The Long Run Institute
USING THE PAST TO SHAPE THE FUTURE
THE LONG RUN INSTITUTE
The Long Run Institute (LRI) is an independent, non-profit forum for academic experts, business leaders & public policymakers. It provides insights from the historical analysis of long-run forces and trends to provide context and deepen understanding of the grand challenges facing businesses and government.
We believe that by understanding the past, we can better appreciate the processes that have created the present and how they will shape the future trajectory of businesses, economies and societies.
Through the organisation of high-impact events, the LRI creates a platform for dialogue to exchange knowledge and stimulate ideas, giving participants the opportunity to reflect on and discuss parallels from the past, and consider how these lessons apply to their own organizations.
NEWS & ARTICLES
The LRI and The Economic History Society Annual Conference 2026
The Long Run Institute is delighted to sponsor doctoral students to attend the Economic History Society’s Centenary conference at the London School of Economics and Political Science from the 10th to the 12th of April 2026. See the program for some of the most fresh and innovative scholarship in economic and social history today.
Roundtable: Women’s Leadership and the Human Infrastructure of AI
Co-chaired by Mona Malone, Chief Administrative Officer of BMO Financial Group, and Professor Judy Stephenson of University College London, the roundtable was convened to examine the intersection of historical female human capital and modern technological innovation. Featured speakers included Cambridge Professor Amy Louise Erickson and Dr Jennifer Aston of the Northumbria University.
Roundtable: The Future of Work – “AI First, with Human Intelligence”
At this thought-provoking roundtable, chair Mona Malone, Chief Administrative Officer of BMO Financial Group, opened the session by framing the artificial-intelligence transition around three central tensions: speed against stability, automation against augmentation, and memory against momentum. Oxford Professor Carl-Benedikt Frey was the keynote speaker.
The Ghost in the Machine is outpacing the real world.
In this third “Futures @ Risk” essay, Dr. Laurence B. Mussio and Dr. Cosimo Pacciani use art and history to argue that modern society is governed by “Ghost Intelligence”: fast, automated digital systems that operate without the institutional memory needed to understand their physical foundations. While economies have optimized for algorithms, finance, and cloud computing, they have neglected the “Body” of civilization—energy grids, supply chains, materials, and infrastructure—leaving systems vulnerable to adversarial risks in what thinkers describe as a new era where risk is deliberately weaponized. The authors discuss the broader lessons and implications.
UPCOMING EVENTS 2026
The Long Run Institute is delighted to sponsor doctoral students to attend the Economic History Society's Centenary conference at the London School of Economics and Political Science from the 10th to the 12th of April 2026. See the program for some of the most fresh and innovative scholarship in economic and social history today. We are delighted to wish economic historians everywhere a scholarly, busy, and fruitful 100th birthday.
Managing Extreme Risk and Uncertainty in an Increasingly Volatile World
The video clips below are taken from a Long Run Institute conference, 'Managing Extreme Risk and Uncertainty in an Increasingly Volatile World', recorded live on 24 September 2021.
