LSE: Public lectures and events

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Inheritance, demographics, and economic development May 21, 2026

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Inheritance institutions shape family structures and demographic decisions, with enduring implications for economic development. This lecture describes how inheritance rules affect fertility, marriage, and migration decisions in historical and development contexts.

Trade under strain: policy challenges in a fractured world May 20, 2026

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In an increasingly fragmented global order, new forms of geopolitical and economic division are reshaping the world economy. Long‑standing trade partnerships face growing pressure, and rising tensions threaten to unwind decades of cooperation

Economics, ethics, and the role of the state in climate action May 19, 2026

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Climate change and biodiversity loss are among the defining challenges of our time — but they also open the door to extraordinary possibility. The investments, innovation, and structural change required for climate action can unlock, particularly when combined with AI, far more dynamic and resilient paths of growth and development than anything the past has offered.

Investable transition opportunities: what counts as a climate solution? May 14, 2026

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As companies in high-emitting sectors move from setting net zero targets to implementing detailed transition plans, investors are demanding greater transparency and fully quantified strategies.

Why populists are winning and how to beat them May 13, 2026

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In 2024, two billion people went to vote – and populism won big. Donald Trump returned to the White House. Marine Le Pen surged in France. Reform UK became Britain’s most successful far-right party in modern history. Across the West, authoritarian populists now govern one-quarter of the world’s democracies. But is this peak populism – or the populists’ tipping point?

Cooling a warming India: ecology and equity in our time May 12, 2026

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This talk will examine housing and work, sleep and sociality, as key aspects of everyday life where strategies to create more equitable and sustainable access to cooling must focus.

Development finance after Trump May 11, 2026

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The Trump Administration has closed the world’s largest bilateral aid programme, USAID and poured scorn on its past effectiveness. Other donors are also cutting their aid programmes at the same time as there is a growing chorus of concern around aid effectiveness. It has created ‘’ a perfect storm” in the world of development finance. Can there be a happy ending or is development another casualty of Trump’s new global disorder?

The foreign policy of Donald Trump in historical perspective May 07, 2026

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Commentators around the world draw some startling analogies when they seek to assess President Donald Trump, some even likening him to a Roman emperor or an inter-war dictator. In this lecture, Niall Ferguson puts Trump's foreign policy in an Anglo-American historical perspective.

Who is Britain really saving in the fight against modern slavery? May 06, 2026

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As Black Lives Matter has exposed the legacies of transatlantic slavery and empire, Britain has launched a new moral crusade at home: the fight against “modern slavery.” This panel discussion marks the launch of Drugs, Race and the Politics of Modern Slavery Law by Insa Lee Koch and asks what this crusade is really doing.

The ethics of foreign intervention: philosophical perspectives on Venezuela and Iran May 05, 2026

Show notes

The US capture of President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026 and the US–Israeli military campaign against Iran have thrust foreign intervention back to the centre of global debate.

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