Events
Past Events
Post-colonial justice? The Minutes of Evidence Project
- Date: 9 June 2016
- Time: 18:30-20:00
- Venue: Graham Wallas Room, 5th floor, Old Building, LSE
- Chair: Iavor Rangelov, LSE
- Speakers: Jennifer Balint, University of Melbourne and Ralph Wilde, UCL
This event discusses the Minutes of Evidence Project, a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, education experts, performance artists, community members and government and community organizations to promote new modes of publicly engaging with historical and structural injustice. Using the record of an 1881 Parliamentary Inquiry in the colony of Victoria, the project uses theatre, education and research to create ‘meeting points’ to consider Australia’s past, present and future – to spark public conversations about structural justice. In so doing, the project considers the role of the record of law and what can be generated through its reactivation and whether such engagement can serve as an important adjunct to the pursuit of more formal legal avenues for redress and reform.
Europe as a Peace project? Rethinking EU Strategy towards conflict in the neighbourhood and beyond
- Date: 24 May 2016
- Time: 18:30-20:00
- Venue: OLD 4.10, Old Building, LSE
- Chair: Robert Cooper
- Speakers: Dr Javier Solana, Professor Mary Kaldor
Europe is surrounded by war. But current approaches to conflict no longer work. Can the EU offer a 21st century alternative? This event is the UK launch of the report of the Human Security Study Group to EU High Representative Federica Mogherini : From Hybrid peace to Human Security. The Report is a formal part of the roadmap of consultations for the Strategic Review of EU External Policy. It draws on research undertaken at the LSE ‘s research programmes Security in Transition and Justice and Security.
Dying as a side-effect: The meaning of proportionate collateral damage
- Date: 19 May 2016
- Time: 18:30-20:00
- Venue: LG.04, 32 Lincoln’s Inn Fields (32L), LSE
- Chair: Marika Theros
- Speakers: Dr. Janina Dill, LSE
International law permits killing civilians as an unintended side effect of attacks if the expected deaths are proportionate to the military advantage anticipated. But what does it look like when loss of human life and military advantage are ‘in balance’? Proportionality is a common concept in law, but the values at stake in war can be neither expressed in terms of each other nor easily translated into a common metric. This event will discuss the results of an empirical study of Afghan civilians’ and military experts’ attitudes towards collateral damage, and will explore whether international law makes sense to those it is intended to guide and those it aims to protect.
Theatres of Conflict. Can drama build peace?
- Date: 16 November 2015
- Time: 18.30-20.00
- Venue: Clement House, 6.02, London School of Economics
- Chair: Dr. Mary Martin
- Speakers: David Lan, Charlotte Onslow and Kushtrim Koliqi
A panel discussion on the role of theatre in the politics of post-conflict and state transformation. Peacebuilding and state-building initiatives traditionally bypass the arts in favour of governance and economic reforms. However there is a growing awareness that culture is an important dimension of creating stable, peaceful and democratic societies. Theatre is an important space for connecting communities previously at war. To explore the potential of drama in conflict-affected societies, we bring together leading theatre, human rights and peacebuilding professionals. We will also show a short film of political theatre-making, by INTENT New Theatre, entitled Kosovo: Life and Liberty in a Young Country.
Reviving Global Democracy: beyond the ‘Western Model’?
- Date: 11 November 2015
- Time: 18:30-20:00
- Venue: New Academic Building, Room 2.06, LSE
- Chair: Professor Mary Kaldor
- Speakers: Professor Richard Youngs, Professor Mukulika Banerjee, Professor Senem Aydin-Duzgit
The Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit is pleased to invite you to a panel discussion and launch of Richard Youngs new book The Puzzle of Non-Western Democracy (Carnegie Europe). Calls for different models of democracy are becoming more widespread. Many politicians, diplomats and writers today argue in favour of non-Western models of democracy. Yet it remains unclear what such models look like. The debate over democratic variation needs to be taken more seriously, even if the concept of non-Western democracy is problematic. The international community can and should be doing more to foster democratic variation that is tailored to the specific conditions of different countries and regions. This book maps out the potential for such democratic variation.
The EU and the Challenges Ahead
- Date: 7 October 2015
- Time: 14:00-15:30
- Venue: Hong Kong Theatre, LSE
- Chair: Professor Mary Kaldor
- Speakers: Dr Javier Solana and Professor Anthony Giddens
In this lecture Dr. Javier Solana will outline the challenges the EU faces as it attempts to grapple with an economic crisis which has not yet subsided, unseen flows of refugees and war in Ukraine. The EU is currently dealing with a situation where the lines between external and internal security have become dangerously blurred. Dr. Solana will analyze both these and other challenges facing the European project, of a more political nature. These issues are also examined in ESADEgeo’s recent edited e-book ‘The Global Context: How Politics, Investment, and Institutions Impact European Businesses’, published as a part of the European Commission’s Jean Monnet project MEKBiz.
Global Security Policy: A part of the problem or answer?
- Date: 11 March 2015
- Time: 18:30 - 20:00
- Venue: Room 2.06 New Academic Building LSE
- Chair: Professor Mary Kaldor
- Speakers: Professor Ken Booth, Alvaro De Soto, Dr Natasha Marhia, Dr Henry Radice
There is a growing sense of insecurity in many parts of the world, reinforced by policy responses that are ineffective and even counterproductive. Is global security policy failing and what can be done? What ideas and instruments can help us meet the security challenges we are facing? This panel brings together academics and practitioners with diverse expertise in the security field and marks the publication of The Handbook of Global Security Policy.
Civil Society and Transitional Justice: Lessons from the Balkans, Uganda and Kenya
- Date: 28 January 2015
- Time: 16:00-17:30
- Venue: Room US.1.01, University Square Stratford, 1 Salway Road, Stratford, E15 1NF
- Chair: Dr Iavor Rangelov
- Speakers: Phil Clark, Chandra Lekha Sriram, Iavor Rangelov
London Transitional Justice Network and Centre for Human Rights in Conflict, University of East London Civil Society and Transitional Justice: Lessons from the Balkans, Uganda and Kenya
‘Secure the Borders!’ The Cost and Consequences of Europe’s ‘Fight Against Irregular Migration’
- Date: 15 October 2014
- Time: 17:30-18:30pm
- Venue: The Venue, Saw Swee Hock Student Centre
- Chair: Professor Mary Kaldor
- Speakers: Cecilia Malmström, Jeremy Harding and Ruben Andersson
The summer of 2014 has been yet another season of misery at Europe’s southern frontiers. The unseaworthy boats carrying migrants and refugees towards an uncertain destiny and destination have again multiplied along Italian shores, despite the large investments in more patrols, surveillance and coordination at the borders. Elsewhere, in Spain and Greece, a similar story repeats. A decade on from the founding of Europe’s border agency Frontex, the challenges at the border seem as steep and intractable as ever. In this time, Europe has developed ever more complex initiatives for tracking, halting, returning and assisting undocumented migrants seeking southern European shores, involving an expanding range of sectors: European border guards and African security forces, humanitarians and policymakers, academics and intelligence experts, defence companies and data managers.
Resilience and Resilient in Obama’s National Security Strategy 2010: Between Prerequisite, Unique American Trait and Universal Value
- Date: 29 October 2014
- Time: 12:30-14:00
- Venue: LG20, 32 Lincoln's Inn, ID Staff seminar, LSE
- Chair: Professor Mary Kaldor
- Speakers: Dr Sabine Selchow
The words 'resilient' and 'resilience' have come to be popular linguistic ingredients in the contemporary political discourse in the US and beyond. In this paper Sabine Selchow explores the meanings that are attributed to them within Obama's National Security Strategy 2010.