Europe in a post-liberal world
Conversation with Pedro Serrano, the EU Ambassador to the UK

Co hosted with the European Institute and the European Foreign Policy Unit

Wednesday 18 February 2026 90 minutes

Join Pedro Serrano, the European Union Ambassador to the United Kingdom, at this event to discuss Europe in a post-liberal world.

Today, the founding principles of the international liberal order – the rule of law, democracy, free trade, and collective security – are being challenged in a world where military force, zero-sum competition, and the weaponisation of interdependence increasingly define international relations.

Meet our speaker

Pedro Serrano is the European Union Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Discussants

Federica Bicchi is Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of International Relations at LSE. Her current research focuses on contemporary trends in European diplomacy, especially in relation to the digitalisation of diplomacy and developments in European foreign policy cooperation. 

Spyros Economides is Associate Professor in International Relations. His current research concentrates on: the ‘West’ in contemporary international relations; the external relations and security policies of the EU; Europeanisation and foreign policy, and the EU’s relationship with the Western Balkans.

Chair

Karen E Smith is Professor of International Relations Theory in the Department of International Relations at LSE. 

Find out more about the event and speakers

Listen to the podcast (due to a technical fault this recording begins 15 mins late)

The Militarisation of British Democracy: The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and the rise of authoritarianism

Thursday 12 February 2026 90 minutes

In this book launch event, Paul Dixon presents his new book, The Militarisation of British Democracy: The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and the Rise of Authoritarianism (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) followed by a panel discussion about the key questions.

Dixon explores how senior military leaders, not just politicians, played a decisive role in driving Britain into the Iraq and Afghan wars; arguing that the pursuit of war and the further militarisation of British democracy since 9/11 has made the nation particularly prone to military aggression. 

Meet our speaker

Professor Paul Dixon teaches at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Leicester. His publications include Performing the Northern Ireland Peace Process (2018) and editing The British Approach to Counterinsurgency: From Malaya and Northern Ireland to Iraq and Afghanistan (2012).

Discussants

Antonia Lucia Dawes is a Lecturer in Social Justice at King's College London and works on racism, militarism and cultural theory. Her most recent co-authored book is England’s Military Heartland (2025).

Sir Simon Jenkins is a journalist and author. He writes weekly for the Guardian and elsewhere. 

Tom Stevenson is a foreign correspondent and contributing editor at the London Review of Books. He has reported from Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Turkey, Iraq, Mexico, and Ukraine, among others. 

Chair

Professor Toby Dodge is Professor of International Relations at LSE. 

Find out more about the event and speakers

Listen to the podcast

Forged or fragmented? Europe in times of crisis

Thursday 22 January 2026 90 minutes

Co-hosted with the European Foreign Policy Unit at LSE

Jean Monnet envisioned that the joint pursuit of practical solutions to common challenges can reinforce European integration. In recent years, the EU has confronted a poly-crisis, as overlapping threats and challenges have increasingly compounded one another. 

The event explores how today’s strategic landscape, including Russia’s war against Ukraine, hybrid campaigns, a volatile transatlantic relationship and intensifying geo-economic competition, is affecting Europe’s priorities, European politics and European integration. Will the existing threats and challenges forge a more united Europe or splinter it?

Meet our speakers

Mikaela Gavas is the Managing Director of The Center for Global Development (CDG) Europe and a Senior Policy Fellow. 

Caroline de Gruyter is a Member of the Board of Bruegel and a Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. 

Anand Menon is Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King's College London and Director of the UK in a Changing Europe project. His areas of research interest include the policies and institutions of the European Union, European security, and British politics.

Chair

Teona Giuashvili is the DINAM Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE.

Find out more about the event and speakers

Listen to the podcast (apologies for the poor audio)

Decentering Emissions: How the developing world can shape the climate change agenda

Co-hosted with the Global School of Sustainability at LSE

Wednesday 21 January 2026 90 minutes

Our collective climate future is likely to be shaped by the development choices made by the vast majority of people in the developing world. Yet, the global climate policy conversation seldom asks what it would take for the Global South to align development with low-carbon and resilient futures.

This talk explores the intersection of climate and development. It examines different forms of national climate politics, how they intersect with development futures, and explore whether and how development choices can internalise climate concerns.

Meet our speaker

Navroz K Dubash is a Professor of Public and International Affairs and the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University, and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative, New Delhi, which he helped co-found. 

Discussant

Kasia Paprocki is Associate Professor of Environment in the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE. Her research is broadly concerned with political economies and ecologies of development, and the social movements that address them. Her work sheds light on the ways that development interventions and knowledge systems shape communities and landscapes.

Chair

Robert Falkner is Professor of International Relations in the Department of International Relations at LSE, and the Academic Dean of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA.

Find out more about the event and speakers

Watch the event on YouTube

Read our student blogger event report