April 29th, 2008

McFaul Journal of Democracy article cited in Lebanese Daily Star

Daily Star journalist Rami G. Khouri discusses "Morocco's Elections: The Limits of Limited Reforms," a January 2008 Journal of Democracy article that CDDRL Director Michael McFaul wrote with Tamara Wittes of the Brookings Institution. McFaul and Wittes argue that Arab instability often reflects a lack of democracy, says Khouri, and that the parliamentary elections in Morocco last September offered important insights into what might happen when Arabs are given a chance to engage in democratic politics.

• » Morocco's Elections: The Limits of Limited Reforms
• » Daily Star: Arabs face dysfunctional democracy
• » Aljazeera Magazine: Two causes of Arab political incoherence

Scott Sagan elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

CISAC's Co-Director Scott Sagan, professor of political science, is one of 190 new fellows and 22 foreign honorary members elected this year to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation's most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers. Sagan and Harvard's Steve Miller jointly direct a new initiative sponsored by the Academy to identify ways to manage the global spread of nuclear energy without a concurrent increase in nuclear weapons proliferation or nuclear terrorism.

• » Stanford Report: Seven university scholars elected fellows of eminent learned society

April 28th, 2008

Korean NGO Activities And Perspectives For a Better World

The Second Annual POSCO NGO Fellowship Conference (part of the POSCO TJ Park NGO Fellowship Program 2008-2009) is to be held on May 1 at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

• » Civil Society in North America: Lessons learned

Pavel Podvig receives Szilard Award

The American Physical Society has honored CISAC's Podvig for helping a establish in Moscow "a center for scientific study of arms control, for landmark analyses, and for courage in supporting open discussion of international security in Russia." Read more »

April 25th, 2008

Michael Korver speaks on venture capital in Japan

Venture capitalist, attorney, and educator Michael Korver opened SPRIE's spring seminar series on new post-bubble patterns of entrepreneurship in Japan. Korver, a managing partner in Japan's Global Venture Capital, spoke on how he has seen venture capital evolve there in light of his own firm's experiences. Audio transcript available presentation available
Read more »

April 24th, 2008

Shin: Party is over

Gi-Wook Shin, Shortenstein APARC director, urges President Lee to start strengthening U.S.-South Korea alliance, particularly, with cooperation on ratification of FTA and North Korea policy.

• » New Beginnings: Post-Election Prospects for U.S.-ROK Relations
• » Chosun.com (article in Korean)

CISAC's Hecker analyzes challenges to denuclearizing North Korea

After visiting the Yongbyon nuclear complex in February, CISAC's Co-Director Siegfried Hecker, the former head of Los Alamos National Lab, judges that North Korean officials are working in "good faith" to disable the facilities. But he warns that complete denuclearization presents formidable obstacles. Read more »

Appointment of the Inaugural Koret Fellow in Korean Studies Program

The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center is pleased to announce that General (ret.) Byung Kwan Kim will join the Center for the 2008-2009 academic year as the first recipient of the Koret Fellowship in the Center's Korean Studies Program. Read more »

Ten million could die from rising food prices, says Timmer

FSE visiting professor Peter Timmer calculates that up to 10 million people in Asian countries could die prematurely from the recent run-up in global rice prices. In an interview with the Center on Global Development, he described the spike in the cost of rice as "the most serious problem facing the world food economy since 1973-74, when a million people in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh alone died prematurely as a result of a rice crisis." Read more »

April 23rd, 2008

Naylor discusses rising food prices on NPR, KQED Forum

Rosamond Naylor, director of the Program on Food Security and the Environment, discusses the global food crisis on NPR's Morning Edition and KQED Forum. She also was interviewed by ABC7, while program director Marshall Burke talked to NBC11.

• » NPR: Rising demand for meat takes toll environment
• » KQED Forum: Food prices and biofuels

April 22nd, 2008

Moscow Times discusses, quotes McFaul as Obama Russian strategist

The Russian newspaper quotes CDDRL director Michael McFaul as "Obama's top Russia strategist," quoting McFaul on Obama's tendency to engage--rather than isolate--in foreign policy. Read more »

April 20th, 2008

Substantial part of carbon offset market doesn't mean reduction, Wara and Victor say

PESD scholars Michael Wara and David Victor suggest that a substantial fraction of the $12b market for international carbon offsets does not represent real reductions and that the market is unlikely to provide reliable cost-control for a domestic carbon market. Instead, they suggest that a broader array of strategies will be needed to make a real dent in developing world emissions and that more explicit cost control mechanisms be considered for a U.S. cap-and- trade market for greenhouse gases.

• » A Realistic Policy on International Carbon Offsets

April 18th, 2008

Straub appointed associate director of Korean Studies Program

David Straub, currently a Pantech Fellow at Shorenstein APARC, has been appointed associate director of the Korean Studies Program. "David has been a tremendous asset to us with his expertise and experiences on U.S.-ROK relations," said Shorenstein APARC Director Gi-Wook Shin. "As he takes on his new role with us, he will provide important leadership to the Korean Studies Program that has been expanding fast." Read more »

Newsweek: Victor looks at problems with Mexico's national oil company, effect on oil markets

What to do about Mexico's oil company, Pemex, may seem like a parochial issue of interest only to Mexicans and a few oil industry executives. But the matter should be of concern to anybody who is wondering when oil will come down off its near-record highs. Read more »

April 17th, 2008

PESD releases case study of Pemex, Mexico's national oil company

PESD has just released an 87-page case study of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico's national oil company. In "The Void of Governance: An Assessment of Pemex's Performance and Strategy," researcher Ognen Stojanovski examines how the state-owned company functions and details some of the profound challenges faced by reformers.
Read more »

Hicham Benabdallah writes about Arab democracy in age of terrorism

For the last 20 years authoritarian regimes have refashioned themselves in order to stay in power, writes CDDRL visiting scholar Hicham Benabdallah in Le Monde Diplomatique. As the middle class under these regimes becomes increasingly disengaged from local politics, many social groups see the hope for their future outside the national context. Read more »

Germany vetoes NATO membership for Ukraine, Georgia; Putin the big winner, McFaul tells National Journal

"Putin looks like the big winner this week," CDDRL Director Michael McFaul wrote in an e-mail to the National Journal from Kiev. "As one of my Ukrainian friends said, Russia de facto is already a NATO member as they have the power to veto members, while Ukraine has no such similar powers." Read more »

April 16th, 2008

Armacost: U.S., South Korea must move past years of missteps

Shorenstein APARC Distinguished Fellow Michael Armacost discusses U.S.-South Korea ties and points out challenges ahead. "From free trade to North Korea's nuclear threat," writes Armacost in the Christian Science Monitor, "both sides must move past years of missteps." Read more »

Report of New Beginnings group advises U.S. to respond positively to South Korea's requests

The report of New Beginnings group suggests U.S. conduct comprehensive evaluation of Korean peninsula and Northeast Asian situations. Read more »

Preparation is key to avoiding 'worst-case outcome,' Chertoff says

CISAC members Lynn Eden, Martha Crenshaw, and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar participated in"Germ Warfare, Contagious Disease and the Constitution," a daylong event co-hosted by Stanford Law School. CISAC affiliate Laura Donohue conceived and developed the project. Read more »

Bush's climate change plan significant, but will need to outline specific steps, Victor tells New York Times

President Bush's willingness to set goals for greenhouse gases is "significant, because it's moving in the right direction," PESD Director David Victor told the New York Times on April 16, in advance of the president's announcement of new climate change policies. "If he's not going to outline how you actually get to the goals," Victor said, 'it's hard to see that this is going to have much credibility."

• » New York Times: Bush to give goals for greenhouse gases
• » International Herald Tribune: Bush to lay out goals on global warming
• » White House: President Bush discusses global climate change

April 15th, 2008

Sagan wins Gerner teaching award

The International Studies Association has awarded CISAC Co-Director Scott Sagan the 2008 Deborah "Misty" Gerner Innovative Teaching in International Studies Award for his simulation exercise that he has taught to Stanford undergraduates for the last decade through PS 114S "International Security in a Changing World." Read more »

April 14th, 2008

New Beginnings group to release report on U.S.-South Korea alliance

New Beginnings, a non-partisan study group of distinguished former American senior officials and experts formed by the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the New York-based Korea Society, will release their report on how to revitalize the U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance on Monday, April 14, in Washington, DC., followed by a presentation in New York on April 15. 2 papers available
Read more »

April 11th, 2008

Should be engaging Medvedev after May, not Putin in April, says McFaul in Wash Post

CDDRL Director Michael McFaul comments for the Washington Post on Bush and Putin's weekend meeting in Sochi. "We should be engaging Medvedev after May, not Putin in April," says McFaul.

• » Washington Post: Aiming to Ease Tensions, Without U.S.-Russia Pact

Diamond sketches way out of Iraq

The truth is, we remain trapped in an awful quagmire, writes Larry Diamond in the Huffington Post and FSI In The World, a new faculty blog for the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. So what needs to be done? Read more »