An Army Like No Other: The Origins of Military Culture
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Gil-li Vardi joined CISAC as a visiting scholar in December 2011. She completed her PhD at the London School of Economics in 2008, and spent two years as a research fellow at the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War at the University of Oxford, after which she joined Notre Dame university as a J. P. Moran Family Assistant Professor of Military History.
Her research examines the interplay between organizational culture, doctrine, and operational patterns in military organizations, and focuses on the incentives and dynamics of change in military thought and practice.
Driven by her interest in both the German and Israeli militaries and their organizational cultures, Vardi is currently revising her dissertation, "The Enigma of Wehrmacht Operational Doctrine: The Evolution of Military Thought in Germany, 1919-1941," alongside preparing a book manuscript on the sources of the Israeli Defence Forces’ (IDF) early strategic and operational perceptions and preferences.
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Gil-li Vardi
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gvardi@stanford.edu
Lecturer
Gil-li Vardi joined CISAC as a visiting scholar in December 2011. She completed her PhD at the London School of Economics in 2008, and spent two years as a research fellow at the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War at the University of Oxford, after which she joined Notre Dame university as a J. P. Moran Family Assistant Professor of Military History.
Her research examines the interplay between organizational culture, doctrine, and operational patterns in military organizations, and focuses on the incentives and dynamics of change in military thought and practice.
Driven by her interest in both the German and Israeli militaries and their organizational cultures, Vardi is currently revising her dissertation, "The Enigma of Wehrmacht Operational Doctrine: The Evolution of Military Thought in Germany, 1919-1941," alongside preparing a book manuscript on the sources of the Israeli Defence Forces’ (IDF) early strategic and operational perceptions and preferences.
Joel Beinin
Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Stanford
Commentator
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Confronting Memories of World War II: European and Asian Legacies
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The legacy of the Second World War has been, like the war itself, an international phenomenon. In both Europe and Asia, common questions of criminality, guilt, and collaboration have intersected with history and politics on the local level to shape the way that wartime experience has been memorialized, reinterpreted, and used.
By directly comparing European and Asian legacies, Confronting Memories of World War II provides unique insight into the way that World War II continues to influence contemporary attitudes and politics on a global scale. The collection brings together experts from a variety of disciplines and perspectives to explore the often overlooked commonalities between European and Asian handling of memories and reflections about guilt. These commonalities suggest new understandings of the war's legacy and the continuing impact of historical trauma."A provocative, timely, superbly documented volume on urgent moral, political and historical topics. There is no trace of idealization - the book is objective, clear-minded, and historically poignant. A substantial, truly enriching addition in terms of a global comparative approach." - Vladimir Tismaneanu, University of Maryland, College Park
"This truly 'international' edited volume on the issues of war, memory, and national identity explores how memories about wartime experiences - including criminality, collaboration and reconciliation - are shaped and reshaped, connected to questions of national identity, and used for domestic and international political purposes." - Patricia L. Maclachlan, University of Texas, Austin
Daniel Chirot is Herbert J. Ellison Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Washington. Gi-Wook Shin is director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, as well as holder of the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Chair of Korean Studies. Daniel Sneider is associate director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Center. Contributors include Thomas Berger, Frances Gouda, Julian T. Jackson, Fania Oz-Salzbe, Gilbert Rozman, Igor Torbakov, and Roger Petersen.
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University of Washington Press, Jackson School Publications in International Studies
Kristen Lee
Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room E301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
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kllee@stanford.edu
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Kristen Lee is the Executive Assistant for Director Kyoteru Tsutsui at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC). She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in History, focusing on the United States. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, she worked with the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project and the the Investment Responsibility Panel at Stanford University, as well as in educational and public outreach at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Executive Assistant to Professor Kiyoteru Tsutsui
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Strategy in Theory and Strategy in Practice
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About the Speaker: Hew Strachan has been Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College since 2002, and was Director of the Oxford Programme on the Changing Character of War between 2003 and 2012. He also serves on the Strategic Advisory Panel of the Chief of the Defence Staff and on the UK Defence Academy Advisory Board, as well as being a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum, a Commonwealth War Graves Commissioner, and member of both the National Committee for the Centenary of the First World War and the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is also a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2003 and awarded an Hon. D. Univ. by the University of Paisley in 2005. In 2010 he chaired a task force on the implementation of the Armed Forces Covenant for the Prime Minister. In 2011 he was the inaugural Humanitas Visiting Professor in War Studies at the University of Cambridge and became a specialist adviser to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. He is a Deputy Lieutenant for Tweeddale, and a Brigadier in the Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland (Royal Company of Archers). InDecember 2012, Foreign Policy magazine included him in its list of top global thinkers for the year. He was knighted in the 2013 New Year’s Honours.
CISAC Conference Room
Sir Hew Strachan
Chichele Professor of History
Speaker
University of Oxford
Seminars
Military Operations and National Policies, 1914-1918
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About the Speaker: Hew Strachan has been Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College since 2002, and was Director of the Oxford Program on the Changing Character of War between 2003 and 2012. He also serves on the Strategic Advisory Panel of the Chief of the Defence Staff and on the UK Defence Academy Advisory Board, as well as being a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum, a Commonwealth War Graves Commissioner, and member of both the National Committee for the Centenary of the First World War and the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
He is also a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2003 and awarded an Hon. D. Univ. by the University of Paisley in 2005. In 2010 he chaired a task force on the implementation of the Armed Forces Covenant for the Prime Minister. In 2011 he was the inaugural Humanitas Visiting Professor in War Studies at the University of Cambridge and became a specialist adviser to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. He is a Deputy Lieutenant for Tweeddale, and a Brigadier in the Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland (Royal Company of Archers).
In December 2012, Foreign Policy magazine included him in its list of top global thinkers for the year. He was knighted in the 2013 New Year’s Honors ceremony.
CISAC Conference Room
Sir Hew Strachan
Chichele Professor of History of War
Speaker
University of Oxford
Seminars
Facts, Minds, and Formats: Scholarship and Political Change in Indonesia
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Southeast Asia Program director Donald K. Emmerson's essay by the above title appears in the just-published volume, Producing Indonesia: The State of the Field of Indonesian Studies, ed. Eric Tagliacozzo, available for purchase at the Cornell University Press.
The book's authors, to quote the publisher, reflect on "the development of Indonesian studies over recent tumultuous decades...Not everyone sees the development of Indonesian studies in the same way. Yet one senses—and this collection confirms—that disagreements among its practitioners have fostered a vibrant, resilient intellectual community."
The disagreements featured in Emmerson's chapter, to quote him, "arose over how to interpret two consequential changes of regime in Indonesia," namely, "the demise of liberal democracy and the rise of President Sukarno's leftward 'Guided Democracy' in 1959, and the latter's replacement by General Suharto's anti-leftist 'New Order' starting in 1965." At stake in these controversies were facts, minds, and formats: "perspectival commitments developed inside the minds, disciplines, and careers of professional analysts of Indonesia."
At the center of his essay lies a consequential question of choice: whether to maintain or to change one's argument in the face of evidence against it. The issue is framed at the outset of the essay by two contrasting quotations:
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
-- John Maynard Keynes on the Great Depression
"I didn't change. The world changed."
-- Dick Cheney on 9/11
About the Essay
The 26 scholars contributing to this volume, Producing Indonesia: The State of the Field of Indonesian Studies, ed. Eric Tagliacozzo, have helped shape the field of Indonesian studies over the last three decades. They represent a broad geographic background—Indonesia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Canada—and have studied in a wide array of key disciplines—anthropology, history, linguistics and literature, government and politics, art history, and ethnomusicology. Together they reflect on the “arc of our field,” the development of Indonesian studies over recent tumultuous decades. They consider what has been achieved and what still needs to be accomplished as they interpret the groundbreaking works of their predecessors and colleagues.
This volume is the product of a lively conference sponsored by Cornell University, with contributions revised following those interactions. Not everyone sees the development of Indonesian studies in the same way. Yet one senses—and this collection confirms—that disagreements among its practitioners have fostered a vibrant, resilient intellectual community. Contributors discuss photography and the creation of identity, the power of ethnic pop music, cross-border influences on Indonesian contemporary art, violence in the margins, and the shadows inherent in Indonesian literature. These various perspectives illuminate a diverse nation in flux and provide direction for its future exploration.
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Cornell University Press
Towards a More Universal Universalism: Western and Chinese Perspectives
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Date: April 2, 2014 (Wednesday)
Time: 16:00 – 17:30
Language: English
Venue: Stanford Center at Peking University, Langrun Yuan, Peking University
Timothy Garton Ash is the author of In Europe’s Name, History of the Present, Facts are Subversive, and other books of political writing or ‘history of the present’ which have charted the transformation of Europe over the last thirty years. He is Professor of European Studies in the University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His essays appear regularly in the New York Review of Books and he writes a weekly column in the Guardian.
Li Qiang is Professor of Political Science at the School of Government at Peking University, Director for Development Planning Department, and Director of Center for European Studies at Peking University.
Stanford Center at Peking University
Timothy Garton Ash
Professor of European Studies
Speaker
University of Oxford
Li Qiang
Professor, School of Government
Commentator
Peking University
Seminars
The Future of the US-Japan Alliance
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Ambassador Ryozo Kato, former Ambassador of Japan to the United States from 2001 - 08, the longest tenure of any Japanese Ambassador to the United States, and former Commissioner of Nippon Professional Baseball from 2008 - 2013, has had a long and distinguished career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Japanese Government. A graduate of Tokyo University Faculty of Law and Yale Law School, he served his country in Australia, Egypt, and the United States, in addition to multiple global assignments within the Ministry in Tokyo.
Positions which Ambassador Kato served in the United States include the Third Secretary in the Embassy (1967–1969), Minister in the Embassy (1987–1990), and Consul-General in San Francisco (1992–1994). He returned to Japan to serve as the Director-General of the Asian Affairs Bureau (1995–1997) and the Deputy-General of the Foreign Policy Bureau (1997–1999). After serving as the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs (1999–2001), he was appointed the Ambassador of Japan to the United States of America from 2001 to 2008. He has been recognized and respected on both sides of the Pacific for his outstanding understanding of the issues and his clarity in direction to resolve them.
Philippines Conference Room
Ryozo Kato
former Ambassador of Japan to the United States
Speaker
Seminars
SCPKU holds first graduate seminar on Chinese art history
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SCPKU held its first graduate seminar in Summer 2013. Taught by Professor Richard Vinograd in Stanford’s Department of Art and Art History, the seminar was entitled “Site-Based Art Historical Research in China: Issues and Opportunities.” Professor Vinograd recently shared his perspectives on the course and his research on Chinese art history.
Question: Why did you decide to apply for SCPKU's Graduate Seminar Program? What did you hope to bring and learn in China as part of the program?
Vinograd: I applied to the SCPKU Graduate Seminar program for some of the unique advantages it offers. These include the opportunities for students to encounter works of art in their full physical and spatial environments. There is also the opportunity to interact with Chinese counterpart students and faculty, to better understand their approaches to research and historical scholarship, and to build useful relationships for the future. In turn, my students and I offered our own perspectives and approaches to Chinese art historical studies.
Question: Can you tell us a little about your research and its connection to China?
Vinograd: I am primarily an historian of Chinese art, focusing on Chinese painting and prints from the last millennium, up to the present. I have written focused studies of Chinese portraiture, landscape painting, and about a number of individual artists and themes. Most of my own research is based on objects in museums or other collections, but I've also written more generally about art in particular locations -- mural paintings in temples, architectural monuments and sculptural programs in cave shrines So I was particularly happy that during the summer program I was able to visit some sites that I hadn't directly experienced before.
Question: What did you learn during your stay in China? What were the most surprising/interesting things that you encountered?
Vinograd: I learn something new almost every time I encounter an original monument or work of art, no matter how familiar, and I try to impress upon my students the value of continued close examination and questioning of original monuments every chance they get. One of the most striking aspects of several of the ancient temples we visited was the discovery of calligraphic inscriptions on the undersides of roof cross beams, that documented episodes of repair and renovation to the buildings that were sometimes centuries old.
Question: Was this your first time taking students on an overseas course/field trip? Please share some of the challenges you may have encountered on your other trips (and/or this trip) and how you resolved them.
Vinograd: I've taken students on overseas field trips several times, to Japan, Taiwan, and China. Usually these have been to study especially rare and important exhibitions and attend associated scholarly conferences, sometimes with visits to archaeological, historical, or architectural sites included. Usually the challenges of such events are logistical and linguistic, including absorbing the content of lectures and discussions carried on in many different Chinese accents. Since the SCPKU seminar focused so heavily on site visits, we frequently had to negotiate access to normally restricted areas, or permission to illuminate and photograph murals in dimly-lit temple halls. Our colleagues from Peking University were especially helpful on those occasions.
Question: How was your experience at SCPKU, and how is it different from other Stanford Centers you may have visited before?
Vinograd: Our experience at SCPKU was very positive -- the facilities were great and the resident staff was very helpful. I haven't taught at any other Stanford Overseas Programs, so I don't have that basis for comparison, but I can confidently say that SCPKU serves a very useful purpose in providing a platform and gateway for study and research in China.
Question: What are your plans in China, if any, for the future?
Vinograd: I visit China regularly for research, exhibitions, and conferences and I expect to continue those activities in the future.
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