Annual Report 2024

Dear friends of FSI,

I am excited to share FSI’s 2023-24 annual report, which captures a snapshot of the institute’s wide-ranging activities and accomplishments. While much was achieved this year, there were many sobering international events and milestones around the world that shaped FSI’s research, teaching, and policy engagement. 

In February, when we passed the two-year mark of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the world learned about the death of Alexei Navalny, Putin’s most prominent political rival. In addition to being a courageous leader, Navalny was a friend to many of us in the FSI community. I echo his words to not give up and to keep fighting for a better future, whether in Russia or elsewhere. Additionally, incumbents around the world lost elections, in part due to the economic reverberations of Covid-19. Amidst the war in Gaza, tensions in the Middle East escalated, drawing Lebanon and Iran into the conflict, and U.S.-China relations continue to be shaped by China’s stance toward Taiwan. Just recently, the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad, whose family ruled Syria for over 50 years, was toppled in a matter of days. With comparable speed, Korean president Yoon Suk-Yeol briefly declared martial law, revoked the order, and was impeached amid an outpouring of protests in Seoul.

Understanding these issues and contributing to solutions on an international scale are at the core of FSI’s mission. I am incredibly grateful for the support of our faculty, staff, students, friends, and donors, which makes this possible.

Our year was notable for many reasons, including the impressive roster of leaders we hosted on campus. President Zuzana Čaputová of Slovakia participated in a Q&A session with our scholars and students, sharing her perspectives on women in leadership and the delicate state of democracies in Europe. We hosted actor and director Sean Penn for a special screening of his documentary, Superpower, which profiled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion in 2022. European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, discussed the need for collective global action in Gaza and Ukraine, and the Ambassador of Lithuania to the United States Audra Plepytė joined me for a conversation about the transatlantic security implications of the war in Ukraine. After our talk, I was honored when she presented me with the Cross of the Order for Merits on behalf of the President of Lithuania. Avril Haines, Director of the Office of National Intelligence, held a discussion with students about her unique career path and opportunities in public service. This fall we were particularly honored to welcome Russian political leader Vladimir Kara-Murza, who spoke with the Stanford community about his dramatic release from a Siberian prison.

In spring quarter, FSI celebrated several milestones. The Center on China’s Economy and Institutions hosted their inaugural conference, which focused on technological competition between the U.S. and China and the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) celebrated its 40th anniversary with an event that brought together its alumni, faculty, researchers, fellows, and many distinguished guests. We were also able to bring students back to the Stanford Center at Peking University for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic halted student travel to China.

Two new programs were added to FSI’s roster this year. The Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center launched the Taiwan Program, which will focus on policy-relevant approaches to address Taiwan’s contemporary economic and societal challenges and advance U.S.-Taiwan partnerships. At the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), the Program on Capitalism and Democracy will explore the complex interactions among democratic institutions, markets, and private-sector participants, in coordination with the Corporations and Society Initiative at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

With the generous support of many donors and friends, scholars from across FSI continue to tackle complex challenges and provide data-driven research on the policy issues at the forefront of security, technology, health, and the environment. Here are some highlights from 2024:

• The Visiting Scholars in Israel Studies program hosted a six-part webinar series to provide context on the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
   
• In February, Michelle Mello (Core Faculty, Stanford Health Policy) testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on the need for federal guardrails and standards regarding the use of artificial intelligence in health care. Working with PhD candidate Neel Guha, Mello has also looked into how courts may rule on liability risks caused by the use of AI in providing patient care. 
   
• Also in February, marking two years since Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, CDDRL hosted a two-hour panel discussion with Ukrainian leaders for their perspective on the perilous conflict. The event, “Two Years of War: Updates from Ukraine,” featured CDDRL alums currently based in Ukraine, including Oleksiy Honcharuk, a former prime minister of Ukraine and 2021 Bernard and Susan Liautaud Visiting Fellow at FSI; Serhiy Leshchenko, advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Chief of Staff and an alumnus of the Draper Hills Summer Fellows program (now the Fisher Family Summer Fellows Program); Oleksandra Matviichuk, founder of the Center for Civil Liberties (co-recipient of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize) and an alumna of the 2017-18 Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program; and Oleksandra Ustinova, People’s Deputy of Ukraine and an alumna of the 2018-19 Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program.
   
• As the mental health crisis among adolescents continues to grow, the Social Media Lab at the Cyber Policy Center has started the Adolescents and Social Media Initiative, which aims to use evidence from the scientific literature to guide our understanding of the relationships between adolescents, social media and their well-being.
   
• The Stanford Social Media Lab has also launched the Digital Strength Initiative, a coalition of values-aligned partners brought together to counter the forces of online misinformation and teach people how to better determine the authenticity of online information sources.
   
• David Relman (Senior Fellow, CISAC) has joined the Pathogens Project, a multi-disciplinary panel of international experts with the goal of identifying ways and means for research with pandemic risk to be managed as safely, securely, and responsibly as possible.
   
• After a hiatus resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a core group of students and faculty at the Stanford U.S.-Russia Forum at CDDRL have recommitted to promoting U.S.-Russia dialogue, even in this particularly challenging time in U.S.-Russian relations. 
   
• Prior to the U.S. presidential election, CDDRL teamed up with the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, and the Hoover Institution’s new Revitalizing American Institutions Program to host a series of panels entitled “America Votes 2024: Stanford Scholars on the Election’s Most Critical Questions.”
   
• The International Working Group on Russian Sanctions continued to recommend new economic and other measures to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine as soon as possible and restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. The group ended 2024 with a total of 21 working papers. 
   

I also want to congratulate all the graduates of the Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy (MIP) Class of 2024, the CISAC Honors Program, and the Fisher Family Honors Program at CDDRL. I am always inspired by this next generation of world leaders and encourage you to take a look at their important research, which ranges from AI great power competition to the relationship between gender and climate adaptation in Bangladesh.

FSI concluded another strong year providing research, training, and policy analysis. In the coming years, we look forward to adding new areas of inquiry, expanding FSI’s teaching contributions at Stanford, and providing ongoing analysis to policymakers on a variety of pressing challenges.

Read on to learn more about the impact we have made with your support. Included below, you will find links to our faculty output report as well as a moving profile of our most recent cohort of Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy graduates.

We thank you for your engagement with FSI and extend our best wishes for 2025.

Sincerely,

Michael McFaul
Senior Fellow and Director, FSI
Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies, 
Department of Political Science
Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution