Date: Monday 9 March 2015
Time: 6-7.30pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Michael Walzer
Chair: Professor Chris Hughes

The lecture will discuss the very fraught "responsibility" through the lens of the Syrian uprising and civil war. It will look at Syria at different moments from 2011-2014, stressing the uncertainties about what was happening and what to do, and asking how uncertainty intersects with responsibility. Who is responsible? When does the responsibility kick in? What action does it require?

Michael Walzer is Professor Emeritus of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. As a professor, author, editor, and lecturer, Michael Walzer has addressed a wide variety of topics in political theory and moral philosophy: political obligation, just and unjust war, nationalism and ethnicity, economic justice and the welfare state. His books (among them Just and Unjust Wars, Spheres of Justice, The Company of Critics, Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad, and On Toleration) and essays have played a part in the revival of practical, issue-focused ethics and in the development of a pluralist approach to political and moral life.

Walzer is a Contributing Editor for The New Republic, and for more than three decades served as co-editor of Dissent, now in its 60th year. His articles and interviews frequently appear in the world’s foremost newspapers and journals. He is currently working on the third volume of The Jewish Political Tradition, a comprehensive collaborative project focused on the history of Jewish political thought. A new book, The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and Religious Counter-revolutions will be out in March 2015.

Chris Hughes is Head of the International Relations Department at LSE.

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