Previous lectures were organised by the Martin Wight Memorial Trust which was dissolved in January 2022.
2020
Professor Gurminder Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex
The Decolonial Project of Europe: From Colonial Histories to Postcolonial Reparations
11 November 2020, University of Sussex via Zoom (no recording available)
2019
Professor Jennifer Welsh, Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security, McGill University
Sovereignty as responsibility
11 November 2019, LSE
Download or listen here
2018
Dr Robin Niblett CMG, Director, Chatham House
The future of think tanks in the 21st century
21 November 2018, Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs
Read the text of this lecture, published as a transcript in the journal International Affairs.
2017
Professor Geoffrey Hosking, Emeritus Professor of Russian History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College, London or SSEES (UCL)
Trust and distrust in Russia: the heritage of the October Revolution re-examined
23 November 2017, University of Sussex
Read the text of this lecture, published as a transcript in the journal International Affairs.
2016
Professor Nicola Phillips, Professor of Political Economy, University of Sheffield
Power and inequality in the global political economy
9 November 2016, LSE
Read the text of this lecture, published as an article in the journal International Affairs.
2015
Professor Christopher Hill, Sir Patrick Sheehy Professor of International Relations, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge
Powers of a kind? The anomalous positions of Britain and France in world politics
3 November 2015, Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs
Read the text of this lecture, published as an article in the journal International Affairs.
2014
Emeritus Professor John Röhl, School of History, Art History and Philosophy, University of Sussex
Goodbye to all that (again)? The Fischer thesis, the New Revisionism and the meaning of the First World War
6 November 2014, University of Sussex
Read the text of this lecture, published as an article in the journal International Affairs.
2013
Professor Yongjin Zhang, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol
The idea of order in Ancient Chinese political thought: a Wightian exploration
20 November 2013, LSE
Listen or download audio podcast
2012
Professor Nicholas J. Wheeler, Department of International Politics, University of Aberyswyth
Diplomatic transformations in international anarchy
8 November 2012, Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs (no recording or transcript available)
2011
Professor Linda Colley, Department of History, Princeton University
Britain, written constitution and world history, 1780-2000
2 November 2011, University of Sussex (no recording or transcript available)
2010
Professor Ian Clark, Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University
Hegemony and international society
10 November 2010, LSE
Listen or download audio podcast
2009
Professor Barry Buzan, Department of International Relations, LSE
Culture and International Society
18 November 2009, Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs (no recording or transcript available)
2008
Professor David Reynolds, Department of History, Christ's College, University of Cambridge
Summitry as intercultural communication
20 November 2008, University of Sussex (no recording or transcript available)
2007
Professor Robert Jackson, Department of International Relations and Political Science, Boston University
Martin Wight's intellectual world
12 December 2007, LSE (no recording or transcript available)
2006
Dr Andrew Hurrell, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford
One world? Many worlds? The place of regions in the study of international society
23 November 2006, Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs (no recording or transcript available)
2005
Professor Mark Mazower, Department of History, Columbia University
An international civilization? Empire, internationalism and the crisis of the mid-twentieth century
24 November 2005, University of Sussex (no recording or transcript available)
2004
Baroness Professor Onora O'Neill, Newnham College, Cambridge
The dark side of human rights
14 October 2004, LSE (no recording or transcript available)
2003
Neal Ascherson, Journalist and writer, formerly foreign correspondent of The Observer
"Better off without them"? Politics and ethnicity in the twenty-first century
13 November 2003, Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs (no recording or transcript available)
2002
Professor Mary Kaldor, Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics and Political Science
The idea of global civil society
31 October 2002, University of Sussex (no recording or transcript available)
2001
Professor Andrew Linklater, Department of International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
The problem of harm in world politics: implications for the sociology of states-systems
1 November 2001, LSE (no recording or transcript available)
2000
Professor Timothy Garton Ash, European Studies Centre at St Antony's College, University of Oxford
Is Britain European?
2 November 2000, Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs (no recording or transcript available)
Sir Herbert Butterfield gave the first lecture at Sussex University on 23 April 1975.
