This program is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided for those who RSVP before noon on Wednesday, February 6th to Okky Choi Tel: 650/724-8271 Email: okkychoi@Stanford.EDU According to other regions' experiences including those of the Mediterranean region in Europe, the existence of a regional leader (such as France in the Mediterranean region) can facilitate the cooperation needed to adequately address regional pollution problems. South Korea may be a likely candidate for such a leadership role in Northeast Asian environmental cooperation initiatives. South Korea has not only been active in various regional efforts, but has also been successful in developing its own environmental institutions at the domestic level. However, the unique geopolitical situation in Northeast Asia limits South Korea's ability to exert a true leadership role in the region. Instead, South Korea can be a "facilitator" of the regional initiatives in Northeast Asia where no state can play a similar role that France played in the Mediterranean region.

Son of a prominent Philadelphia family, Stokes left for India at age 20 to work in a leper colony, and later created a new religious order, married a village girl and lived as an Indian householder, fought injustices (including British rule) with Gandhi and others, and was jailed by the British for his political activity. Stokes is best remembered now for transforming the regional economy by introducing the American Delicious apple. "...the story of the commitment to India that prompted Gandhi to describe (Stokes) as a foreigner who had made India his home in a manner in which perhaps no other American or Englishman has'" -- Mark Tully, India Today Asha Sharma's biography of Sam Stokes was introduced at the American Embassy in New Delhi, and has been a best seller in India. Sharma holds a degree in Journalism from Columbia University. She was a fellow of the Indian Council of Historical Research and a Research Associate at the University of California at Berkeley. She has taught at a university and has worked as a correspondent.

Dr. Bat Batjargal is visiting scholar at the Center for Russian and East European Studies, Stanford University. He holds a lecturer position at London Business School and is assistant professor in strategy at Beijing University School of Management. His Ph.D. is from the University of Oxford. Previously, he has held visiting appointments at Harvard University, United Nations University in Tokyo, and the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He is the author of several research articles on entrepreneurship, and the book "Entrepreneurship in the New Russia: The Resource Based View" to be published by Edward Elgar in 2002.

How was it that Afghanistan, a country that was often conquered and ruled by outsiders before 1800, became seemingly impossible to conquer and rule in the 19th and 20th centuries? An historical examination of Afghan history reveals that premodern Central Asian rulers looked upon war and conquest as the business of displacing rival elites, a process having little or nothing to do with the inhabitants of the territory. During the 19th century, this pattern began to change in Afghanistan where governments found themselves dependent on raising tribal armies to repel foreign invaders, such as the British, at the cost of sharing power with them in the postwar period. This pattern continued into the 20th century when during each period of state collapse drew an ever-wider part of the population into the political struggle for power. The Soviet invasion drew the widest possible opposition but upon their withdrawal no faction was able to create a stable government. Afghanistan fell into ten years of civil war that opened it up to extreme movements such the Taliban and its exploitation by outsiders such as Osama bin Laden. Since war alone has now proved incapable of solving Afghanistan's problems the current conflict in Afghanistan can only be won by a wider policy that makes Afghanistan's economic and political reconstruction a priority in a way that can end its cycle of anarchy.

The emergence of global information society changes the nature of the relationship between society, knowledge, and technology. This affects in a fundamental way the role of ICTs (Information and Communication Technology) for the distribution of knowledge, the development of network economies, networks of social innovation and networks of co-development. Knowledge networking is seen here in terms of creating cross-cultural alliances among the university, enterprise, and the media, through creating symbiotic relationships between local and global knowledge resources. The focus is on promoting a culture of shared communication, values and knowledge, seeking cooperation through valorization of diversity, social cohesion and subsidiarity. This focus is informed by the human centered vision of Information Society, which moves the digital divide discourse beyond the technocentric agenda toward a human centered agenda that recognizes the purpose of ICT as promoter of social cohesion in which shared communication and shared knowledge drive cohesion, and cohesion generates shared communication and an increase in shared knowledge. The discussion will be illustrated by an example of the European - India Cross Cultural Innovation Network, a unique project of the European Commission that promotes cross-cultural cooperation, action research and knowledge networking.

A one-day conference organized by Shorenstein APARC brought together 110 distinguished participants from India, the United States, Israel, Taiwan, Europe, and Latin America. The program's objective was to inform and educate India's IT policymakers and practitioners on India's enabling environment with respect to regulation, governance, access to capital, and technological capabilities. The proceedings of this conference are available as an Shorenstein APARC publication, prepared by Dr. Rafiq Dossani.