Julie Cordua, executive director of Thorn, a non-profit organization founded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, spoke passionately on the topic child exploitation and sexual abuse imagery for the Stanford Program on Human Rights’ Winter Speaker Series U.S Human Rights NGOs and International Human Rights on February 4, 2015.

Cordua addressed the Stanford audience about the importance of technology for acting as the “digital defenders of children." She provided a chilling account of child sexual exploitation, first describing the problem and then going on to challenge preconceived notions about it. For example, she highlighted that in order to tackle the issue, it must first be understood that it concerns a highly vulnerable population; most child victims of sexual exploitation come from extremely abusive backgrounds and many have been sexually abused by one or more parents.

Cordua emphasized that technology innovations have contributed to a proliferation of child exploitation and sexual abuse imagery through the use of encrypted networks that make it extremely difficult to hunt down perpetrators and find victims. Cordua feels that while technology is intensifying the problem, technology is also the solution.  Examples she gave were the development of algorithms that aim to track perpetrators and their victims and advertisements that encourage pedophiles to seek help.

Helen Stacy, director of the Program on Human Rights, queried Cordua on Thorn’s relationship with the government and private sector, as well as on Thorn’s approach for testing the efficacy of their programs. Cordua responded that Thorn does not apply for government funds so as to maintain independence over their projects but that they actively cultivate strong relationships with politicians and law enforcers. In relation to evaluation metrics, Cordua acknowledged that metrics are especially difficult in such a cryptic field as it is nearly impossible to know what numbers they are dealing with from the onset. Questions from the audience included effective strategies for changing the conversation of pedophilia in the public sphere, the emotional stamina required for pursuing such work, and strategies for connecting with and providing a safe platform for victims of child sexual exploitation.

Dana Phelps, Program Associate, Program on Human Rights

Carolyn Miles, CEO and president of Save the Children, spoke on her organization’s efforts to protect children’s rights in many countries of the world at the Stanford Program on Human Rights’ Winter Speaker Series U.S Human Rights NGOs and International Human Rights on February 11, 2015.

Throughout her talk, Miles addressed the Stanford audience about the importance of protecting the basic needs of children, proclaiming the Save the Children mission: Every child deserves a childhood.  She spoke about the urgent needs of child refugees in Syria, the organization’s biggest and most challenging hurdle at present. The audience grew still when Miles played a Save the Children commercial capturing a Syrian child’s experience in one year of her life during the wake of the crisis. Miles raised other important issues, such as the critical importance of developing longer-term strategies that support children in the aftershock of crises, which often can be more damaging than the initial crisis itself. For example, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when thousands of children were displaced, organizations such as the Red Cross had no plan in place for caring for children in shelters beyond a short period of time. Save the Children trained Red Cross workers in preparedness techniques and strategies for emergency aftermath.

Helen Stacy, director of the Program on Human Rights and moderator of the event, questioned Miles on the organization’s strategy for accessing marginalized communities; prioritizing children that are forgotten or ignored; and the concern of overeducating and preparing children in countries with a depleted workforce. Miles believes that focusing on the hard-to-reach populations will close the gap between the majority and the minority, and that studies show that this is achievable when governments are made to feel accountable to their marginalized peoples when witnessed on an international level. In relation to unrealistically preparing children for the workforce, Miles stated that in the Middle East this may potentially be a problem, but that Save the Children endeavors to prepare students through matching their skillsets to jobs that are already available. When Stacy challenged Miles on the Western mindset that frames the Save the Children mission that “every child deserves a childhood," Miles agreed that it is a Western attitude but stood by her stance that she believes that all children under the age of eighteen are entitled to certain basic rights, regardless of non-Western cultural norms indicating otherwise. Questions from the audience included fundraising issues, learning from undesirable program evaluation results, dealing with diversity when designing projects and innovation in children’s rights.

Dana Phelps, Program Associate, Program on Human Rights

Lauren Wedekind is a Stanford undergraduate studying Human Biology and Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Her research focuses on social medicine and the potential for telemedicine to mitigate health care coverage gaps. Lauren believes that human rights advocacy requires a two-way street of listening and communication within and across national and cultural borders—which she explores with Stanford CDDRL, UNA-USA, and WFUNA on projects involving the right to health. Wedekind received funding from CDDRL's Program on Human Rights to travel and participate in the WFUNA Human Rights Youth Training Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

By age seventeen, Nam had been forced into marrying a stranger, bearing his child, and risking her life to be a refugee on a remote island.  In April 1975, the North Vietnamese Communist Party took over the Republic of South Vietnam, and violently threatened residents of Saigon, South Vietnam’s then-capital and Nam’s hometown.  Like thousands of other residents, Nam’s family desperately uprooted from their relatively comfortable living situation, only to cram like sardines into an over-capacity boat headed toward international waters, hoping to be rescued by the United Nations.  With their lives in very real danger, the to-be refugees who boarded that boat did so without any guarantee that they would safely cross the passage across the Pacific Ocean.  In fact, these “boat people” were held hostage, robbed, raped, and beaten on three separate occasions by pirates in the Sea of China.  After the attacks, they floated aimlessly on the ocean for days, and were finally rescued by a UNHCR vessel, which guided them to refugee camps in Indonesia.  One year later, Nam and her boat’s survivors—those who were not killed by violence or disease—reached the United States.  The survivors who finally reached peacekeeping nations accepting refugees had often endured poverty, abuse, and posttraumatic mental and physical health issues.

Wedekind with her cohort of training attendees in Geneva.

This summer, I was honored to be nominated by UNA-USA to attend the WFUNA High Commissioner of Human Rights Training in Geneva, in which 30 young human rights advocates representing 25 countries learned about international human rights instruments and the UN Human Rights Council.  Through WFUNA’s training curriculum, and even more, through interactions with our peers, our cohort agreed on concepts of fundamental human rights—that people of all ages and backgrounds should be guaranteed: (1) Fundamental human rights and (2) The right to defend these rights.  Point (2) necessitates governments exercising structural competence to guarantee the protection of human rights for all members of society.  As part of Point (2), listening to many different viewpoints within society has been humbled me: As a human rights advocate, I am responsible for ensuring that I also understand the stories of the marginalized so that I can best voice collective advocacy points to others – advocacy is a two-way street. 

When watching the UN Human Rights Council Emergency Session on Gaza with the Human Rights Training in July, I was first awestruck that I was able to watch a history-making decision before my eyes.  As I held the wired translator earpiece to my ear for the last hour of the Session in which NGOs were stating their own perceptions of human rights violations on-the-ground, though, I realized that many stakeholders were actually leaving the assembly hall.  I wondered: “How can multilateral, international organizations realistically ensure that they respect the human dignity of all members of society without each ambassador engaging with community members who directly experience conflicts on-the-ground?”  I respect the major responsibilities of Ambassadors to the UN Human Rights council: (1) Developing realistic pictures of events he/she has often not directly perceived, (2) Communicating these pictures to members of his/her society, and (3) Voicing the collective opinions of his/her constituency on human rights issues in international engagements.  These three actions are not simple, but when put into practice, they enable action over apathy.

Since returning to the U.S., I have asked: “How can I be most useful to my society?”  After witnessing both multinational cooperation as well as largely unheard voices of NGOs in international human 

Wedekind at one of the training sessions at the UN.

In partnership with the Program on Human Rights at Stanford's Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Afia Khan (Economics ’16) and I are developing a student-initiated course on health and human rights advocacy, which we will launch in 2015, for intermediate school through university-level students.  We hope to provide young people with a knowledge base and advocacy toolkit for young people on health and human rights, and to let them know what I have learned from UN Human Rights Council and Nam: Every single person can advocate for human rights – we must start small by exercising compassion to understand others’ experiences, and then share with others what we have learned.

Nam’s name changed to respect confidentiality.

Also see Wededkind's blog posted on the WFUNA website and on FSI Global Student Fellows' 'In The World' Blog. 

Stanford senior Sarah Kunis said she and other CISAC honors students were introducing themselves to some senior White House advisors when President Barack Obama walked in the room.

“I couldn’t stop my jaw from dropping,” said Kunis. It was honor enough to have an hourlong  sit-down with National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, and Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco.

The CISAC Honors Students spend their senior year working on theses that focus on critical international security issues. They were eager to get the chance to talk to the three powerful Washington advisors.

The students had just been in the audience to hear Obama address a large Stanford and Silicon Valley gathering at the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection on Feb. 13. They were then taken to a conference room in the same auditorium where Obama spoke.

“I was surprised to see Susan Rice’s nameplate, so I thought she was who the invitation referred to, but there was an empty chair with no nameplate, between her and Jarrett,” recalled Patrick Cirenza, another CISAC honors student and a research assistant for retired U.S. Gen. Jim Mattis, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Then Obama walked in the room. The students were stunned – and nervous.

“I remember how sweaty my palms were,” said Cirenza. “I already had a visceral reaction seeing him at the podium so you can only imagine being in the same room with him. His presence fills the room.”

Taylor Grossman, another CISAC honors student whose thesis looks at the incentives and payoffs of warning the public about terrorist threats, said the conversation started off with Obama asking them whether they might consider careers that would protect the digital domain.

“But then we branched out and talked about a lot of different things,” she said. “The situation in Syria, public warning systems, education, the civil-military divide. It was really a whole range of issues.”

Before being joined by Jarrett and Rice, the students spoke with Cheri Caddy, director for cybersecurity outreach and integration in the National Security Council, for about an hour.

“We asked her pretty frank questions about cybersecurity, North Korea … defensive and offensive capabilities, and getting students interested in the field,” said Grossman. “She was quite candid and provided her own opinions.”

Grossman is a research assistant for CISAC Co-Director Amy Zegart, who is also a senior fellow at Hoover and garnered a shout-out from the president during his keynote address, thanking her for helping to convene the summit.

Jarrett talked to the students about sexual assault on campus. It was the second time the honors students had met the Stanford alumna; they first met her during their two-week Honors College in Washington, D.C. before the start of their senior year.

Obama initially directed the conversation, focusing on cybersecurity. He then opened it up for questions on any topic.

CISAC Honors Students take a selfie before President Obama addresses the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection, Feb. 13, 2015.

“I told him I thought we are in the 1950s nuclear stage now with regards to cyber-deterrence,” he said. The president disagreed.

“He said, ‘That’s interesting, but I don’t think it’s the case, since there are gradations with cyber wars whereas nuclear warfare is more black and white.’”

Grossman asked the president about the role of the National Terrorism Advisory System, which replaced the color-coded Homeland Security system, and whether he envisioned a scenario in which the government would have to use it.

“He and Lisa Monaco focused on specific warning systems, which was interesting to me,” she said.

The topic turned to Syria when the president noticed that Kunis had brought along a copy of U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power’s book, “A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.”

“I asked why we are not intervening in Syria and why we are not fulfilling our Right to Protect (R2P) obligation,” said Kunis. “President Obama said that the situation there was heartbreaking and that everyone looked at the problem to figure out what we should do to stop the suffering, while evaluating our interests. We cannot intervene without having a plan for the future – and we can’t overthrow governments.”

Cirenza said Obama noted that there are routine calls to intervene in Syria, but few to intervene in other nations, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 5.4 million people have died from conflict-related causes since a civil war erupted in the central African nation in 1998.

President Obama also shared his view that he doesn't believe the United States would have been locked into the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as long as it has if there were a mandatory national draft in place. He asked students what they thought of instituting such a draft.

Almost none thought it a good idea.

Overall, the students said, it was the most incredible day of their Stanford careers“It’s going to be hard to look forward to much else,” said Cirenza, who now has adjustments to make to his honors thesis. “Pretty much downhill from here. Thanks, Obama.” 

Joshua Alvarez is a 2012 Stanford graduate and was a CISAC honors student.

Herb Lin has a long agenda crafted from big ideas.

As CISAC’s inaugural senior research scholar for cyber policy and security, Lin intends to make Stanford the premier hub for academic research and public policy in an effort to protect the world’s computer networks against cyber attacks.

“When I was recruited, Stanford told me to think big. So I’m thinking big,” says Lin, who comes to Stanford from the National Research Council of the National Academies in Washington, D.C., where he was chief scientist at the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board.

“Part of my job is also to find a way to build cyber connections to other parts of the campus – law, medicine, the business school, engineering – so there are a variety of interesting possibilities that I’d like to tackle.”

Even before taking up his new role at Stanford last month, Lin worked with CISAC co-director Amy Zegart to convene a three-day boot camp that brought together Silicon Valley heavyweights and congressional staffers working on critical cyber legislation.

Lin wants to launch a policy journal devoted to research about cybersecurity. He hopes to construct the university’s first undergraduate courses about the foreign policy and economic implications of cybersecurity, as well as the risk analysis of cyberspace. He will represent Stanford's efforts in public commentaries, such as the one he wrote for The Wall Street Journal about how companies can ward off hackers.

And Lin was instrumental in facilitating the Feb. 12-13 White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford University. President Barack Obama addressed the summit, the first time a sitting U.S. president conducted business on the Stanford campus in 40 years.

“Obviously the president has a great bully pulpit here, and is highlighting the importance of cybersecurity on the national policy agenda,” said Lin. “We are particularly delighted that he’s come to Stanford – which is recognition of our role in advancing the cybersecurity interests of the nation.”

Lin, who took up his new role at CISAC in January and is also a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, plans to reach across campus to help the university establish a cohesive strategy for the intersection of cyber policy and international security.

“Cyber touches many facets of life,” said Lin, who has a Ph.D. in physics from MIT. “Some of us are interested in the implications of cyber for international security and foreign relations. Others focus on how protect the nation’s critical infrastructure. Still others are trying to develop tools that can be used to make better decisions about consumer protections. I’d like to bring all of that under one coherent theme.”

Lin also helped organize the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology workshop at Stanford on Feb. 12. The roundtable, which was in coordination with the White House summit, brought together chief technology and security executives to discuss the challenges of implementing consumer protection technologies in real-world conditions.

Lin moderated a panel at that workshop about academic research that has applications for consumer protections against cyber threats. Michael Daniel, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator at the White House, gave the keynote at the workshop.

Cybersecurity has become a priority for the Obama administration. The White House in October launched the BuySecure initiative, which includes reforms such as securing payment systems and preventing identity theft. Obama also spoke about cybersecurity in his State of the Union address on Jan. 20.

“No foreign nation, no hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids,’ Obama said.

Track II Diplomacy

Just as CISAC scholars have for decades been involved in Track II diplomacy in foreign policy, nuclear arms control, and counterinsurgency, Lin would like to see Stanford build on that by facilitating dialogue with other nations about ways to protect and defend their digital networks against cyber attacks and breaches.

“CISAC, as you know, has a long tradition of having nuclear dialogue with China and Russia, even during the coldest periods of the Cold War,” said Lin. “I’d like there to be a Track II diplomacy effort for cyber based here at Stanford, which many Chinese regard as the world’s No. 1 university.  That’s a very attractive platform from which a cyber dialog can be started and sustained.”

CISAC Senior Research Scholar for Cyber Policy and Security, and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, says to understand cybersecurity you must first understand the basic components of locks and keys.

Finally, Lin intends to work with academics and scientists at Columbia University and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to establish a boot camp for scholars of international relations and political science who want to work on cyber issues.

Last August, Lin worked with Zegart – who is also a senior fellow and associate director for academic affairs at Hoover – to bring in two dozen senior congressional staffers for a rigorous boot camp that paired them with military, academic and technology experts working at the highest levels of cybersecurity.

The three-day camp drew such names at Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and Facebook’s Chief Information Officer Joe Sullivan. Many of the congressional staffers said it was the first time they’d had the chance to closely interact with the very tech executives for whom they are working on protections and legislation.

Stanford announced in November it had launched the Stanford Cyber Initiative with the support of a Hewlett Foundation grant of $15 million. The initiative will take an interdisciplinary approach to address the challenges raised by cyber technologies.

Michael McFaul, director of CISAC’s parent organization, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, said Stanford is poised to lead in the cyber arena.

“We have a tradition and an ability to do things in an interdisciplinary way,” said McFaul, a professor of political science and a senior fellow at Hoover.

“I think we’re uniquely qualified and uniquely placed to tackle all those here at Stanford, especially because we sit at the heart of Silicon Valley,” said McFaul, who was the U.S. ambassador to Russia for President Obama before returning to Stanford last year. “I expect to see Stanford become the leading institution in the world for addressing cybersecurity issues.”

Readers can learn more about Stanford University’s push into cybersecurity here.