Events
US Centre lecture series
The Phelan United States Centre hosts wide and varied events, with the aim to build upon a history of engagement between the LSE and the United States. Our events are free and open to the public, unless specified otherwise.
Upcoming events in 2025/26
Please subscribe to our termly newsletter for updates on forthcoming events.
Please click here to see the full LSE Events programme for Winter Term 2026.
The foreign policy of Donald Trump in historical perspective
With Professor Niall Ferguson (Hoover Institution)Thursday 7 May 2026 6.30pm - 8pm
LSE campus, venue tbc to ticketholdersCommentators around the world draw some startling analogies when they seek to assess President Donald Trump, some even likening him to a Roman emperor or an inter-war dictator. In this lecture, Niall Ferguson puts Trump's foreign policy in an Anglo-American historical perspective.
Trump has cited William McKinley as a role-model, but a much closer resemblance is to Richard Nixon. In his policies towards both allies and adversaries, Trump owes a debt to Nixon, notably to the twin "shocks" of 1971 and the triangular diplomacy with Moscow and Beijing. However, the 2020s differ in many ways from the 1970s. There are clear risks to dusting down Nixon's playbook.
Please note that this event is part of the America's Changing Role in the World lecture series, taking place over the 2025-26 academic year.
Past events
End of the America era? Looking back, looking forward
With Professor Michael Cox (LSE IDEAS), Professor G. John Ikenberry (Princeton University), Professor Stephanie J Rickard (LSE Government), and Professor Ayşe Zarakol (University of Cambridge)Thursday 2 April 2026
At a time of intensifying geopolitical rivalry, economic nationalism, and ideological extremism, this roundtable brought together a group of leading political scientists and historians to take stock of the choices and pathways that have brought America and the world to this unsettled moment.
Please note that this event is part of the America's Changing Role in the World lecture series, taking place over the 2025-26 academic year.
The geopolitical implications of the Israel-US-Iran war
With Professor Toby Dodge (LSE International Relations), Professor Peter Trubowitz (LSE International Relations, Phelan US Centre), Dr Sanam Vakil (Chatham House) and Dr Katerina Dalacoura (LSE Middle East Centre)
Tuesday 17 March 2026A panel of academic experts is brought together by the Middle East Centre at LSE to discuss the current Israel-US-Iran war.
The panel will delve into the geopolitical dynamics currently shaping the conflict and its potential consequences at both regional and international levels. It will discuss how widely the war will become entrenched across the region beyond its first, tactical phase, affecting the domestic politics of its key players. It will examine how the war is reshaping regional power balances, alliances and security structures across the Middle East. Finally, the panel will analyse the war’s impact on theatres of conflict in Europe and Asia and the way it will affect an international order already in flux.
Donald Trump and the unmaking of Europe
Thursday 12 March 2026In this lecture, Dr Nathalie Tocci argued that Donald Trump’s foreign policy record has not been very successful so far, as wars continue to rage in Ukraine and in the Middle East.
The exception is Europe. Trump wants to divide and weaken Europe. And tragically, she argued, he’s not doing badly on this count.
Please note that this event is part of the America's Changing Role in the World lecture series, taking place over the 2025-26 academic year.
American foreign policy in the age of Trump
Thursday 19 February 2026With the old world order visibly weakening, President Donald Trump’s foreign policy is both consequential and confusing. Does Mr Trump have a strategy and if so, what are its prospects for success?
In this lecture, by examining the Trump record in the principal geopolitical arenas, Professor Walter Russell Mead discussed his overall approach to international relations and place this unique figure in the context of American history.
Please note that this event is part of the America's Changing Role in the World lecture series, taking place over the 2025-26 academic year.
America first and the future of Eurasian geopolitics
Wednesday 26 November 2025America’s longstanding role as the guarantor of security in Europe and Asia is now under question at home.
In this lecture, Dr C Raja Mohan, one of India’s leading strategic thinkers and commentators examined the roots of Donald Trump’s America First agenda and assesses its implications for the future of stability on the Eurasian landmass and its surrounding waters.
Please note that this event is part of the America's Changing Role in the World lecture series, taking place over the 2025-26 academic year.
America adrift: the end of the east coast foreign policy elite
Wednesday 12 November 2025America is undergoing rapid demographic change. By the mid-21st century, European Americans, long the country’s largest demographic group, will be roughly equal in numbers to Hispanic, African, and Asian Americans.
In this lecture, Anne-Marie Slaughter considered the possibilities and challenges this shift poses for the Atlantic Hemisphere and the future of transatlantic relations.
Please note that this event is part of the America's Changing Role in the World lecture series, taking place over the 2025-26 academic year.
How to help left behind regions and workers
Tuesday 28 October 2025The decline of manufacturing and the acceleration of technological disruption have concentrated joblessness in distressed regions and blocked many workers from access to good jobs. In this lecture Gordon Hanson addressed the origins of job loss, the reasons for its geographic concentration, and what we’ve learned about policies intended to help left-behind places.
Hosted by the Phelan United States Centre as part of the Wenger Distinguished Lectures.
Southeast Asia between the Superpowers: Who is Where and Why?
Thursday 16 October 2025Hosted by LSE IDEAS, LSE's International Relations Department and the Phelan United States Centre.
One of the most pressing foreign policy challenges that the ten countries of Southeast Asia (ASEAN-10) faces today and in the coming years is how to position themselves between the US and China as the geopolitical rivalry between the two superpowers intensifies. Most in Southeast Asia claim they would prefer not to have to choose between the two superpowers, but that position will become increasingly difficult to maintain as the US and China pressure states in the region to align with them. This talk addressed three key questions related to this strategic dilemma: What do the strategic alignments of the ASEAN-10 look like today? What explains their alignment choices? And what are the implications of the latter for Southeast Asia, the superpowers, and the region? Professor Yuen Foong Khong shared insights from his Alignment Index created to tap the alignment movements of the ASEAN-10 over the last 30 years.
The promise and peril of Trump's America first
Wednesday 8 October 2025Donald Trump’s America First is a response to too much globalisation, too much immigration, and too many wars. But has Trump overcorrected?
In this lecture, Charles Kupchan considered whether a divided America can find the middle ground over foreign policy.
Please note that this event is part of the America's Changing Role in the World lecture series, taking place over the 2025-26 academic year.
The future of US-China relations
Friday 20 June 2025Navigating the US-China relationship will be one of the great challenges of our time. It will impact everything from geopolitics to global growth to technological innovation. Can this pivotal international relationship be managed peacefully and productively, or are we heading toward a world of economic fracture, military rivalry, and multiple blocs?
This panel of leading experts considered the possibilities for progress on issues ranging from international security to international trade, to climate change.
Is there a new Washington consensus?
Tuesday 11 February 2025For roughly a quarter century after the Cold War, the Washington consensus or neoliberalism guided US foreign economic policymaking. Today, that market-oriented consensus is in tatters, as Republicans and Democrats alike have shifted toward government intervention, including industrial policy, and away from free trade.
In this panel discussion, leading experts took stock of these developments and their international implications.
Leadership or drift: what's next for US foreign policy?
Tuesday 21 January 2025What will the next US president’s strategic priorities be internationally? What are the implications for Europe and the rest of the world.
In this roundtable discussion, leading experts on world affairs took stock of the international challenges and opportunities facing the new administration.
The 2024 US election: turning point for America?
Wednesday 6 November 2024Leading experts discussed the 2024 US election and its domestic and international implications.
What AI is doing to America's democracy
Tuesday 15 October 2024In this lecture, Lawrence Lessig was joined by LSE President and Vice Chancellor Larry Kramer to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on the 2024 American election, and the implications that this will have for democracy in the future.
A Celebration of James Baldwin at 100
Friday 2 August 2024The Phelan US Centre and the LSE Webster Review of International History hosted a special event honouring the legendary writer James Baldwin on what would have been his 100th birthday. This celebration included discussions and reflections on Baldwin's impactful work and enduring legacy.
Anti-globalism, international disorder and the West
Friday 14 June 2024Early hopes that Western democracies’ unified response to Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine would break the populist, anti-globalist fever have not been fulfilled. Instead, since the invasion, opponents of the liberal order have made deeper inroads in France, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the possibility persists that Trump may return to the White House in 2025. This panel of experts will consider the international implications of populism’s continuing success in Western democracies.
The Policing Machine: Enforcement, Endorsements, and the Illusion of Public Input
Tuesday 21 May 2024The past few years have seen Americans express passionate demands for police transformation. Despite calls for increased accountability, police departments have successfully stonewalled change. In The Policing Machine, Tony Cheng reveals the stages of that resistance, offering a close look at the deep engagement strategies that NYPD precincts have developed with only subsets of the community in order to counter any truly meaningful, democratic oversight.
Made in China: When US-China interests converged to transform global trade
Tuesday 7 May 2024How did China—the world’s largest communist nation—converge with global capitalism? And when did this occur? In this event, LSE historian Dr. Elizabeth Ingleson argued that this convergence began in the early 1970s, when the United States and China re-opened trade and the interests of US capitalists and the Chinese state gradually aligned: at the expense of US labor and aided by US diplomats.
Is the risk of nuclear war increasing?
Tuesday 30 April 2024Nuclear security issues are back on the international agenda. Russia’s war in Ukraine, breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, and mounting rivalry between the US and China in East Asia have raised anew concerns about the risks of nuclear war. This panel event examined those risks and the steps that can be taken to reduce them.
Déja vu all over again? Super Tuesday and the race for the presidency
Wednesday 6 March 2024Will Super Tuesday guarantee a repeat of the 2020 contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump? The day after this important primary contest, this panel discussion with academics and journalists reflected on the US presidential primary results and gave their predictions for the general election.
Climate Change: America and the World
Monday 6 November 2023 - Friday 19 January 2024This special exhibition in the LSE Atrium Gallery raised questions about our global responsibility to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Conference keynote event:
Rethinking market capitalism: Innovation and the Path to Shared Prosperity
Friday 20 October 2023In this lecture and discussion, Professor Daron Acemoglu explored the possibilities for reforming capitalism to bring greater prosperity and security to more people.
The Future of Capitalism in an Age of Insecurity Conference
Friday 20 - Saturday 21 October 2023Panelists explored the role that governments, businesses and global institutions might play in helping to negotiate the challenges geopolitical turmoil, democratic discontent, anti-globalism, and technological change on capitalist economies at the local, national, and global levels.
Recovering enslaved peoples' perspectives from archives, literature, and art
Thursday 5 October 2023A special event with Henry Louis Gates, Jr in conversation with Isaac Julien and Imaobong Umoren.
The Birth Lottery of History
Thursday 15 June 2023Does when you are born shape your life chances? Leading sociologist Robert J. Sampson discussed his ground-breaking study of criminal justice, showing that when you come of age matters as much (and perhaps more than) who you are in determining whether you get arrested.
Global Governance in an Age of Fracture
Thursday 1 June 2023Support for traditional international institutions such as the UN and the WTO is weakening in the Global North as well as the Global South. In this event, an expert panel discusses the future of global governance.
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
Jade Plancke's report of the event [USAPP]
Anti-globalism and the Future of the Liberal World Order
Tuesday 9 May 2023In their new book Geopolitics and Democracy, Professor Peter Trubowitz andProfessor Brian Burgoonprovide a new explanation of why the liberal international order has buckled under the pressure of anti-globalist political forces. This roundtable will discussed the book and its broader implications for democracy and the liberal order going forward.
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
This event was hosted by the LSE Department of International Relations
The Rise and Fall of the EAST
Monday 27 March 2023In this event, Professor Yasheng Huang, the Epoch Foundation Professor of International Management at MIT, discussed how autocracy and ideological homogeneity have hampered Chinese technological development in the past, and threaten to do so again.
Monumental Denial: U.S. cultural memory and white innocence
Friday 24 March 2023In this talk, Professor Laura Pulido explored how U.S. cultural memory represents processes of white supremacy and settler colonisation.
Co-hosted with the LSE Department of Geography and Environment
Waning Globalisation
Tuesday 14 March 2023In this event, Professor Pinelopi Goldberg, former Chief Economist of the World Bank Group, discussed the causes and implications of the retreat from globalisation for growth and inequality.
Hosted by the Phelan United States Centre as part of the Wenger Distinguished Lectures.
Lessons from the Edge: a memoir
Thursday 26 January 2023In this event,Marie Yovanovitch, former US ambassador to Ukraine, discussed her best-selling memoir, Russia's war on Ukraine, and what the West needs to do next, with Tomila Lankina and Peter Trubowitz.
Sizing up the US Midterm Elections
Wednesday 9 November 2022The evening after the 2022 midterm elections, a group of leading political analysts took stock of the results and their significance for democratic governance in America.
Viral Justice
Thursday 3 November 2022In this event, Ruha Benjamin discussed a practical vision of how small changes can add up to large ones, transforming our relationships and communities and helping us build a more just and joyful world.
The Rise and Fall of the Neo-Liberal Order
Monday 17 October 2022In this event, we were joined by Gary Gerstle to discuss his new book, The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era.
Co-hosted with the Ralph Miliband Programme.
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
What is the Future of the US Supreme Court?
Tuesday 4 October 2022In this event, a panel of leading experts on American history and politics considered where the US Supreme Court is headed and what this means for American democracy.
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
Russia, America, and the Future of European Security
Wednesday 15 June 2022
In this event, leading national security expert Dr Fiona Hill (Brookings Institution) discussed Putin's Russia and the implications of the invasion of Ukraine for the future of European security, with Professor Kristina Spohr (LSE) and Professor Peter Trubowitz (LSE).This event was hosted by the Phelan United States Centre as part of the
The Future of the Liberal World Order
Thursday 9 June 2022In this hybrid event, Professor G. John Ikenberry (Princeton University), Professor Mary Kaldor (LSE), Professor Charles A. Kupchan (Georgetown University) and Professor Ayşe Zarakol (University of Cambridge) discussed the future of the liberal world order, in light of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and years of international discord.
Hosted by the Phelan United States Centre as part of the Wenger Distinguished Lectures.
Agonies of Empire: American power from Clinton to Biden
Thursday 24 March 2022This event, co-hosted with LSE IDEAS and the Ralph Miliband Programme, marked Michael Cox's new book, Agonies of Empire - American Power from Clinton to Biden. Professor Michael Cox (LSE), Professor Peter Trubowitz (LSE) and Professor Caroline Kennedy-Pipe (Loughborough University) discussed American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.
Biden's Foreign Policy: America's back or America first?
Tuesday 22 February 2022In this event, leading foreign policy experts sized up the Biden administration's foreign policy and what we might expect from the administration going forward.
President Biden's First Year: success or failure?
Tuesday 25 January 2022In this event, a panel of leading experts on the United States took stock of the Biden administration’s first year in office and the road ahead.
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
Jim Crow 2.0: Voter Suppression in the 21st Century
9 December 2021In the third seminar in the Race, Gender and Politics in the US series Professor Carol Anderson (Emory University)reflected on the intersection of race and rights in the contemporary US. Professor Anderson discussed the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, voter suppression, and the resistance against this anti-democratic trend.
More information on the Race, Gender and Politics in the US series
Rethinking American Political Economy
Monday 15 November 2021Two leading US political scientists discussed how globalisation, economic inequality and democratic erosions are reshaping American political life.
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
The Slow Death of Sagon Penn: Police Violence in Reagan-era San Diego
Tuesday 9 November 2021In the second seminar in the Race, Gender and Politics in the US series, Dr. Adriane Lentz-Smith (Duke University) used the case of Sagon Penn, a young black martial-arts expert who was acquitted of the murder of a white police officer in 1985, to examine police racism and violence in Reagan-era San Diego.
More information on the Race, Gender and Politics in the US series
What Climate Change Loss and Damage Means for the US and the World
Wednesday 3 November 2021This event brought together a range of speakers who have researched and organised around climate change loss and damage who discussed the potential and limitations of existing policy frameworks, and examined how climate justice might inform a global response.
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
Black Women and Political Leadership in the US
Tuesday 26 October 2021In the first seminar in the Race, Gender and Politics in the US series, Professor Nadia E. Brown (Georgetown University) and Dr. Anastasia Curwood (University of Kentucky), focused on the issue of Black women and political leadership. The event highlighted the links between figures like Shirley Chisholm, who in 1972 became the first African American woman to run as a candidate of a major party for the US presidency, and current US Vice President Kamala Harris.
More information on the Race, Gender and Politics in the US series
The Plague Year: America in the time of COVID-19
Wednesday 6 October 2021In this event, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright discussed his new book, The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid.
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
From Crisis to Transformation: a path forward
Tuesday 5 October 2021In this event, Anne-Marie Slaughter discussed her new book, Renewal: From Crisis to Transformation in Our Lives, Work, and Politics.
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
International Religious Freedom under the Biden Administration
Tuesday 15 June 2021This roundtable discussion featuring Dr Judd Birdsall (Georgetown University), Dr Courtney Freer (LSE Middle East Centre), Dr H A Hellyer (Carnegie Endowment), and James Walters (LSE Religion and Global Society Unit) examined the Biden Administration’s approach to international religious freedom and the implications this has on American foreign policy.
Co-hosted with the Department of International Relations and the Religion and Global Society Unit.
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
Where Are All the 'Welfare Queens?' Diversity and European Evidence on Single-Parent Families
Thursday 20 May 2021The American social policy discourse is very much shaped by the image of the "welfare queen" – a never-married single mother who is dependent on public assistance and refuses to work. Professor Janet C. Gornick (CUNY), Dr Laurie C. Maldonado (Molloy College), Professor Ive Marx (University of Antwerp), Dr Rense Nieuwenhuis (Stockholm University), and Dr Amanda Sheely (LSE Social Policy) discussed how experiences of lone parents across Europe and other countries call this stereotype into question, and what this means for social policy.
Co-hosted with the Department of Social Policy as part of the Phelan Family Lecture Series
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
The Work of the Future: where will it come from?
Wednesday 5 May 2021How will technological innovation change the workplace? How can we harness technological advances for social benefit? Professor David Autor (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Professor Judy Wajcman (LSE Sociology) explored the relationships between emerging technologies and the future of work in America and beyond.
Hosted by the United States Centre as part of the Wenger Distinguished Lectures.
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
Race and Democracy in America
Tuesday 30 March 2021Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad (Harvard Kennedy School) discussed race and racial inequity in the United States, past and present.
Hosted by the United States Centre as part of the US Centre lecture series.
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
Podcast of the event[LSE Player]
Isolationism: the future of US foreign policy?
Thursday 4 March 2021Charles Kupchan (Georgetown University) discussed his new book, Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World with Dr Leslie Vinjamuri (SOAS). The discussion covered how the resurgence of isolationism is reshaping America foreign policy and what it means for the post-COVID world.
Hosted by LSE Festival: Shaping the Post-COVID World.
Video Recording of the event [Youtube]
Podcast of the event[LSE Player]
The Recurring Crises of American Democracy
Wednesday 10 February 2021Professor Robert Lieberman (Johns Hopkins University) and Professor Suzanne Mettler (Cornell University) discussed America’s current predicament and how it differs from past threats to democracy in the US.
Hosted by the United States Centre as part of the US Centre lecture series.
Video recording of the event [Youtube]
Podcast of the event[LSE Player]
The Next Four Years: what should we expect for America?
Thursday 21 January 2021What will the new Biden administration's international and domestic priorities be? In this roundtable discussion, leading experts on American politics, Professor Desmond King (Nuffield College, Oxford), Mark Landler (The New York Times), Professor Paula D. McClain (Duke University), and Professor Theda Skocpol (Harvard University), discussed what may be in store for the United States over the next four years.
Hosted by the United States Centre as part of the US Centre lecture series.
Tuesday 8 December 2020Professor Dani Rodrik (Harvard Kennedy School) explored the globalization backlash and the ways (hyper-)globalization has produced a political counter-reaction. In discussion with Professor Sara Hobolt (LSE European Institute), he presented an alternative model of globalization that is more compatible with economic prosperity and social inclusion.
Hosted by the United States Centre as part of the Wenger Distinguished Lectures.
Tuesday 24 November 2020Explanations for variants of populism are typically framed as a contest between culture and economics. Building on his recent book, The Populist Temptation, Professor Barry Eichengreen (University of California-Berkeley) considered the arguments for both in discussion with Professor Stephanie Rickard (LSE Government).
Hosted by the United States Centre as part of the US Centre lecture series.
Monday 9 November 2020One week after the US election, Lord Nicholas Stern (LSE), Anne-Marie Slaughter (President and CEO, New America), Naomi Oreskes (Harvard University), and Laurence Tubiana (CEO, European Climate Foundation) assessed the outcome and the prospects for the future of American and international climate policy.
Listen to the event podcast [mp3]
Thursday 5 November 2020In this lively discussion, Professor Meena Bose (Hofstra University), Dr David Smith (University of Sydney), Professor Jeffrey Tulis (University of Texas at Austin), and Dr. Linda Yueh (LSE and Oxford University) reviewed the results of the 2020 US presidential election and gave insights into what we can expect over the next four years.
Thursday 22 October 2020In this lecture, Professor Tracey L. Meares (Yale Law School) discussed the historical context of the abolition of slavery in the United States, located it in the broader context of Reconstruction, and offered an idea of policing as a public good that is central to a conception of citizenship.
Hosted by the United States Centre as part of the Phelan US Centre Lecture Series.
Thursday 8 October 2020Who are the millions of people who have marched against the Trump administration, how do they relate to other contemporary social movements and uprisings in the US—and what does it all mean for the future of American democracy? Professor Dana R. Fisher (University of Maryland) joined Professor David Madden (LSE Sociology) in conversation about her new book, 'American Resistance'.
Co-hosted by LSE Department of Sociology and the United States Centre.
Thursday 8 October 2020Professor G. John Ikenberry (Princeton University) discussed the history of liberal internationalism and argued for its continued relevance as a force to protect liberal democracy in a twenty first century marked by rising economic and security interdependence.
Monday 5 October 2020In this event, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize winning author of the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, was in conversation with US Centre Director Professor Peter Trubowitz.
Wednesday 30 September 2020In this event, Professor Anne Case (Princeton University), and Professor Angus Deaton (Princeton University),discussed their book, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism and tied the crisis to the weakening position of labour, the growing power of corporations, and, above all, to a greedy health-care sector that redistributes working-class wages into the pockets of the wealthy.
Friday 12 June 2020George Floyd’s death has sparked widespread protest in the US over police abuse. This roundtable discussed the sources of police violence and what can be done to fix America’s police and make law enforcement accountable.
Thursday 4 June 2020In this lecture, Professor Joseph S. Nye Jr.(Harvard Kennedy School of Government) looked at the foreign policies of 14 US presidents since 1945, scoring each one on their ethical decision-making.
Tuesday 2 June 2020
This event was hosted by the International Drug Policy Unit (IDPU) which was part of the LSE US Centre
The potential impact of COVID-19 on economic markets is well known and widely discussed. But what about the markets we know less about, namely illicit markets?
- Super Tuesday event
Wednesday 4 March 2020The day after Super Tuesday 2020, the US Centre hosted a panel discussion with academics and journalists who reflected on the US presidential primary results and gave their predictions for the general election.
Thursday 27 February 2020In this lecture, Professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson (University of Pennsylvania) brought together what is known about the impact of the Russian interventions in the 2016 US presidential election, outlined the contours of the #DemocracyRIP Russian plans to undercut the presidency of Hillary Clinton, and asked what’s next and what can we do about it.
Thursday 30 January 2020Professor Nicholas Buccola (Linfield College) revisited the historic 1965 debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, the controversies that followed, and how it and the decades-long clash between the two men continues to illuminate America's racial divide today.
Is Progressive Capitalism an Answer to America's Problems?
Wednesday 4 December 2019We all have the sense that our economy tilts toward big business, but a few corporations have come to dominate entire sectors, contributing to skyrocketing inequality and slow growth. Too many have made their wealth through exploitation of others rather than through wealth creation. In this lecture, Professor Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University) argued that we need to exploit the benefits of markets while taming their excesses, making sure that markets work for people and not the other way around.
Video recording of the event [Facebook Live]
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
Planning New York
Tuesday 5 November 2019New York City’s Planning Department undertakes to make the city a better place to live, to maintain what works and improve what doesn’t. How does it face today’s most pressing challenges? Marisa Lago, Chair of the New York City Planning Commission, reflected on the challenges of delivering change in under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.
Ending the US Overdose Crisis: lessons from other times and places
Tuesday 22 October 2019Some of the world’s leading experts on this topic discussed how the US can learn from the lessons of past policy failures and create policies that provide greater hope to help end the overdose crisis.
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
Can America Still Have a Successful Foreign Policy?
Monday 21 October 2019Donald Trump took office pledging to "make America great again," but his actions as president have done nothing to make Americans or the world either safer or more prosperous. Professor Stephen M. Walt (Harvard University) discussed what a more realistic and successful foreign policy might look like, and what needs to change in order to implement it.
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
Donald Trump and the Roots of Republican Extremism in the US
Monday 14 October 2019Professor Theda Skocpol (Harvard University)explained how sets of organizations expressing two separate currents of right wing extremism – billionaire ultra-free-market fundamentalism and popularly rooted ethno-nationalist resentment – have worked in tandem to remake the Republican Party.
How Millennial Economics Will Shake Up US Politics
Wednesday 9 October 2019Joseph C. Sternberg (Wall Street Journal)presented an overview of Millennial economics in America and of how the Great Recession particularly affected Millennials in ways that continue to resonate even as economic conditions have improved.
Book Launch: "I Made Mistakes" - Robert McNamara and Vietnam
Monday 7 October 2019Although Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara is remembered as the architect of the Vietnam War, Dr. Aurélie Basha (University of Kent) drew on new sources to reveal a man who resisted the war more than most.
Finding My Voice: my journey to the West Wing and the path forward
Tuesday 18 June 2019Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, joined US Centre Director Peter Trubowitz in conversation about her new book.
Is the Presidency of Donald Trump a Political Aberration?
Thursday 2 May 2019Professor Stephen Skowronek examined long-running patterns in the politics of presidential leadership to sort out what is new, and what is not, in the Trump phenomenon.
Podcast of the event [ LSE Player]
In Conversation with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Monday 15th April 2019The US Centre hosted US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an evening of conversation on US politics. The discussion ranged over a wide variety of topics including Brexit, the Democratic Party and trade relations with China.
The Dangers of Brexit for the Special Relationship
Wednesday 20 March 2019In this lecture US Senator Chris Murphy discussed the history and future of the transatlantic relationship, in light of the UK's likely coming exit from the European Union at the end of March 2019.
The Great Delusions: liberal dreams and and international realities
Thursday 17 January 2019In this lecture Professor John Mearsheimer explained why US foreign policy so often backfires and what can be done to set it straight.
New Conspiracists
Wednesday 14 November 2018Classic conspiracy theories, whether plausible or farfetched, tries to explain things, to make sense of the world. The new conspiracism, by contrast, is conspiracy without the theory. Having shed theory and explanation, it can seem like free-floating fabulation. Facilitated by a revolution in communications technology, empowered by the election of a conspiracist to the White House in 2016, it is not a marginal phenomenon on the fringe of politics—and it threatens to delegitimate democratic institutions.
Making Sense of the US Midterms
Wednesday 7 November 2018The US Centre hosted an evening of conversation as a panel of speakers discussed the midterm election results and what they meant for Donald Trump's presidency and the US.
Politics as Performance: Will the American Fascination with 'Trump Style' survive the 2018 Midterms?
Wednesday 31 October 2018Erik Bucy discussed how Trump’s performances relate to those of recent presidential candidates, including not just Hillary Clinton in 2016 but Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012—and on how ‘Trump Style’ is resonating among voters in the 2018 congressional elections.
A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism
Monday 22 October 2018Jeffrey Sachs, a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries, came to the US Centre for a conversation about his new book 'A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism'.
Understanding Recent Developments in North American Cannabis Policy
Monday 8 October 2018In partnership with the US Centre, the LSE International Drug Policy Unit hosted Professor Wayne Hall for his talk 'Understanding recent developments in North American cannabis policy'.
Janesville: an American story
Tuesday 2 October 2018What really happens to workers, families and a community when good jobs go away? Amy Goldstein discussed the story of one small, proud city in the American heartland that lost the United States’ oldest operating General Motors assembly plant two days before Christmas in the midst of the Great Recession – and the lessons it offers about economic pain and resilience.
Conspiracy Theories in the Age of Trump
Wednesday 25 July 2018Professor Joe Uscinski discussed the idea that conspiracy theories follow a strategic logic: they are tools used by the powerless to attack and defend against the powerful.
Texas, Trump and the Future of America
Tuesday 15 May 2018Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, screenwriter, playwright and a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine talked about the most controversial state in America and what it tells us about Donald Trump and the future of the US.
The Double Game: The Demise of America's First Missile Defense System and the Rise of Strategic Arms Limitation
13 March 2018James Cameron examined the nuclear policies and rhetoric of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon.
Rethinking the Origins of the Drug War in Mexico
23 February 2018This public lecture re-evaluated the history of the drug war in Mexico by bringing together two eminent historians to examine the crucial developments of Mexican drug policy and its discourse on drugs over the past 100 years.
Militarisation and the "War on Crime"
7 November 2017The deployment of armies, navies, military assets and militarised approaches can send a powerful message, but have produced mixed results. This debate, co hosted between the LSE US Centre's International Drug Policy Unit and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime discussed four different areas of criminality – wildlife crime, piracy, human smuggling and drug trafficking – to see how effective a militarised response can really be, and what might be lost as collateral damage.
Video recording of the event [YouTube]
Podcast of the event [LSE Player]
Webinar for LSE staff and students on Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
31 October 2017The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research is the largest archive of public opinion survey data in existence. It’s also available for LSE students and staff to use in their research. Together with the LSE Library, the US Centre co-hosted a webinar on the Roper Center’s collection of public opinion data and how LSE staff and students can use it.
Between the United States and Russia: Past and Present Perspectives on the creation of a separate European nuclear deterrent
25 October 2017In the age of Trump, does Europe need to rethink its security relationship in a post-Brexit Europe? Is it time for Europe to consider its own nuclear deterrent force?
The Politics of Resentment in the 2016 US Presidential Election
2 May 2017
Katherine Cramer explored how rural American resentment toward cities and the urban elite can provide fertile ground for right-leaning candidates to win elections, and the implications of this on contemporary politics in the US and beyond.The First 100 Days: Taking Stock of the Trump Presidency
26 April 2017The US Centre hosted a roundtable debate about the 45th US President’s first 100 days in office. A panel of academics and journalists discussed the new administration’s priorities and the international implications of the current US political landscape.
Do American Universities Promote Income Inequality?
21 March 2017Tali Mendelberg explored how ‘the affluent campus effect’ illustrates how college socialization partly explains why affluent Americans support economically conservative policies.
Anxiety, Fear, and National Identity: Anti-Immigration Politics and the Rise of Latino Power in the US
14 March 2017Neil Foley explored how the surge in immigration since the 1970s has led to increasing levels of xenophobia resulting in anti-immigrant politics and policies, including militarization of the border, state laws curtailing rights of undocumented immigrants, mass detention and deportation, the building of a 700-mile border fence in 2006, and Donald Trump’s recent promise to build a wall along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.
From Obama to Trump: What’s Next for US Foreign Policy
7 March 2017Charles Kupchan explored how America’s international priorities and policies will be affected by the new administration.
Coffee with Professor Charles Kupchan
7 March 2017The LSE US Centre and the LSESU Grimshaw Club held a career development workshop for students where Professor Charles Kupchan discussed his experiences and answered questions on entering the field of International Relations.
Congress to Campus - President Trump and the Republican Congress: Prospects under the new Administration
6 March 2017The new US Administration has elements that are perhaps unique in American history, and Republicans are in the rare position of controlling both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. The Democrats have much to consider as they re-group both inside the Beltway and around the nation. Former Members of the US House of Representatives from both the Republican and Democratic Parties discussed their thoughts on the altered political landscape of the US and its implications abroad.
The Fractured American Republic and the Possibilities for Political Renewal
21 February 2017As part of the 2017 LSE Literary Festival, Yuval Levin discussed his new book, The Fractured Republic. Levin's talk covered how US politics are failing 21st-century Americans as both parties are blind to how America has changed over the past half century and why the dysfunctions of the nation's fragmented national life will need to be answered by the strengths of its decentralized, diverse, dynamic character.
LSE US Centre PhD Network and Welcome Drinks
26 January 2017The LSE United States Centre held a drinks reception to bring together PhD students with research interest on the US.
The Yanks Are Coming! LSE in the American Century
17 November 2016LSE has helped shaped the United States and Americans have helped define the LSE since its foundation in 1895. Professor Mick Cox explained what has been a very "special relationship".
Fed Power: How Finance Wins
16 November 2016Larry Jacobs and Desmond King discussed their new book, Fed Power: How Finance Wins, which traces the Fed's historic development during the 19th century to its current position as the most important institution in the American economy, possessing unparalleled capacity and autonomy to intervene in private markets.
What's Next? Analysing the 2016 US Presidential Election
9 November 2016A lively evening of discussion with media and academic experts on US politics reviewing the unprecedented results of the 2016 US presidential election, as well as insights into what we can expect from the incoming Donald Trump administration.
US Presidential Debate Screening and Discussion: ‘Come Debate the Debate’
20 October 2016The US Centre held a screening of the final US presidential debate before the 2016 elections which was followed by a discussion with US Centre Director, Professor Peter Trubowitz.
What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?
11 October 2016Financial inequality is one of the biggest political issues of our time: from the Wall Street bailouts to the rise of the One Percent, who between them control forty-percent of the US wealth. So where are the Democrats - the notional 'party of the people' in all of this?
Why Washington Won’t Work
5 October 2016Marc Hetherington examined why Americans today viscerally dislike and distrust the party opposite the one they identify with more than at any point in the last 100 years, and how these negative feelings are central to understanding the political dysfunction and gridlock that has gripped the U.S. for the past decade.
The Visual Framing of US Presidential Elections: When Style Obscures Substance in Presidential Debates
4 October 2016Nearly 60 years on from the first televised presidential debates, how candidates look and act in such competitive contexts is as important as ever. Erik Bucy of Texas Tech University discussed his research into non-verbal cues in presidential debates and the 2016 presidential election.
Race, Reform and the New Retrenchment: the perils of post-racialism after Obama
11 May 2016Heightening tensions in the US over police killings of black people have undermined confidence that the election of Barack Obama signaled a new era on race relations in the US. Through a Critical Race Theory prism, Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw discussed Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name as challenges to contemporary jurisprudence on race, and assessed the new openings presented by current events.
The Politics of Spatial Inequality in Metropolitan America
15 March 2016Professor Margaret Weir of Brown University discussed how politics and policies played out across the American federal system create spatial inequalities but also present new opportunities for challenging them.
The Evening After the Night Before: analysing Super Tuesday
2 March 2016On the 1st of March millions of American voters in 12 states went to the polls in the 2016 US presidential election's 'Super Tuesday’ primary. The US Centre held a lively evening of discussion and debate on the Super Tuesday results with six experts on US politics.
Who will be the next US President?
24 February 2016Professor Lawrence Jacobs, Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and Director of the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, evaluated the most polarizing and anti-establishment candidates in modern US politics, speculated on who will win the nomination and why, and what this might mean for the 2016 presidential election.
The Future of Work
25 January 2016Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and CEO of New America, and former Director of Policy Planning at the US State Department under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visited LSE and discussed the need to transform gender roles for men as much as women and to reinvent the workplace.
Lessons for the Euro from America's Past
19 January 2016Drawing on early America’s struggle to develop a single currency, Professor Jeffry Frieden discussed the implications for the European Union’s efforts today to provide monetary and financial stability.
A Conversation with Ben Bernanke
28 October 2015The LSE US Centre, together with the Economics Department, hosted the Former Chair of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke. Bernanke discussed his new book, The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath, and his time as chair of the US Federal Reserve.
In Conversation with Secretary Lew
27 May 2015A conversation between US Secretary of the Treasury Jacob J. Lew and Paul Ingrassia, Managing Editor of Reuters.
Past Phelan US Centre conferences
International relations and democracy in a multipolar world
15-16 May 2025Convened by Rohan Mukherjee (LSE Department of International Relations), Luca Tardelli (LSE Department of International Relations), Theresa Squatrito (LSE Department of International Relations), and Mathias Koenig-Archibugi (LSE Department of Government), this conferenced how the importance of democratic discourses and practices are in the broader context of challenges to the US-led international order.
The housing squeeze: the politics of shrinking domestic space in the US and beyond
8-9 May 2025This conference was convened by Jessie Speer (LSE Department of Geography and Environment) and David Madden (LSE Department of Sociology) and brought scholars of US tiny housing together with researchers looking at housing and homelessness in Hong Kong, Europe, India and Canada.
Innovation and Inequality in Europe and the US
17-18 June 2024Convened by Phelan US Centre Affiliates David Soskice (LSE Department of Government), Michael Storper (LSE Department of Geography and Environment), and Neil Lee (LSE Department of Geography and Environment), this conference brought together leading thinkers from academia and policy to discuss the relationship between inequalities and the social models which have been adopted, and radical innovation, in Europe and the US.
US Nuclear Strategy in a Changing Indo-Pacific
7 June 2024Convened by Phelan US Centre Affiliates Matthew Jones (LSE Department of International History), Rohan Mukherjee (LSE Department of International Relations), and Lauren Sukin (LSE Department of International Relations), this conference connected academic research and policy-relevant thinking on practical and contemporary issues surrounding nuclear security in the Indo-Pacific.
20-21 October 2023
Panelists explored the role that governments, businesses and global institutions might play in helping to negotiate the challenges geopolitical turmoil, democratic discontent, anti-globalism, and technological change on capitalist economies at the local, national, and global levels.
Past Research Seminars
5 March 2020Using one of the most outrageous scandals in modern American political history as a case study - the Housing and Urban Development Scandal (HUD) of the 1980s and 1990s which saw political officials steal billions in federal funding set aside for low-income housing residents – Professor Leah Wright Rigueur (Harvard Kennedy School)told the complex story of the transformation of Black politics and the astonishing racial politics of presidential administrations that have paved the way for patterns of political misconduct that have continued into the present.
The Rise of the Rural One Percent
17 March 2016Speaker: Joseph Baines
In rural America, recent high and volatile agricultural prices have seen the average commercial farm ascend into the top income percentile of US households.
Joseph Baines is a Fellow in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics.
Religion and the Delegated State in America
15 March 2016Speaker: Margaret Weir
Non-profit organizations have become key arms of the American welfare state. Yet accounts of the rise of the third sector have little to say about the South and the Southwest, areas of the country where population and poverty have grown the most over the past two decades. Historical legacies of race, religion, and immigration gave rise to diverse organizational ecologies for assisting the poor in different parts of the country, resulting in two distinct forms of delegated state in America: a civic-public model in the North and Midwest and a religious-private model in the South and Southwest. These regional differences mean that organized resources for resisting neoliberalism vary systematically in different parts of the country.
Margaret Weir is Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs at Brown University.The American Democratic Deficit
24 February 2016Speaker: Lawrence Jacobs
American presidents often claim to speak for the "people" but new research based on White House archives demonstrates that presidents largely respond to the affluent and well-organized.
Lawrence R. Jacobs is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey School and the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. and the Decline of the Eastern Establishment
2 February 2016Speaker: Luke Nichter
Senator, statesman, presidential advisor, and presidential candidate by popular demand, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. and his national political career that stretched from the 1930s to the 1970s have up to now escaped biographical treatment.Luke A. Nichter is an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University - Central Texas. He tweets at @lukenic.
Currency Politics, Political Economy and the Gold Standard
19 January 2016Speaker: Jeffry Frieden
For much of the late nineteenth century the United States was a hotbed of exchange rate controversy, but by 1896 the election of William McKinley, the pro-gold candidate, signalled the triumph of the Gold Standard and paved the way for dollar hegemony. What can the experiences of the 1890s tell us about today's currency politics?
Jeffry Frieden is Professor of Government at Harvard University, specializing in the politics of international monetary and financial relations.
The Debate on the Iran Deal: Learned and Unlearned Lessons from History
10 November 2015Speaker: Joseph F Pilat
The debate over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was agreed between Iran and the P5+1 in July 2015, raises fundamental issues about noncompliance, international monitoring and verification and nuclear latency that have been in the forefront of concerns about nonproliferation over the last 25 years. In this session, Joseph F. Pilat discussed lessons learned and unlearned from Iraq, North Korea, South Africa and Libya, and how they shaped the negotiation and content of the agreement and the prospects for the JPCOA’s success, in what will be one of the most important foreign policy legacies of the Obama administration.
Joseph F. Pilat is a Program Manager in the National Security Office of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where he co-directs the Nonproliferation Forum.