American influence and presence in Greenland has generated great interest in the future of the world’s largest island and its surrounding regions in the Arctic and the North Atlantic. Iceland is Greenland’s closest neighbour in Europe. In 1944, Iceland declared full independence from Denmark, at a time when Greenland was still a Danish colony. This event focuses on the current position and future developments of these two countries in the Arctic and the North Atlantic at large.

Meet our speakers:

Gudni Jóhannesson is a professor of history at the University of Iceland. From 2016-2024, he was President of Iceland. 

Kristina Spohr is Professor of International History at LSE. 

Chair:

Jeffrey Chwieroth is Professor of International Political Economy, and Head of Department, in the Department of International Relations, LSE.

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Watch or listen to the podcast

Read the student blogger report 

Europe's strategic crossroads

co-hosted with the European Institute and LSESU French Society

Friday 28 March 2025 45 mins

Listen to this public event with Benjamin Haddad, Minister Delegate for European Affairs attached to the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, as he discusses how Europe can position itself in the face of today’s challenges.

“Our Europe is mortal”, French President Emmanuel Macron warned last spring, stressing the difficult and urgent choices that the continent is confronted with. Presenting his Report on the future of European competitiveness, former Italian prime Minister Mario Draghi argued that failing to cope with mounting challenges would entail the ‘slow agony’ of Europe.

Meet out speaker and chair

Benjamin Haddad is Minister Delegate for Europe, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the French Republic

Dr Spyros Economides is Associate Professor in International Relations and European Politics at the LSE European Institute and Deputy Director of the Hellenic Observatory.

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Queer conflict research: new approaches to the study of political violence

Wednesday 26 March 2025 90 minutes

Join us for a book launch: Jamie Hagen, Samuel Ritholtz, and Andrew Delatolla recently published an edited volume Queer Conflict Research: New Approaches to the Study of Political Violence (Bristol University Press, 2024). The volume provides a guide to the use of methodologies drawn from Queer Studies in the study of political violence and conflict.

Meet our speakers and chair:

Dr Jamie J Hagen is a Lecturer in Global Politics at the University of Manchester. Her work sits at the intersection of gender, security studies, and queer theory. 

Dr Samuel Ritholtz is Departmental Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Oxford, in association with St Hilda’s College. Their research explores LGBTIQ+ experiences of conflict, crisis, and displacement in the Americas with a particular focus on Colombia.

Dr Andrew Delatolla is a Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Leeds. His research interests centre on the intersections of race and sexuality in relation to statehood and state formation with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa. 

Chair:

Dr Milli Lake is an Associate Professor of International Security in the Department of International Relations at LSE. Her research and expertise lies in political violence, institutions, law, poverty, and gender.

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The future of Europe's security after three years of war in Ukraine: approaching crunch time?

Thursday 20 March 2025 90 minutes

For three years now, Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine. For three years, Ukraine has endured massive violence, suffering and destruction with resolve and determination. What is clear is that the outcome of the war will be decisive not only for the future of Ukraine but for the shape of the European political and security architecture.

A panel of practitioners and experts address some of the key questions on the current agenda, right after the third anniversary of Russia’s aggression. 

Meet our speakers and chair:

Ambassador Pierre Vimont is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Europe Foundation, former French Ambassador to the United States, and Executive Secretary General of the European External Action Service. He is also an Ambassador of France, a lifetime distinction. 

Charles Grant is Director of the Centre for European Reform (CER). In January 1998 he left The Economist to become the CER’s first – and so far only – director. He is the author of numerous CER reports, including Russia, China and global governance (2012), How to build a modern European Union (2013) and Relaunching the EU (2017). 

Armida van Rij is a Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House, and heads up the Europe Programme. She spearheads the Institute’s initiatives on the future of the EU, European security policy, and Europe’s role in the world. 

Chair:

Karen E Smith is a Professor of International Relations at LSE. Her main area of research is the ‘international relations of the European Union’, and she has written extensively on the formulation and implementation of common EU foreign policies.

Find out more about the speakers and this event

Listen to the podcast

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Atomized incorporation: Chinese workers and the aftermath of China's rise

Wednesday 19 March 2025 90 minutes

Author Sungmin Rho discussed her recently published book Atomized Incorporation: Chinese Workers and the Aftermath of China's Rise. The panel discussed debates around how China copes with the aftermath of its economic rise, as export-led growth becomes no longer sustainable.

Meet our speakers and chair:

Dr Sungmin Rho, Associate Professor of International Relations and Political Science at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Switzerland

Discussants:

Dr Boram Lee, Assistant Professor of International Political Economy, LSE

Ruofan Ma, PhD student in the Department of Government at Harvard University

Chair:

Dr Natalya Naqvi, Assistant Professor of International Political Economy, LSE

Find out more about this event

Listen to the podcast

Read the student blogger report

New forms of citizen participation in global governance

Tuesday 4 March 2025 80 minutes

The way in which many global problems are governed today is disappointing, as international cooperation often lacks both effectiveness and fairness. Can new forms of citizen participation improve global governance? Deliberative citizen forums are increasingly common at the local and national scale, but their potential at the global level is still unclear.

The event offers a conversation between leading experts on the promise, limits, and future development of transnational citizen initiatives, such as the Global Climate Assembly, and other forms of citizen involvement in policy-making on matters of global concern.

Meet our speakers and chair:

Professor Luis Cabrera, Professor of Political Science in the School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

Dr Marit Hammond, Associate Professor in the Politics of Climate Change at the University of Warwick, as well as a Co-Investigator of the ESRC Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP)

Mr Rich Wilson, CEO, Iswe Foundation, and a democratic innovation specialist.

Chair:

Dr Mathias Koenig-Archibugi, Associate Professor of International Relations and Government, LSE

Find out more about this event

Listen to the podcast

Read the student blogger report

Where does the EU enlargement stand?

Wednesday 29 January 2025 1 hour online

Enlargement has long been considered as the most successful foreign policy of the European Union (EU) and a powerful driver of political, economic and social reform in the countries aiming to join the EU. However, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Kyiv’s application for EU membership, it also acquired broader geostrategic significance. 

Watch this online discussion to assess the obstacles and the opportunities facing the EU enlargement agenda in a challenging and volatile strategic context.

Meet our speakers and chair:

Dr Steven Blockmans, Senior Fellow, International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) Tallinn; Associate Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS); and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges and Natolin)

Dr Heather Grabbe, Senior Fellow, Bruegel; Visiting Professor at University College London and KU Leuven

Professor Kataryna Wolczuk, Professor of East European Politics, Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES), School of Government, University of Birmingham; Associate Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House; Senior Professorial Fellow, European Neighbourhood Chair, College of Europe Natolin

Chair and moderator:

Dr Teona Giuashvili, DINAM Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE

Watch the video

The Cost of Borders

Thursday 23 January 2025 90 minutes

Millions of displaced people attempt journeys across borders in pursuit of asylum. Though seeking asylum is a right sanctioned by international law, people on the move are often cast as rule-breakers and criminals. They are in turn forced to make incredible sacrifices — emotionally, physically, and financially — which differ at intersections of inequalities like race, gender, or physical ability.

In her new project, The Cost of Borders, Heba Gowayed, author of the award winning book Refuge, uses a multi-method approach drawing on ethnographic observations, interviews, and quantitative data on human mobility and state expenditures to ask what are the costs of borders? Focusing on the frontiers between Global North and South, Dr Gowayed examines borders as a series of transactions that are always costly and often deadly.

Meet our speakers and chair:

Dr Heba Gowayed, Associate Professor of Sociology at CUNY Hunter College.

Discussant:

Dr Tarsis Brito, IRD Fellow, Department of International Relations at LSE

Chair and Discussant:

Dr Stephanie Schwartz, Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at LSE

Find out more about this event

Listen to the podcast (apologies for poor quality recording)

Read the student blogger report

One Picture, One Thousand Words: pictorial storytelling in China's foreign policy

Wednesday 22 January 2025 90 minutes

How do images shape power? This event dives into the visual strategies that influence foreign policy and global perceptions, with a particular focus on China.

By examining visualities as both a theoretical lens and a methodological tool, the discussion explores how visualities inform social and political research. Hosting a discussion from leading experts, the event uncovers whose realities are constructed and conveyed to the world—and how these narratives reshape global politics.

Meet our speakers and chair:

Professor William A Callahan, Professor of Political Science, Singapore Management University

Professor Florian Schneider, Professor of Modern China at Leiden University

Chair:

Dr Giulia Sciorati, LSE Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE.

Find out more about this event

Listen to the podcast

Read the student blogger report