Contributor(s): Dr Martin Rupiya, Patrick Smith, Knox Chitiyo, Gugulethu Moyo | As talks between Mr Mugabe and both factions of the Movement for Democratic Change open in South Africa, the crisis in Zimbabwe continues. Western countries are pushing for more sanctions against Zimbabwe's rulers, while President Mbeki and the African Union oppose them. Meanwhile, the shrinking economy provides Mr Mugabe with less and less to pay the army, police and administrators. The June 27 presidential run-off was dubbed the endgame. It proved just another stage in Zimbabwe's unfolding catastrophe. What might happen next?

Contributor(s): Fareed Zakaria | Global power is shifting, and wealth and power are bubbling up in unexpected places. Fareed Zakaria considers not so much the decline of America, but the impact of the rise of "the rest". This transition of power will redefine America's role as the arbiter of the world's political, economic, and cultural issues and force it to accommodate new heavyweights. Zakaria offers an illuminating view of our increasingly complicated future, the growing influence of rapidly developing nations, and how these forces of great change will continue to play out on the world stage. This event marks the launch of Fareed Zakaria's new book The Post American World (Allen Lane, July 2008).

Contributor(s): Professor Kenneth Pomeranz | This lecture traces evolving relationships among skills, bargaining power, and East Asian economic development. Kenneth Pomeranz is UCI Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California-Irvine.

Contributor(s): Cécile Laborde | The global revival of religion has raised fundamental questions about its role in politics and its claim that it serves as a principle of identity, indispensable to the continuing survival of communities. This series brings together leading thinkers and scholars to encourage discussion and debate on this crucial contemporary theme.

Contributor(s): Gabor Steingart | Globalization is the defining force of our lifetime, but most politicians have not understood the complexity of the process. Thus argues Gabor Steingart, in his controversial and thought-provoking new book The War for Wealth: The True Story of Globalization (McGraw-Hill, June 2008) which he will present for the first time in the UK.

Contributor(s): Professor Axel A Weber | In light of the current tensions in financial markets Professor Axel Weber will look at financial market stability from a central bank's perspective. Axel Weber is president of Deutsche Bundesbank and a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank.

Contributor(s): Professor Philip Bobbitt | The threat of terrorism is now part of the landscape of daily lives all over the world, yet we have hardly begun to think properly about it. In his new book Terror and Consent and in this lecture Professor Bobbitt argues that we are fighting these wars with weapons and concepts which though useful to us in previous conflicts have now been superseded. He aims to provide a fundamental rethinking of most generally accepted ideas about terror in the modern world 7 what it is, how it operates and above all how it can be frustrated. Philip Bobbitt argues that we need to reforge the links between law and strategy; to realize how the evolution of modern states, which have always produced terrorists in their own image, has now produced a globally networked terrorism; to combine humanitarian interests with strategies of intervention; and above all to rethink what 7victory7 in such a war, if it is a war, might look like 7 no occupied capitals, no treaties, no victory parades, but the preservation, protection and defence of human rights and of states of consent. It is central to his argument that we are fighting terror and not just terrorists.

Contributor(s): Professor Richard Norman | The global revival of religion has raised fundamental questions about its role in politics and its claim that it serves as a principle of identity, indispensable to the continuing survival of communities. This series brings together leading thinkers and scholars to encourage discussion and debate on this crucial contemporary theme.

Contributor(s): Professor Veit Bader | The lecture presents a contextualised criticism of first and second order myths of secularisms and of the conflation of liberal-democratic institutions with secular ones, and argues for the priority of liberal democracy. Veit Bader holds chairs in sociology, and social and political philosophy, both at the Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Contributor(s): Professor Mona Siddiqui | The global revival of religion has raised fundamental questions about its role in politics and its claim that it serves as a principle of identity, indispensable to the continuing survival of communities. This series brings together leading thinkers and scholars to encourage discussion and debate on this crucial contemporary theme.

Contributor(s): Dr Ashraf Ghani, Clare Lockhart | Authors Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart challenge existing concepts of state systems and offer new ways of fostering bonds between states, civil societies and markets. This event marks the launch of Fixing Failed States - A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World (OUP, May 2008). Ashraf Ghani is chairman of the Institute for State Effectiveness and former finance minister of Afghanistan. Clare Lockhart is Director of the Institute for State Effectiveness, where she advises countries and other organizations on state-building. She was UN adviser to the Bonn process, and Adviser to the Government of Afghanistan responsible for several national initiatives. She is a lawyer, historian and specialist in institution-building, and has worked at the World Bank, UN and as a barrister.

Contributor(s): Professor James Scott | Professor Scott argues that the hill peoples of mainland Southeast Asia are fugitive, runaway populations, practising 'escape agriculture', 'escape social structure' and 'escape culture'. Jim Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University.

Contributor(s): Lord Patten | Lord Patten served as a minister in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1983 to 1992, holding the position of chairman of the Conservative party from 1990 to 1992. From 1992 to 1997 he was governor of Hong Kong and from 1998 to 1999 he was chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland. He became a European commissioner in 1999, responsible for external affairs until 2004.

Contributor(s): Professor Andrew Sheng | The lecture will look at structural changes in the financial landscape in East Asia, and issues being faced by reformers and regulators, including in China, on raising the game of globalising Asia. Andrew Sheng is chief adviser to the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Contributor(s): George Soros and Howard Davies | In the midst of the worst financial upheaval since the Great Depression, George Soros explores the origins of the crisis and its implications for the future. Soros, whose breadth of experience in financial markets is unrivalled, places the current crisis in the context of decades of study of how individuals and institutions handle the boom and bust cycles that now dominate global economic activity. "This is a once in lifetime moment", says Soros in characterising the scale of financial distress spreading across Wall Street, the London Stock Exchange, and financial centres around the world. This event marks the launch of George Soros new book 'The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means' (PublicAffairs, May 2008).

Contributor(s): Alexandr Vondra | In January 2007, Alexandr Vondra was appointed the Czech Republic4s Deputy Prime Minister for European affairs. He is responsible for preparing the agenda for the Czech EU Presidency. Prior to this position he was the Foreign Minister (2006-2007), Special Representative for the NATO Summit in Prague (2001-2002), Ambassador to the USA (1997-2001) and foreign policy advisor to former President Vaclav Havel (1990-1992). Alexandr Vondra played a central role in leading the Czech Republic to EU and NATO memberships. He is also a former spokesman for the Czech dissident movement Charter 77.

Contributor(s): Dalton McGuinty | He led his party to a second-consecutive majority government in October 2007 and is Ontario7s 24th Premier. He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in 1990 in Ottawa South and has been re-elected four times. During his years as a backbench MPP, he served as a critic for energy, colleges and universities, native affairs and the environment. In 1996, Dalton McGuinty was elected leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. His first election campaign as leader was in 1999, when the Liberal party received 40 per cent of the popular vote, winning 35 seats and adding nine new caucus members. In the general election of 2003, Dalton McGuinty7s Liberals formed the government, taking 72 seats with 47 per cent of the vote. Premier McGuinty7s campaign to build a stronger Ontario for a stronger Canada led the country7s leading newsmagazine, Maclean7s, to call him 7Mr. Ontario.7

Contributor(s): Dr Peter Piot | Dr Piot will review the response to AIDS, now and over the longer term, and examine its relationship with other key health and development issues. Peter Piot is executive director of UNAIDS and under secretary general of the United Nations.

Contributor(s): Professor Ghassan Salame | The Middle East is a region where the United States plays a crucial role. But what about Europe? To what extent should the Middle East be part of the EU's diplomatic concerns? Ghassan Salame is professor of international relations at Sciences Po and a former minister of culture of Lebanon.

Contributor(s): Misha Glenny | International journalist Misha Glenny talks about his investigation into the world of organised crime. He reveals how conventional policing cannot cope with globalised crime which is corrupting governments and fuelling human rights abuses and suffering. Misha Glenny is an award winning international journalist and author.