Open Government in the Age of Total War Part of the Philippe Roman Chair Lecture Series
Tuesday 2 December 2014
How did the US national security state emerge and what shaped the government’s approach to official secrecy? Matthew Connelly explains how the period 1914-1945, bookended by two horrendous world wars, transformed the US into a nation equipped with a vast intelligence-gathering apparatus that could dramatically curtail civil liberties.
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Stalin's Team
Tuesday 11 November 2014
We know a lot about Stalin but less about the team – Molotov, Kaganovich, Mikoyan and the rest of a group whose membership was roughly but never quite equivalent to the Politburo – that surrounded him for 25 years.
25 Years After the End of the Cold War: Its Legacy in a New World Order
Monday 27 October 2014
Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, how do these events shape the world today? What are the legacies of the Cold War? And are we truly in the midst of a new Cold War?
A Changing World and China
Wednesday 22 October 2014
Despite China’s growing interactions with the rest of the world, the country’s foreign policy is largely dictated by domestic politics and further economic reform. Distinguished Chinese diplomat Wu Jian Min will explore China’s international strategy and what this means for the country’s relations with the rest of the world.
The Radical Transparency of the American Republic Part of the Philippe Roman Chair Lecture Series
Tuesday 21 October 2014
For most of its history, the U.S. government’s commitment to transparency stood as a radical counter-example to the rest of the world. Washington, Madison, and Lincoln were in some ways as radical as Julian Assange in their commitment to transparency. In his first lecture, Matthew Connelly explores how recent invocations of national security stand in sharp contrast with America’s founders and their principles.
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The Paradox of China's Peaceful Rise
Tuesday 7 October 2014
Despite the widespread view that China does not have a coherent grand strategy, China has already articulated one that is based on the home-grown idea of ‘peaceful rise/development’. Barry Buzan, Arne Westad, and Michael Cox discuss.
A New Strategy? Russia as an Unlikely Soft Power
Monday 9 June 2014
This expert roundtable discusses Russia’s declared strategy to invest in soft power instruments in regional and global politics. What are Russia’s soft power assets? Has Moscow been successful in turning them into influence?
The Polish Roundtable Talks and the End of the Cold War
Wednesday 4 June 2014
The Polish roundtable talks and subsequent elections on 4 June 1989 were a crucial step in ending the Cold War. 25 years later, LSE IDEAS and the Polish Embassy in London hosted witnesses of the Polish Democratic Transition to join academics to discuss the importance of the events for Poland, for Europe, and for the world.
Ending the Drug Wars report launch
Wednesday 7 May 2014
Members of the Expert Group on the Economics of Drug Policy present the evidence from their report Ending the Drug Wars.
The Origins of the Final Solution: Eastern Europe and the Holocaust Part of the Philippe Roman Chair Lecture Series
Tuesday 11 March 2014
The Nazi Final Solution was implemented in occupied Poland and the occupied Soviet Union, in the lands that after the end of the war quickly fell behind the Iron Curtain. The opening of borders and archives has permitted a much fuller acquaintance with the victims of the Holocaust, the vast majority of whom were east European Jews. Must the national history of eastern Europe collapse into nothing more than a prehistory of catastrophe or can a grounding in the national histories help us better discern the human causes of the Holocaust?
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Russia, Ukraine, and Us
Friday 7 March 2014
LSE IDEAS hosted this BBC Radio 4 debate putting the Ukraine crisis into historical context and asking what it means for our relationship with Russia. Hosted by Bridget Kendall, with Anne Applebaum, Sir Rodric Braithwaite, Ben Judah, and Olexiy Solohubenko.
The Origins of Mass Killing: the Bloodlands Hypothesis Part of the Philippe Roman Chair Lecture Series
Tuesday 21 January 2014
At no other time in European history were so many human beings deliberately killed as a matter of policy as in Eastern Europe between 1933 and 1945. Most deliberate Soviet killing, and almost all deliberate Nazi killing, took place in this zone between Berlin and Moscow. Timothy Snyder argues that if we can understand the totality of this catastrophe we will both better understand the two regimes and be better prepared to understand its component parts, the most significant of which was the Holocaust of European Jews.
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