As publics and policymakers are becoming more aware of the gravity of cyber related activities and potential disruption, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation honors undergraduate alumni have produced cutting-edge work to address major cyber issues in their final theses.

The theses topics span computer systems design, deterrence, international cooperation, defense acquisitions, hacking, zero days, the intelligence community, big data, and special forces operations. They make an excellent back-to-school reading list for anyone interested in cyber security, policy, and foreign affairs.

Check out their work on major cyber threats, events and consequences through the links below:

Sharpening the Tip of the Spear: Evaluating Technology Integration in Special Operations Forces, by Sam Lisbonne (June 2018)

Lisbonne articulates three early warning indicators suggesting that U.S. Special Operations Forces acquisitions processes have begun to look more like that of traditional branches of the armed services. He goes on to discuss the best paths forwards for mitigating root causes driving this pattern.  

Cybersecurity Magic: Parallel Structures of Design by Hackers and Magicians, by Samuel Kasem Sagan (May 2018)

Sagan explains how cyber criminals are successful despite technical and well-organized efforts to defend against cyber-crime. He investigates the “art of deception” as it relates to espionage, warfare, politics, theatre, and magic. In comparing exploits and tricks, he demonstrates “how the design processes used by hackers have inherent structural similarities to those used by magicians.”

Star Wars, Poison Gas, and Cybersecurity: Lessons from the Past for a Better Future, by Rachel Hirshman (May 2018)

Hirshman’s recent thesis outlines the conditions necessary for the creation of a formal international agreement to regulate cyberspace. She draws on the efforts of the Reykjavik Summit and the Chemical Weapons Convention to find that the most influential factor for an agreement “is the willingness of parties to make reciprocal concessions during negotiations.”

Towards DIUx 2.1 or 3.0? Examining Defense Innovation Unit Experimental’s Progress Towards Procurement Innovation, by Gabriele Fisher (June 2017)

Fisher’s thesis examines the military outfit known as DIUx intended to expedite military acquisitions from smaller tech firms outside of major defense procurement working on novel technologies for defense. She weighs how sustainable the program is given their reliance on Other Transaction Authorities over traditional U.S. Department of Defense procurement processes.

In Data We Trust?: The Big Data Capabilities of the National Counterterrorism Center, by Ben Mittelberger (May 2016)

Mittelberger combines lessons of capabilities yielded by big data analytics with the mission of counterterror intelligence for the National Counterterrorism Center. He provides recommendations on how to adopt large-scale analytics exercises to benefit the intelligence community’s organizational capacity and structure.

Evaluation of the Analogy Between Nuclear and Cyber Deterrence, by Patrick Cirenza (May 2015)

Cirenza details where the analogies of nuclear and cyber weapons and deterrence are flawed. Although cyber weapons have potentially strategic impacts, they have thus far not reached a level of importance to cause “revolution in military affairs that developed into a strategic deterrent because of its unique characteristics” alike nuclear weapons.

Scalable Security: Cyber Threat Information Sharing in the Internet Age, by Connor Gilbert (May 2014)

Gilbert unpacks information sharing issues faced by the federal government when analyzing cyber threats related to private companies tied to U.S. critical infrastructure. An engineer by training, he applies a Computational Policy approach to bring “the power of the abstractions used in computer systems design to bear on difficult policy problems.”

Anarchy or Regulation: Controlling the Global Trade in Zero-Day Vulnerabilities, by Mailyn Fidler (May 2014)

Fidler reveals the trade mechanisms of zero-day vulnerabilities as they are traded and utilized by governments, militaries, intelligence operations, law enforcement agencies, and criminal organizations. Her work “demonstrates how difficult regulation of the global zero-day trade will be, signaling the pervasiveness of realpolitik in cyberspace.”

Since 2010, Stanford Global Studies (SGS) has partnered with community colleges through innovative projects such as the Stanford Human Rights Education Initiative and the Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) to bring together faculty and administrators committed to developing global and international studies. Jonas Edman works with SGS and FSI staff and faculty on this partnership, which has the goal of establishing a growing network of EPIC alumni who are developing innovative programs to internationalize curricula at the community college level.

From August 8 to 10, 2018, SGS convened a three-day summer intensive workshop for ten new EPIC fellows to launch this year’s EPIC Fellows Program. The 2018–19 EPIC Fellows are:

• Marina Broeder, Mission College, California
• Mary Conroy-Zouzoulas, San Jose City College, California
• Dave Dillon, Grossmont College, California
• Jennifer Fiebig, Pasadena City College, California
• Andrew Hill, St. Philip’s College, Texas
• Chigusa Katoku, Mission College, California
• Philip Tran, San Jose City College, California
• Don Uy-Barreta, De Anza College, California
• Nancy Willet, College of Marin, California
• Irene Young, St. Philip’s College, Texas

The institute featured talks by Stanford faculty, including talks on global competencies by Jeremy Weinstein, universities making knowledge in a global era by Mitchell Stevens, using films in classrooms by Pavle Levi, using maps in classrooms by Kären Wigen, and China under Mao Zedong by Andrew Walder. In addition to the talks, the EPIC fellows were introduced to library resources, including digital, map, and archival resources; as well as resources from SPICE and Lacuna Stories.

The EPIC Fellows will work collaboratively with Stanford staff for one academic year (August–May) on self-designed projects aimed at developing global competencies and awareness among community college students. From this month, the EPIC Fellows will participate in online seminars during which they will explore cutting-edge research in global studies with Stanford faculty and staff and develop innovative curricular materials and extra-academic programs to implement in their classrooms and at their home campuses. The fellowship will culminate at an end-of-year symposium on May 18, 2019 at Stanford University that will bring together faculty and administrators from community colleges and four-year universities committed to fostering global studies on their campuses.

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The Japan–U.S. alliance is the cornerstone of security, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. As we look at the global challenges we face today, I believe that we must strive to ensure that our special relationship remains strong and vital. One way to accomplish this is by preparing the best and brightest of our young people with the kind of learning opportunities that will deepen mutual understanding. It is my belief that the Reischauer Scholars Program and Stanford e-Japan are admirably working toward this goal by providing the knowledge and expertise our young people will need as future leaders in Japan–U.S. relations. 

Waka Brown and Naomi Funahashi at podium

Attendees represented people from the Stanford community and the U.S.–Japan community in the Bay Area, including Dr. Takeo Hoshi, Director, Japan Program, and Junichiro Hirata, Visiting Scholar, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, FSI; and Dr. Kazuhiko Hasegawa, Executive Director, San Francisco Office, Osaka University, Kathleen Kimura, Japan Society of Northern California, and Dr. Yoichi Aizawa, Executive Director, San Francisco Office, Waseda University. Amanda Minami Chao and David Chao were recognized for their many years of support to SPICE.   

I vividly remember the first time I met Houghton “Buck” Freeman (former Chairman of the Freeman Foundation) in New York City nearly 20 years ago. A short time after this meeting, he and his wife, Doreen (former Trustee of the Freeman Foundation), kindly took the time to visit me at Stanford University. I never imagined then that SPICE would have remained a grantee of the Freeman Foundation for so many years. I am now in touch with their son Graeme Freeman (President), grandson Alec Freeman (Senior Program Officer), and Shereen Goto (Director of Operations and Programs) of the Freeman Foundation. The Freeman Foundation has funded the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) since its inception in 1998, so this year marks its 20th anniversary. SPICE has been honored to contribute to the mission of the NCTA, which is “to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about East Asia in elementary and secondary schools nationwide.” SPICE recently hosted NCTA summer institutes for middle school teachers (June 20–22, 2018) and high school teachers (July 23–25, 2018).

Rylan Sekiguchi, Gary Mukai, Shereen Goto, Jonas Edman

The NCTA summer institute for high school teachers—organized by Naomi Funahashi and Sabrina Ishimatsu—also featured scholarly lectures, including one on U.S.–Korean relations by the Honorable Kathleen Stephens, former U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2008 to 2011. Her lecture and the recent 2018 North Korea–United States Summit in Singapore stimulated enthusiastic questions from the teachers and fascinating discussions. Sekiguchi, who authored a three-part curricular series on U.S.–South Korean relations, North Korea, and inter-Korean relations, engaged the teachers in the lessons while referencing key points that were made by Ambassador Stephens. Commenting on the institute, Kimberly Gavin, University Preparatory Academy, San Jose, California, noted, “I realized that when it came to East Asian history, there were gaps in my knowledge, and I wanted to have a better understanding of it to be a more effective teacher. Between the readings and the conference itself, I filled up an entire notebook full of information!”

In a post-institute memo, Yoko Sase, The Nueva School, Hillsborough, California, stated, “I want to express my deepest gratitude to the Freeman Foundation for generously supporting us at the East Asia summer institute for middle and high school teachers at SPICE. I was immersed in such a depth of learning from the experts in their fields of East Asia throughout the program. I really appreciate that I not only deepened and expanded my knowledge on East Asia but also actually had the opportunities to practice thoughtfully designed SPICE curriculum lessons. Now I have a toolbox with amazing resources and materials that I have received from the institute, and I’m ready to use it in my classroom! This has been the best professional development I have ever attended!” The NCTA seminars are truly highlights of the year for the SPICE staff and Stanford scholars because it is a key channel through which SPICE curriculum on Asia and U.S.–Asian relations and Stanford scholarship are disseminated to students. Importantly, what an honor it has been to have worked with three generations of the Freeman family.

"I do think that there is a certain digital language that will be beneficial to young people, students, in the very near future," says Yong Suk Lee, deputy director of the Korea Program, in a recent interview with head of Friedrick Nauman Foundation Global Innovation Hub.

Read the full interview here.

The Korea Program invites junior faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students to apply for travel awards to attend an upcoming two-day conference organized by the Korea Program at Stanford' Asia-Pacific Research Center. The workshop titled "Future Visions: Challanges and Possibilities of Korean Studies in North America" will be held on November 1st and 2nd, 2018 at Stanford University.

The awards will cover accepted applicants' lodging, domestic airfares, and/or ground transportation. To apply for the travel awards, please submit your CV and 2-page statement as a single file by July 15 here.

About the conference:

“Future Visions: Challenges and Possibilities of Korean Studies in North America,” is designed to bring together leading scholars in the fields of language education, literature, history, social sciences, and library studies. Each panel will consist of three-four scholars who will be tasked with presenting a report on the state of the field. The purpose of the panels is to generate discussion around some of the following questions: 

Accepted applicants are expected to actively participate in discussion sessions and to engage in networking with other scholars during the 2-day conference.

Please direct questions on the conference to hjahn@stanford.edu.

During the 2017–18 academic year, SPICE’s Jonas Edman worked with six community college instructors from Las Positas College and Foothill College on their plans for integrating global issues into their classrooms. These six instructors were among ten Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) Fellows to work collaboratively with colleagues at Stanford on projects aimed at internationalizing course curricula and producing innovative curricular materials for use in community college classrooms.

On May 19, 2018, an EPIC Symposium, “Integrating Global Issues into Community College Curricula,” was held at Stanford University that featured presentations by the EPIC Fellows as well as presentations from Stanford faculty. Community college faculty and administrators from across California gathered at Stanford University to discuss ways to prepare students for a world that is increasingly interconnected.

The six EPIC Fellows, with whom Edman worked, and their presentation topics are:

• Brian Evans, Foothill College: The Latin American Lost Decade
• Ann Hight, Las Positas College: Using Global Lifestyles as a Platform to Teach Gene Expression and Longevity
• Natasha Mancuso, Foothill College: Using Online Games to Teach Business and Marketing from a Global Perspective
• Kali Rippel, Las Positas College: Internationalizing the Research Project Using Wikipedia
• Colin Schatz, Las Positas College: Globalized and Inclusive: Redesigning a Community College Honors Program
• Antonella Vitale, Las Positas College: Global Voices in American History

Since 2010, Stanford Global Studies (SGS) has partnered with community colleges through innovative projects such as the Stanford Human Rights Education Initiative (SHREI) and EPIC to bring together faculty and administrators committed to developing global and international studies. Fellows join a growing network of EPIC alumni from across the state who are developing innovative programs to internationalize curricula. SPICE as well as Stanford’s Lacuna Stories have been working with SGS National Resource Centers—Center for East Asian Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies—on these efforts.

CISAC faculty offer their summer reading selections:

Martha Crenshaw, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and professor, by courtesy, of political science, recommends:

Muslims in a Post-9/11 America: A Survey of Attitudes and Beliefs and Their Implications for U.S. National Security Policy

“I am recommending a book for late summer, to be published by University of Michigan Press in August.  The author is Rachel Gillum, who recently received her PhD in political science from Stanford. It is the definitive account of who American Muslims are and what they think, a much-needed antidote to prejudice and misconception, and a clear warning about the unintended consequences of counterterrorism policies.”

François Diaz-Maurin, Nuclear Security Visiting Scholar and the European Commission’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow recommends one book for each month of summer:

The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War, by Eileen Welsome

“This book tells the harrowing story of the plutonium injections and other experiments conducted on U.S. citizens in the postwar era. It provides one of the best illustrations of how distrust in the government and fear about nuclear energy got firmly embedded in the minds of the American public; two of the main factors explaining today's difficulty to deal with the legacy of radioactive waste.”

The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, by Daniel Ellsberg

“Ellsberg's memoirs on his early-career involvement in the US nuclear war planning come 45 years after he famously leaked the Pentagon Papers helping to end the Vietnam War in 1975. Although mainly based on now declassified documents that will be known from historians, the book shows to the general public the insanity of U.S. and Russian nuclear policies based on a permanent state of alert of their early warning systems, which risks to humanity could only be exacerbated by prospects of a new arms race.”

From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia, by Michael McFaul

“In this book mixing history, scholarship and memoirs, McFaul explains that after the Cold War, U.S.-Russia relations went from resetting relations aimed at more cooperation after the fall of the Soviet Union to a period of Hot Peace with the rise of Vladimir Putin. Deliberately echoing the past, McFaul argues that Hot Peace is no less dangerous than the Cold War because it brings new types of destabilizing factors, such as elections interference and military annexation, and calls for a bipartisan strategy to reset (again) the U.S.-Russia relations.”

Karl Eikenberry, Oksenberg-Rohlen Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center,

CISAC, CDDRL, and TEC affiliate, and director of the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center recommends:

Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari

Rodney C. Ewing, Frank Stanton Professor in Nuclear Security and Co-Director, CISAC, recommends:

Hue 1968 - A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam by Mark Bowden

This is a long, hard read, but I think it is appropriate reading on the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive.

Gabrielle Hecht, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Frank Stanton Foundation Professor of Nuclear Security, and professor of history, recommends:

“Stephen Graham, Vertical: the City from Satellites to Bunkers. Most of us think about maps and spatial politics in two dimensions. This book invites readers to incorporate a third dimension into their thinking: verticality.  Ranging from satellites, drones, and skyscrapers to sewers, mines, and tunnels, Graham upends our sense of how politics, geography, and urban spaces are entwined. A great read, sparkling with insight.”

Siegfried Hecker, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, emeritus, and research professor of management science and engineering, emeritus, recommends:

Geoff West's Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies.

“He is a good friend - former Los Alamos physicist, now at the Santa Fe Institute.”

David Holloway, Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, a professor of political science, and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies senior fellow, recommends:

Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets. 

“This is based on interviews Alexievich did between 1991 and 2012 and it provides an incomparable insight into the Soviet Union and post-Soviet reality, on the basis of what has been called a “symphony of Russian voices."  I found it compulsive reading and very moving.  It is not not about policy, but it is very much about the impact of politics on individuals and on society.  Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015 but you shouldn’t let that put you off.”

Colin Kahl, Steven C. Házy Senior Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Director of the Middle East Initiative recommends:

Paul Scharre, Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War.

“Rapid technological advances in autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons systems and artificial intelligence will revolutionize the way humans fight. Yet security specialists are still in the early phases of thinking through the battlefield and ethical implications of these developments. This book, by a former Army Ranger, is a terrific starting point for that conversation.”

David Relman, Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor in the Departments of Medicine, and of Microbiology and Immunology, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System in Palo Alto, California recommends:

Thank You For Your Service, by David Finkel.

“After embedding himself with the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry during the 2007-2008 Surge in Iraq, Finkel, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and editor for the Washington Post, follows some of these soldiers after their return home to the U.S., and describes their painful struggles with the consequences of profound psychological trauma. His accounts are gripping, disturbing and for even the reader, life-changing. This book should be required reading for anyone who contributes to decisions about sending and subjecting people of any nation to war.”

Scott Sagan, Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute, recommends:

S.C. Gwyne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Paker and Rise and Fall of the Commanches.

“Summer for me should include time away from the hustle and bustle of the city, to vacation in the wilds of the American West.  Gwynne's book brilliantly captures the story of both Quanah Parker, the last independent chief of the Commanche, and his mother, Sarah Ann Parker, who was captured by raiding warriors as a young girl and then lived with the Commanche until captured a second time, by white relatives, after having raised a family with her Native American husband.  This book, and the great John Wayne film, The Searchers, provides a summer window through which to glimpse dark elements of American history and culture.”

Amy Zegart, co-director of CISAC, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and professor of political economy (by courtesy) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, recommends two books:

“Daniel Pink, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, which is chalk full of useful (and sometimes frightening) research about timing -- with implications for how to improve efficiency and outcomes in a wide array of activities, from when to get medical procedures to how to get the most out of a nap. In international security, it is easy to overlook the human dimensions of good decision-making. One of McGeorge Bundy's best decisions during the Cuban missile crisis was to let President Kennedy sleep before telling him about the U2 photos showing Soviet missile installations. Pink's book grounds this essential intuition in research.

“Tara Westover, Educated. A moving memoir about a young woman's journey from a survivalist family in Idaho to Cambridge University, where she earned a DPhil in History. Told with a sense of love and brutal honesty, the book provides a penetrating glimpse into segments of American society that are literally and figuratively off the grid and one woman's singular determination to make a different future for herself.”

This is an excerpt of the the article, which was first published in Stanford News. You can read the whole article here.

A Stanford-led study in China has revealed for the first time high levels of a potentially fatal tapeworm infection among school-age children. The researchers suggest solutions that could reduce infections in this sensitive age range and possibly improve education outcomes and reduce poverty.

The study, published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, focuses on Taenia solium, a tapeworm that infects millions of impoverished people worldwide and can cause a disorder of the central nervous system called neurocysticercosis. The World Health Organization estimates that the infection is one of the leading causes of epilepsy in the developing world and results in 29 percent of epilepsy cases in endemic areas. It is thought to affect about 7 million people in China alone.