Turkey’s economic problems are all rooted in International Economics 101. All standard textbook problems with easy and straightforward solutions known by many emerging countries and applied successfully since the early 2000s. Why then do these problems persist in Turkey?

Speakers:
- Şebnem Kalemli Özcan (Neil Moskowitz Endowed Professor of Economics, University of Maryland, College Park. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Currently, co-editor of American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics and serves at the editorial board of American Economic Review. She also serves at the economic advisory panels of the NY Federal Reserve and the Bank of International Settlements. Previously, Duisenberg Fellow at the European Central Bank in 2008 and Lead Economist/Adviser for the Middle East and North Africa Region at the World Bank during 2010-2011. She was the Houblon-Norman Fellow of Bank of England and CFR International Affairs Fellow during 2017-2018. She served as the Senior Policy Advisor and Assistant Director at the International Monetary Fund during 2019-2020. She is the first Turkish social scientist who has received the Marie Curie IRG prize in 2008 for her research on European financial integration. Her research focuses on capital flows, macroeconomic fluctuations, and financial frictions, using big data on global firms and banks. Currently, she works on the impact of COVID pandemic on supply chain bottlenecks, business failures and inflation.

- Professor Yaprak Gürsoy (Professor of European Politics and Chair of Contemporary Turkish Studies, LSE. Her research interests include regime change, democratisation, and emotions and memory in European politics and collective identity. She is the author of Between Military Rule and Democracy: Regime Consolidation in Greece, Turkey and Beyond).

www.lse.ac.uk/contemporary-turki…602/keynote-speech

Turkey's Economic Problems and Solutions: A Small Open Economy Approach (Friday 02 June 2023)

08 Scaling social innovation at LSE, Kayleigh Cunoosamy

09 The new facts of life, Professor Emily Jackson

10 Children's visions of digital futures, Kym Sylwander & Aisling

11 How can data help us to understand and address complex problems? Dr Alexandra Gomes

13 What is it like to be interviewed by AI, and how will it transform research? Justine Nayral

12 Perceptions of inequality - what do we really know? Queena Chong

On the May 7th, 2025, India launched missile strikes on Pakistan in response to a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir on April 22nd. On May 10th a ceasefire was reached following mediation from the United States. 

To discuss the US’ part in brokering a ceasefire, and the US’ responses to disputes between India and Pakistan over the past three decades, in June 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Lisa Curtis, senior fellow and director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. 

The conversation covers the recent India–Pakistan crisis and the US’ role, how US involvement in the Kashmir dispute has evolved over the years, and how China’s growing influence has complicated how the US approaches India–Pakistan relations. 

This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Luke Digweed.   

Further reading and resources 

“How America Can Keep the Peace Between India and Pakistan”, Foreign Affairs, May 13, 2025 

“Democracy in South Asia amid U.S. Aid Cuts What’s at Stake for Great Power Competition”, Center for a New American Security, May 15. 2025 

LSE: The Ballpark | The US and India–Pakistan tensions with Lisa Curtis

In January 2025, the release of a new model and chatbot by Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company, DeepSeek, sent shockwaves through the tech industry in the US and elsewhere. DeepSeek’s launch was only one milestone in the ongoing AI competition between China and the US which has seen the US try to restrict the exports of key components used in AI development to other countries.

In the second episode of The Ballpark’s miniseries on AI and the US, the Phelan US Centre explored the ongoing AI competition between China and the US with Angela Zhang, Professor of Law at the Gould School of Law of the University of Southern California. Professor Zhang is an expert on AI regulation, both in China and globally.

They spoke about China’s current approach to AI regulation, and how this compares with the US, and why China may be content with being a “close second” in the AI race.

Further reading and resources

•	High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy by Angela Huyue Zhang (Oxford University Press, 2024)
•	The Promise and Perils of China’s Regulation of Artificial Intelligence, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 21 January 2025


LSE: The Ballpark | The US-China AI race with Professor Angela Zhang

In response to what the US sees as potential growing threats from China and North Korea, nuclear weapons are becoming a more and more important part of US alliance commitments and partnerships in East Asia. But what does this focus on nuclear weapons for both deterrence and reassurance mean for US foreign policy and for the security of the region? And could there be an alternative which puts a greater focus on conventional armed forces?

To discuss these topics, in June 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Dr Lauren Sukin about her recent article, in the Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, with Samuel Seitz of MIT, “Deemphasizing Nuclear Weapons in Nuclear Deterrence: The Case for Conventional Counterforce”. Dr Sukin is Assistant Professor in LSE’s Department of International Relations and a Centre Affiliate at the LSE Phelan US Centre. 

Further reading and resources

-	Seitz, S. and Sukin, L. (2025). Deemphasizing Nuclear Weapons in Nuclear Deterrence: The Case for Conventional Counterforce. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, [online] 8(1), pp.15–35. 

LSE: The Ballpark | Deemphasizing Nuclear Weapons in Nuclear Deterrence with Dr Lauren Sukin

In July 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Professor Kimberley S. Johnson, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University and the John G. Winant Visiting Professor of American Government at the University of Oxford, about the recent history of the US administrative state and racial representation in the US government and administration They also discussed the second Trump administration’s moves to dismantle Diversity, Equity and Inclusion measures in the US government as part of Project 2025

This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Luke Digweed.  

Further reading and resources

•	Dark Concrete: Black Power Urbanism and the American Metropolis by Professor Kimberley S. Johnson (Cornell University Press, 2025) – to be published on 15 December 2025
•	Reforming Jim Crow: Southern Politics and State in the Age Before Brown by Professor Kimberley S. Johnson (Oxford University Press, 2010)
•	Governing the American State: Congress and the New Federalism, 1877-1929 by Professor Kimberley S. Johnson (Princeton University Press, 2007)


LSE: The Ballpark | The Administrative State with Professor Kimberley S. Johnson

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Turkey's Economic Problems and Solutions: A Small Open Economy Approach (Friday 02 June 2023)

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