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The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens offered the 2010 Payne Distinguished Lecture on March 4, 2010, at FSI, with a focus on Pakistan. President of the New America Foundation and a staff writer at the New Yorker, Coll formerly served as the managing editor of the Washington Post and has spent more than 20 years studying the geo-politics of Pakistan and the region.

During his talk, Coll chose to address four major issues:

  • Why have Pakistan's Army, Security, and Intelligence Services chosen to support the Taliban and other groups with known terrorist ties?
  • What is the changing nature of Islamist militarism inside Pakistan?
  • Where is the United States headed in its efforts to change Pakistan's behavior and how does Pakistan see its own interests?
  • What is the current status of Pakistan's relationship with India and what are the prospects for Indo-Pakistani reconciliation?

In a riveting and lively discussion with the audience, Coll noted that his key objective was to help create a fuller, more nuanced understanding of an exceedingly complex political, military, and cultural dynamic on the ground in Pakistan.

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Woman by Woman: New Hope for the Villages of India"
(27 minutes) India/USA - documents the stories of women in some of the least developed areas of rural India as they progress toward personal freedom. The film presents Janani, a group that trains women to become family planning counselors in their villages. These women become role models by having the confidence to go beyond traditional boundaries.
Following the screening Academy Nominated filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman will talk about her work in the US and abroad with the UNAFF Founder and Executive Director Jasmina Bojic.
For more details about the film go to:  www.unaff.org/2002/F_Woman.html  

Co-presented with Bechtel International Center, School of Education, California Foreign Language Project, United Nations Association Midpeninsula Chapter, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and UNAFF

Bechtel International Center Assembly Room

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Stanford Humanities Center
424 Santa Teresa St.
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 723-3052
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FSI-Stanford Humanities Center International Visiting Scholar

Thitinan Pongsudhirak is a high-profile expert on contemporary political, economic, and foreign-policy issues in Thailand today  He is also a prolific author; witness his op ed, "Moving beyond Thaksin," in the 25 February 2010 Wall Street Journal.

Pongsudhirak is not senior in years, but he is in stature.  His career path has been meteoric since he earned his BA in political science with distinction at UC-Santa Barbara not long ago. In 2001 he received the United Kingdom's Best Dissertation Prize for his doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics on the political economy of Thailand's 1997 economic crisis.

Since 2006 he has held an associate professorship in international relations at Thailand's premier institution of higher education, Chulalongkorn University, while simultaneously heading the Institute of Security and International Studies, the country's leading think tank on foreign affairs.

His many publications include: "After the Red Uprising," Far East Economic Review, May 2009; "Why Thais Are Angry," The New York Times, 18 April 2009; "Thailand Since the Coup," Journal of Democracy, October-December 2008; and "Thaksin: Competitive Authoritarian and Flawed Dissident," in Dissident Democrats: The Challenge of Democratic Leadership in Asia, ed. John Kane et al. (2008).  He has written on bilateral free-trade areas in Asia, co-authored a book on Thailand's trade policy, and is admired by Southeast Asianist historians for having insightfully revisited, in a 2007 essay, the sensitive matter of Thailand's role during World War II.

He was a Salzburg Global Seminar Faculty Member in June 2009, Japan Foundation's Cultural Leader in 2008, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore) in 2005.  For ten years, in tandem with his academic career, he worked as an analyst for The Economist's Intelligence Unit.

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Thitinan Pongsudhirak was selected in a campus-wide competition to spend two months--March and April 2010--at Stanford as an FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor. He is a Professor of International Political Economy in the Faculty of Political Science at Chulalongkorn University. Stanford units facilitating or co-sponsoring his stay at Stanford include the Southeast Asia Forum (SEAF), the Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS), and the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL).
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Korean Studies Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center is hosting an international workshop on South Korean economic affairs on March 18-19 sponsored by Koret Foundation.  Leading scholars and former senior officials from Korea and the United States will explore key aspects of economic globalization and Korea's role, from policies and politics to the economic prospects of a unified Korean. This lecture is offered as a public event on the first day of the workshop for a larger audience from the community and the Bay area.

Ambassador Han was appointed by President Lee, Myung-bak as the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of the America on January 18, 2009. He presented his Letter of Credence to President Barack Obama on May 20, 2009.

Before the appointment, Ambassador Han served as the 38th Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea after his nomination was approved by the National Assembly on April 2, 2007, and he worked in that capacity until February 2008.

Prior to serving as Prime Minister, Ambassador Han held numerous high-ranking positions in the Korean government. In 2006, he was named Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Facilitating KORUS FTA following his service as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy. Before being named Minister of Government Policy Coordination in early 2004, he worked as President of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade.

As Korea’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Ambassador Han went to Paris in 2001 before returning to Seoul later that year to serve at the Blue House, first as Senior Secretary to the President for Policy and Planning and later as Senior Secretary to the President for Economic Affairs. 

Ambassador Han was the Minister for Trade at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1998 to 2001. Previously, he was Assistant Minister for International Trade and Vice Minister at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. From 1993 to 1994, he served as Secretary to the President for Economic Affairs.

During his distinguished career in government, Ambassador Han has made many contributions to the development and modernization of the Korean economy.  Deregulation, market opening and strengthening of the market economy have been the three pillars of his philosophy and framework for the economic policy of Korea.

Ambassador Han earned a B.A. in economics from Seoul National University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.  He has been awarded two Order of Public Service and Merit Medals.

This event is supported by a generous grant from the Koret Foundation.

Bechtel Conference Center

Duk-Soo Han Korean Ambassador to the United States Keynote Speaker
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Daniel C. Sneider
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In his testimony before the House Oversight Committee about Toyota's massive recall efforts, Akio Toyota will learn that you can't win such an encounter. But you can lose. Shorenstein APARC Associate Director for Research Daniel C. Sneider comments on a Japanese CEO learning the lessons of American business the hard way.
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