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conférences

How do conspiracies happen, how can historians use them to understand more about the past, and where do they begin and cease to be relevant to the study of history? 

Conspiracy and Democracy

Jonathan Haslam, Professor of the History of International Relations
The history of Russia’s Secret Services from the Revolution to the Fall of the Wall: the Military Intelligence, the codes and ciphers and the KGB. 

Near and Distant Neighbours 1917–1989

Dr Girard will describe how the “red scare” greatly varied depending on the period, the political affiliation or the country; and the main long-lasting conspiracy theory actually concerned the threat of the far-right and, to a certain extent, of the government itself. 

Conspiracy Theories in France and Italy during the Cold War and Decolonization

A Public Lecture by Conspiracy & Democracy Visiting Fellow Professor Cornel Zwierlein (Ruhr-Universität Bochum). 

It seems as if Conspiracy Theories are a particularly modern phenomenon. By relying on some examples and cases, this lecture gives a long-term overview of what they looked like and when they appeared. We possess full-fledged conspiracy theory texts only since the 16th century. While examples may have existed already in Antiquity, we do not possess any textual evidence for them. The lecture tries to develop an explanation for why conspiracy theories emerged only at this point in European history. In order to do so, it is necessary to distinguish between conjurations, any kind of revolts, conspiracies and conspiracy theories. We will show how their coming into being is linked to the emergence of the ‘Information Public Sphere’, as a by-product of the early inter-state diplomatic communication (which has, first, little to do with the later famous ‘Enlightenment Public Sphere’), and how those narratives filled in where knowledge gaps existed. In a hasty run through history, we will distinguish several phases or ‘epochs’ of Conspiracy (theory) communication. Finally, we will ask how Democracy comes in: ‘Real’ democracies were practiced rather nowhere after Ancient Europe, and were rare even during the 19th century. So, in pre-modern times, often it was ‘democracy’ or ‘democrats’ that were ‘conspiring’ against the good order of the commonwealth – not vice versa.

Cornel Zwierlein is Associate Professor at the University of Bochum, Germany. Currently, he is on leave as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. His research focuses on the intersection of political, religious and scientific knowledge. Cornel is the author of ‘Discorso und Lex Dei die Entstehung neuer Denkrahmen im 16. Jahrhundert und die Wahrnehmung der französischen Religionskriege in Italien und Deutschland’ (Göttingen, 2006), and, more recently, ‘Der gezähmte Prometheus. Feuer und Sicherheit zwischen Früher Neuzeit und Moderne’ (Göttingen, 2011). 

The Early Modern Foundations of Conspiracy & Democracy

Mr Dwight Smith Jr will speak about ‘The Mafia & Conspiracy’. Mr Smith’s paper will explore how the idea of the mafia and conspiracy emerged in America, developed and became entangled in very different contexts.

Mr Smith will describe the ideas, experiences, and events through which his book, ‘The Mafia Mystique’ (1975), took shape; the consequences of those events that have led to contemporary public understanding and use of ‘Mafia’ in the United States; and the consequences in a democracy of strategies that were developed for organized crime control. 

The Mafia & Conspiracy

From the University of Cambridge comes ELECTION, our weekly Politics Podcast; asking the questions that no one else is in the run-up to the British General Election with the greatest minds inside and outside the political arena. 

Can democracy adapt to our strained political system? Who (if anyone) will ‘win’ in 2015? What can the lessons of the past teach us about the future? 

Professor David Runciman interviews and puts these questions to philosophers, historians, scientists, and political thinkers – with enlightening results – in a weekly podcast series coming from his office in the Department of Politics and International Studies. 

More information at http://www.cam.ac.uk/election

S01-EP06 - Rae Langton on Charlie Hebdo, free speech vs hate speech & blasphemy

S01-EP04 - John Naughton on Facebook in Politics, Edward Snowden, & Surveillance

S01-EP02 - Martin Rees on surviving this century, scientists in politics, and 2015

Since the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, last year, the U.S. has seen the growth of a new social movement that has focused national attention on policing tactics, criminal justice, and the continued health and social inequalities confronting black Americans today. Legislation that would require states to notify the U.S. Justice Department of all police shootings, fatal and non-fatal, has been introduced. President Obama made an historic visit to a federal prison to draw attention to the need for criminal justice reform. This Forum explored these efforts and other policy shifts over the past year, looking at what has — or has not — occurred in addressing these serious problems facing black Americans in today’s policing policies, the operation of the criminal justice system, and the continued presence of inequitable health and social conditions.
This discussion built upon a February 2015 Forum production that examined the intersection of race with policing practices, neighborhood environments, educational and employment opportunities, and other factors that impact health. We reconvened that panel of public health, social justice and legal experts to further explore their recommendations and the ongoing challenges of creating policy change.

This event was presented October 1, 2015 in Collaboration with PRI’s The World & WGBH.

Watch the entire series from The Forum at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at www.ForumHSPH.org.

Revisiting Race, Criminal Justice and Health: What Has — and Has Not Changed — in the U.S.

Speaker(s): Mark Canning, Dr Jurgen Haacke, Shibani Mahtani | In 2010 the world saw in Myanmar both relief and opportunity when - thirteen years after Myanmar achieved ASEAN membership - political and economic reforms began, shifting Myanmar away from isolationist military rule towards civilian government. Even while the depth and degree of these reforms remain unclear, Myanmar, one of Southeast Asia's poorest and most fragile economies, has begun to see easing in its foreign relations, and international trade and investment engagements. But just as Myanmar's history has long been troubled, with one of the world's longest-running periods of ethnic strife and civil wars, from well before military rule began in 1962, so too Myanmar since 2010 has shown a chequered and fragile landscape of continued religious and ethnic conflict. This November Myanmar goes to the polls. What will determine the outcome of those general elections? How will Myanmar achieve economic success comparable to those of its ASEAN neighbours? Mark Canning is Senior Adviser at Bell Pottinger and former UK Ambasssador to Indonesia, ASEAN, Myanmar, Malaysia and Zimbabwe. Jurgen Haacke is Associate Professor of International Relations at LSE, and Centre Associate at the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. Shibani Mahtani (@ShibaniMahtani) is Staff Reporter at the Wall Street Journal. She is based in Yangon, and reports on Myanmar and the rest of Southeast Asia. Danny Quah (@DannyQuah) is Professor of Economics and International Development at LSE, and Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (@LSESEAC) is an inter-disciplinary, regionally-focused academic centre within the Institute of Global Affairs at LSE. Building on the School's deep academic and historical connections with Southeast Asia, the Centre seeks to encourage the best academic and policy research, with core focus on the social context of the region.

Myanmar on the Brink [Audio]

Speaker(s): Shami Chakrabarti | To mark the paperback release of On Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti will be in conversation with Conor Gearty and taking questions from the audience and Twitter. You can send your questions via Twitter to @LSELaw using #LSEShami. In On Liberty Shami explores why our fundamental rights and freedoms are paramount in upholding democracy, and how they are coming under unprecedented pressure today. Since 9/11 governments have decided that human and civil rights, and the rule of law, are often too costly, and have offered an apparently simple trade-off: greater security in exchange for less freedom. Drawing on her own life and work, and on Liberty’s campaigning on issues including privacy, 42 day detention and ASBOs, Shami shows why our rights are indispensable and looks to the future. These freedoms, for which generations have fought, both protect and empower us, and curb the power of the mighty – and what’s more, Shami warns, once gone, they will be almost impossible to recover. Shami Chakrabarti is Director of the civil liberties advocacy organisation Liberty. She was a member of the panel of the Leveson Inquiry and is Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University and an alumna of LSE. Conor Gearty (@conorgearty) is Director of the Institute of Public Affairs and Professor of Human Rights Law at LSE.  LSE Law (@lselaw) is an integral part of the School's mission, plays a major role in policy debates & in the education of lawyers and law teachers from around the world.

On Liberty: a conversation with Shami Chakrabarti [Audio]

Peiran Wei, a 2015 China and Globalization Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and former Bloomberg reporter, describes his country as "switching gears" – in its economy, its politics, and its culture. Wei discusses attitudes towards the rising billionaire class in China, the impact of China’s capital outflow around the globe, and the importance of social stability to the Communist Party.

Don't Panic: China's Just Switching Gears | PolicyCast

An open lecture with Nicci Gerrard and Sean French (writers).

'Story-telling is how we make sense of the world - especially the bits we don't understand'
Two leading writers talk about how this surfaces in - and influences - their work. Join the Conspiracy and Democracy Project as we host Nicci Gerard and Sean French - collectively Nicci French - for a talk and discussion. 

Lying in the Dark: the stories we tell to keep ourselves sane

In 2003 Jenny Clay Strauss, daughter of the German Jewish historian of political philosophy Leo Strauss and herself a professor of classics, wrote to the New York Times to protest articles that presented her father “as the mastermind behind the neoconservative ideologues who control United States foreign policy.” She went on: “He reaches out from his 30-year-old grave, we are told, to direct a "cabal" (a word with distinct anti-Semitic overtones) of Bush administration figures hoping to subject the American people to rule by a ruthless elite.” In “A Cabal We Deserve: Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and Public Intellectual Culture,” Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft explores the meanings of conspiracy theories surrounding Leo Strauss and the Straussians. What values of transparency in democratic governance, what attitudes towards lying in politics, animate them? What ideas about conservative as opposed to progressive intellectuals? And what expectations for public intellectual life in a democratic society are bound up with all this talk of conspiracy? 

Leo Strauss and Public Intellectual Culture

Human-level (“general”) AI is more difficult to achieve than most people think. One key obstacle is relevance, a conceptual version of the frame problem. Another is lack of the semantic web. Yet another is the difficulty of computer vision. So artificial general intelligence (AGI) isn’t on the horizon. Possibly, it may never be achieved. No AGI means no Singularity.

Even so, there’s already plenty to worry about—and future AI advances will add more. Areas of concern include unemployment, computer companions, and autonomous robots (some, military). Worries about the (illusory) Singularity have had the good effect of waking up the AI community (and others) to these dangers. At last, they are being taken seriously.

Professor Margaret Boden is a world-leading academic in the study of intelligence, both artificial and otherwise. She is is Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the Department of informatics at the University of Sussex, where her work embraces the fields of artificial intelligence, psychology, philosophy, cognitive and computer science. She was the founding-Dean of Sussex University’s School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, a pioneering centre for research into intelligence and the mechanisms underlying it — in humans, other animals, or machines. The School’s teaching and research involves an unusual combination of the humanities, science, and technology.

Professor Boden has also been an important participant in the recent international discussions over the long-term impacts of AI. She was a member of the AAAI’s 08/09 Presidential Panel on long-term AI futures (http://www.aaai.org/Organization/presidential-panel.php), and also took part in the recent Puerto Rico conference on the Future of AI, co-organised by CSER (http://futureoflife.org/misc/ai_conference); she is therefore uniquely well-placed to discuss near- and long-term prospects in AI. 

Human - Level AI- Is It Looming Or Illusory?

Panelists Maziar Bahari, journalist and filmmaker, and Tim Greenberg, Executive Producer of The Daily Show, joined moderator Candy Crowley, former political correspondent and host of State of the Union with Candy Crowley, for a discussion on the rights of journalists. The panelists discussed their personal experiences with arrest, repercussions from their past productions and works, and the state of human rights for journalists across the globe. 

Journalism is not a Crime | Institute of Politics

The Harvard Black Men’s Forum and the Institute of Politics hosted a discussion between linguist, political activist and MIT professor Noam Chomsky and Havard Professor Brandon Terry. The two covered a wide range of topics, including the Black Lives Matter movement, Bernie Sanders’ presidential run, income inequality and the power of organized, grassroots movements to effect social and political change. 

Identity, Power and the Left: The Future of Progressive Politics | Institute of Politics

Zena Agha, Iraqi-Palestinian Poet, Mariah Al Abdeh, Syrian Activist and Director of Women Now for Development, Fouad Faris, Syrian Activist and refugee, Douglas Johnson, Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, and Curt Rhodes, Founder and International Director of Questscope, joined moderator Marco Werman, Host of PRI’s The World, for a discussion on the Syrian Refugee Crisis. The speakers addressed topics ranging from the world’s perception of refugees to the necessary next steps in solving and minimizing the damage of the conflict. 

Taking Action on the Syrian Refugee Crisis | Institute of Politics

On October 6, 2015, the Ash Center hosted a discussion entitled The Refugee Crisis in Europe: The Challenges of Policy, Politics, and Logistics. Speakers discussed the complex challenges of responding to the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe from several different perspectives, exploring its political context and ramifications, the European Union’s capacity to respond to emergencies within its own borders, the logistics involved in managing the flow of refugees across the continent, and the importance of information technology in shaping events and aiding the response. 

Panelists included: Muriel Rouyer, Adjunct Professor of Public Policy, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School; Bartel Van De Walle, Visiting Scholar, Program on Crisis Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School; and Associate Professor, Department of Information Management, Tilburg School of Economics and Management, Tilburg University (The Netherlands); Tina Comes, Visiting Scholar, Program on Crisis Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School; and Associate Professor, Centre for Integrated Emergency Management, Department for ICT, University of Agder (Norway); and Anaide Nahikian, Program Manager, Advanced Training Program on Humanitarian Action at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Executive Producer of the Humanitarian Assistance Webcast, and Associate Instructor at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard School of Public Health.


The Refugee Crisis in Europe: The Challenges of Policy, Politics, and Logistics | AshCast

On September 17, 2015, The Ash Center hosted a conversation with the authors of The Arab Spring: Pathways of Repression and Reform. Speakers included: Tarek Masoud, Sultan of Oman Associate Professor of International Relations, Harvard Kennedy School; Jason Brownlee, Associate Professor of Government and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas; and Andrew Reynolds, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  The event was moderated by Stephen Walt, Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, and cosponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School Middle East Initiative. 

The Arab Spring: Pathways of Repression and Reform | AshCast

How do conspiracies happen, how can historians use them to understand more about the past, and where do they begin and cease to be relevant to the study of history? Such questions were the starting point for this panel debate, in which Professor Christopher Andrew and Dr Stephen Dorril examine cases from Stalinist Russia, Harold Wilson’s government in the 1960s, and Northern Ireland in the 1970s, to name but a few.