Browse FSI scholarship on geopolitics, global health, energy, cybersecurity and more.
Featured Publications
Security Through Cooperation: Space, Nuclear Weapons, and U.S.-Russia Relations after the Cold War
Rose Gottemoeller uses lessons learned from U.S.-Russia relations during the George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations to offer insights into how Russia today may be convinced to end its war against Ukraine and resume cooperation for the sake of global security.
Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder
A clear-eyed look from Michael McFaul at how the rise of autocratic China and Russia are compelling some to think that we have entered a new Cold War—and why we must reject that thinking in order to prevail.
The National College Entrance Examination shapes the future of millions of students in China each year, but Hongbin Li and Ruixue Jia illuminate how this test of all tests is also shaping education, labor markets, political legitimacy, and social values beyond the PRC.
Objective To investigate factors that differentiate elderly adults in rural China who accept free vision screening and cataract surgery from those who could benefit from vision care but refuse it when offered.
Design We conducted a population-based, cross-sectional study between October and December 2016. Logistic regression models were used to examine the predictors of accepting free vision screening and cataract surgery.
Setting Rural communities in Handan, China.
Participants Adults aged 50 years or older, with presenting visual acuity ≤6/18 in the better seeing eye, suspected by examining ophthalmologist to be due to cataract.
Results Among 613 persons with cataract identified on a population basis, 596 (97.2%) completed the household survey (mean (SD) age, 71.5 (10.0) years; 79.8% female). A total of 214 persons (35.9%) refused participation, while 382 (64.1%) took part in the vision screening. A total of 193 (50.5%) participants were found eligible for surgery, while 189 (49.5%) were not. Among 99 randomly selected participants who were offered immediate free surgery, surgery was accepted by 77 participants (77.8%) and refused by 22 (22.2%). In the multivariate model, being engaged in income-generating activities (p<0.01), self-reported better physical capacity (p<0.001) and having had a recent physical examination (p=0.01) were significantly associated with acceptance of vision screening. The only variable significantly associated with acceptance of surgery was presenting visual acuity, with better vision inversely associated with acceptance of surgery (p<0.05) models.
Conclusion Our results suggest that refusal of basic eye examinations may be at least as important a determinant of low surgical rates in rural China as lack of acceptance of surgery itself.
At SCCEI, we aim to shed some light on what actually is happening in China, and exactly how these happenings might affect the rest of the world. This year has been one of unprecedented growth for SCCEI, take a look at our 2022-23 Annual Report to see all of the incredible work and accomplishments we have achieved together. Download your copy or read it online.
In low- and middle-income countries, urbanization has spurred the expansion of peri-urban communities, or urban communities of formerly rural residents with low socioeconomic status. The growth of these communities offers researchers an opportunity to measure the associations between the level of urbanization and the home language environment (HLE) among otherwise similar populations. Data were collected in 2019 using Language Environment Analysis observational assessment technology from 158 peri-urban and rural households with Han Chinese children (92 males, 66 females) aged 18–24 months in China. Peri-urban children scored lower than rural children in measures of the HLE and language development. In both samples, child age, gender, maternal employment, and sibling number were positively correlated with the HLE, which was in turn correlated with language development.
As the U.S., EU and China are taking divergent leads in new AI regulations, a new framework for AI diplomacy is emerging, all under the shadow of strategic technological competition.
Despite private enterprises dominating China's labour market, college-educated workers are still highly concentrated in the state sector. Using data from the Chinese College Student Survey, we find that 64 per cent of students in the sample expressed a strong preference for state sector employment. We also identify several factors associated with receiving job offers from the state sector, including being male, holding urban hukou status, being a member of the CCP, performing well on standardized tests, attending elite universities and having higher household income or high-status parental backgrounds. These findings suggest that despite China's economic transition, the private sector may still struggle to attract highly educated workers.
Renée DiResta is the technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory. Dave Willner is a Non-Resident Fellow in the Program on Governance of Emerging Technologies at Stanford Cyber Policy Center.
Many U.S. states have legislated to allow nurse practitioners (NPs) to independently prescribe drugs. Critics contend that these moves will adversely affect quality of care.
The home language environment is a significant correlate of early childhood development outcomes; however, less is known about this mechanism in rural and peri-urban China where rates of developmental delay are as high as 52%. This study examines associations between the home language environment and child development in a sample of 158 children (58% boys) aged 18–24 months (Mage = 21.5) from rural and peri-urban households in Western China. Results show a significant association between adult-child conversation count and language development, suggesting the home language environment may be a mechanism for child development in rural and peri-urban China. 22.5% of the sample were at risk of language delay. Mother’s employment and child’s age were significant factors in the home language environment.
