In its June 20, 2026, edition, the Nikkei Shimbun's Market Beat financial analysis column, titled US Stocks Attract Japanese Money, examines how the U.S. stock market is becoming a "major league" that is increasingly attracting capital from Japanese individual investors. Several factors drive this phenomenon:
Massive IPOs: Unprecedentedly large IPOs, as seen by SpaceX, are capturing global attention and investment.
Structural Advantages: U.S. markets are moving fast to include new, large companies in major stock indices, which forces index-tracking funds to buy shares and creates automatic demand.
24-Hour Trading: U.S. exchanges like the NYSE and Nasdaq are moving toward near 24-hour trading to specifically capture Asian daytime investors, making it easier for them to participate.
The column describes how Japanese investors are increasingly bypassing domestic options to capture the immense growth driven by American AI, data infrastructure, and advanced technology IPOs. "Founders and early-stage investors prefer large-scale markets that offer price discovery, liquidity, and visibility. This is likely to accelerate the concentration of innovative companies in the United States," says Curtis Milhaupt, the William F. Baxter-Visa International Professor of Law and APARC faculty affiliate.
The article notes that the speculative nature of advanced tech sectors inevitably fuels market volatility and could pose risks for Japanese investors looking across the Pacific, urging Japanese investors to identify promising domestic companies.
Eikei University of Hiroshima (EUH) is a liberal arts institution dedicated to fostering solutions- and impact-driven leaders who create social value in today’s world. Its goal is to cultivate practical skills for solving real-world issues through active learning, international perspectives, and interdisciplinary education. SPICE’s Social Entrepreneurship course, developed and taught by Dr. Mariko Yang-Yoshihara, is an intensive program that reflects the university’s objectives by helping students recognize and address social issues through a human-centred approach. Having taken the course twice, first as a student and later as a student assistant, I gained valuable skills, perspectives, and knowledge from both experiences.
The key learnings acquired this year placed greater emphasis on interdisciplinary exchange, sharing, and combining perspectives on social issues. The course instituted an exchange between liberal arts students at EUH and STEM students at Oslo Metropolitan University (Oslomet) in Norway. The EUH students identified human-centred social issues related to technology-based themes found within Hiroshima and shared with the Oslomet students, and the Oslomet students provided solutions or prototypes in response to these problems, with a discussion exchange that was held online toward the conclusion of the course.
I found this exchange to be very interesting and engaging, even with my role as a student assistant in this course. The difference in perspectives between liberal arts students and STEM students was quite evident during this discussion, especially through the concepts and factors emphasized in the assigned theme by both groups of students. Due to vast differences in class sizes, we, the Eikei students, were required to review multiple prototypes submitted by the Oslomet student groups. Initially, all of the prototypes provided for my group’s theme seemed similar, but my perspective significantly changed after communicating and discussing with the Oslomet student groups during the online exchange. Their overview of prototypes shared similarities from an external point of view, but their features, emphasis, and priorities were quite different. This differentiation only became evident during the interactive session through the exchange of viewpoints between students from both universities.
A cultural comparison between the two universities was also a key observation. The exchange of participants’ views on the feasibility of said prototypes within Norwegian and Japanese societies was intriguing to observe through a thorough comparison of social aspects in both countries, particularly governmental assistance, hierarchical structures, and the focus of the prototype. This further highlighted the contrasts in the same target demographics across both countries, leading to the realization that the same prototype may not have the same impact on both societies.
Another important note was the difference in priority and emphasis between the assigned theme and problem statement for the liberal arts students and the STEM students. There was a clear distinction in focus areas between the two universities. The EUH students solely prioritized the human-centred aspect of the provided theme, while the Oslomet students, on the other hand, targeted the technological aspect. It was quite intriguing to witness STEM students and liberal arts students trying to understand each other’s perspectives on the same situation.
Interestingly, rather than observing two major groups of students taking part in this course, I noticed three different groups. The first group is the Norwegian students who had never been to Japan, who viewed the problem statement based in Hiroshima from an external perspective. The second group consists of native Japanese students currently living in Hiroshima who viewed the problem statement from an internal perspective. The third group was international students (non-Japanese students studying at Eikei, including myself) who are also currently living in Hiroshima but viewed the problem statement from a pseudo internal-external perspective. All three groups had differing opinions and thought processes, which led to a significantly interactive and dynamic session. I was able to perceive the importance of having people with differing experiences and cultures participate in a discussion, as it progressively leads to a more adaptable and inclusive long-term approach towards achieving a common objective.
Additionally, my experiences in this course resonated with my own experience as the president of the international student organization club at our university. Oftentimes, while having meetings with Academic Affairs and International Affairs at our university regarding new initiatives, changes, or plans, I always aim to gather various opinions and concerns of my international peers, representing their needs and concerns as well. These concerns or opinions are quite varied, since the international student community has students who come from different regions of the world, resulting in a wide range of perspectives. When these varied concerns are addressed, it encourages developing solutions that aim at supporting a diverse community.
Chhavvi Anilkumar reflects on her experience in the course, Social Entrepreneurship | Photo courtesy of Chhavvi Anilkumar
This course has given me important insights and perspectives that I am sure will continue to shape my views in the short- as well as the long-term future. As a person interested in diversity and multiculturalism, this course’s experience considerably strengthened my understanding of how social structures and different experiences shape the perspectives of an individual. I believe this insight will assist me in interacting with a diverse range of people in a more inclusive manner, especially when creating solutions or strategies that can cater to various demographic groups.
Facilitating such interactive sessions, observing, and understanding the differences between the given prototypes reinforces more than just the value of collaborating with individuals coming from other backgrounds. Including different groups to participate in a situation or problem with their differing perspectives and skills increases the potential of having an adaptable solution idea that could further positively impact more than just the targeted audience. Hence, courses such as Social Entrepreneurship play a significant role in encouraging and fostering collaborative initiatives and approaches that lead to developing unique, adaptable, and successful solutions.
SPICE's course on Social Entrepreneurship with Eikei University of Hiroshima is one of SPICE’s local student programs in Japan.
Behind Every Action is a “Why”: A Journey of Academic and Personal Growth in Human-Centered Design
Renz Kayle Roble Arayan, an undergraduate student at Eikei University of Hiroshima, reflects on his experience in the SPICE course, Social Entrepreneurship.
Introduction to Issues in International Security is a collaboration between the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE). Five CISAC scholars are featured in accessible video lectures that aim to introduce high school students to issues in international security and increase awareness of career opportunities available in the field. These scholars are Dr. Kevin Bustamante, Professor Martha Crenshaw, the Honorable Rose Gottemoeller, Professor Norman Naimark, and Dr. Megan Palmer. Free discussion guides, developed by Irene Bryant and Greg Francis of SPICE, are available for each of the lectures in this series.
For the fifth year since 2022, Dr. Ignacio Ornelas Rodriguez introduced the lectures and lessons in the discussion guides to high school students. This year the students were from Los Gatos, San Jose, Salinas, and Watsonville. The course culminated in a symposium on May 21, 2026 that was organized by Sabrina Ishimatsu. Three student groups had the opportunity to present their research projects to CISAC scholars, Dr. Harold Trinkunas, Dr. Kevin Bustamante, and Dr. Xunchao Zhang.
The students’ research projects focused on the following topics:
What is Race?
Biosecurity
Analyzing Terrorist Incidents and Terrorism and Counterterrorism
The scholars provided extremely useful feedback on the students’ research projects and asked thought-provoking questions. Students from the 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 cohorts have commented on how the course taught by Ornelas Rodriguez and the feedback and questions from the CISAC scholars have helped them not only gain knowledge about international security but also to prepare for college.
During this year’s symposium, the students were also very fortunate to listen to words of encouragement from Harvard undergraduate Alexandra Arguello and Stanford undergraduate Brianna Jimenez, 2022 and 2025 alumni, respectively, of the course taught by Ornelas Rodriguez. They also offered the following reflections for this article:
Dr. Ornelas’s class helped prepare me for Harvard by giving me an early foundation in international security, global affairs, and the kind of critical analysis that college-level academia demands. The course taught me to engage complex issues with intellectual curiosity, connect global events to lived experiences, and ask stronger research questions. At Harvard, that preparation allowed me to approach courses in international law, comparative politics, global education, and Latin American studies with greater confidence and purpose. In many ways, the class was my first serious introduction to the academic interests that continue to shape my studies and my goal of becoming an attorney working with international populations.—Alexandra Arguello
Dr. Ornelas’s class prepared me as a first-generation student for the academic rigor and fast-paced environment at Stanford by giving me the opportunity to learn about complex topics, develop potential solutions, and explore research-based questions. Through this experience, I gained fundamental skills and knowledge that continues to help me succeed both academically and personally. As a future physician, this class provided me with critical insight on how international security impacts health, access, and care. The class has greatly impacted my journey at Stanford, and my purpose as I pursue higher education.—Brianna Jimenez
Ornelas Rodriguez closed the symposium by extending his praise for the 2026 cohort which exceeded his expectations and commended them for adding his class to their already busy academic lives.
Local High School Students Connect with CISAC Security Experts—the Honorable Rose Gottemoeller, Professor Norman Naimark, Dr. Harold Trinkunas, and Visiting Research Scholar Xunchao Zhang—and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta
Students from San Jose and Salinas Valley—taught by Dr. Ignacio Ornelas Rodriguez—met on May 22, 2025 for the fourth annual International Security Symposium.
Top row, left to right: Ignacio Ornelas Rodriguez, Gary Mukai, Harold Trinkunas, Xunchao Zhang; second row, left to right: Kevin Bustamante, Sabrina Ishimatsu, Irene Bryant, Alexandra Arguello; third row, left to right: Brianna Aaliyah Jimenez, Ethan Zheng, Anna Espinoza-Vargas, Christopher Delgado Rodriguez; fourth row, left to right: Clara Cohen, Giselle Mercado, Yitzel Moreno Santos, Valeria Gonzalez, Emma Estrada, Ty Settle
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Students from Los Gatos, San Jose, Salinas, and Watsonville—taught by Dr. Ignacio Ornelas Rodriguez—met on May 21, 2026 for the fifth annual International Security Symposium.
The United States cannot match China's scale alone and pretending otherwise is a strategic mistake. That was the central message Rush Doshi delivered as keynote speaker at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions' 2026 annual China Conference, where he called on the U.S. to reimagine its alliance system as a platform for building shared capacity across military, economic, and technological domains.
Rush Doshi, the C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and an assistant professor at Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service, previously served as Deputy Senior Director for China and Taiwan on the National Security Council (2021-24), where, for a portion of his tenure, he was the U.S. government’s lead action officer coordinating the negotiations that launched AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership for the Indo-Pacific region between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He is also the author of The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Doshi grounded his address in a historical argument: scale, which Doshi defined as “the ability to generate efficiency and productivity and thereby outcompete rivals,” has been the decisive factor in the rise and fall of great powers. Great Britain's eclipse by larger industrializing rivals in the late nineteenth century, he argued, offers a cautionary parallel for the U.S. today. "Today, that sense of daunting scale belongs to China," Doshi said, "and the United States appears to be in the position that Great Britain was in a century ago."
China's Scale Is Not Abstract China's economy, measured in purchasing power, is now roughly 30 percent larger than that of the United States, and its share of global manufacturing quintupled in the two decades after joining the WTO, while the U.S. share fell by half. China has two to three times U.S. industrial capacity, 13 times U.S. steel production, and roughly 500 times U.S. shipbuilding capacity. It produces two-thirds of the world's electric vehicles, three-quarters of its batteries, and 90 percent of its solar panels and refined rare earths, and is at the leading edge of six of the ten industries expected to define the next industrial revolution. That industrial strength is now translating into direct geopolitical leverage. Doshi pointed to China's weaponization of its rare earths dominance in 2025, which effectively forced the U.S. to walk back elements of its own trade and export control policies. "That marked the first time that an export control was used to force open market access," he said. "That's a massive moment in the history of trade.
The Case for Allied Scale The answer, Doshi argued, is not to retreat into fortress America, a sphere-of-influence arrangement, or a China-led order, but to build what he calls "allied scale." A coalition of the U.S. and its key allies and partners would represent three times China's nominal GDP, twice its defense spending, and one and a half times its share of global manufacturing.
That advantage is entirely theoretical, unlocking its potential, though, is the central task of American statecraft in this century."
Rush Doshi
"That advantage is entirely theoretical," Doshi conceded. "Unlocking its potential, though, is the central task of American statecraft in this century." In practice, that might mean Japan and South Korea investing in American shipbuilding; Taiwan building semiconductor plants in the U.S.; allies co-producing advanced weapons systems; and all parties maintaining a shared tariff or regulatory wall against China's excess industrial capacity. On the economic side, Doshi called for common investment screening, coordinated industrial policy, and an "economic Article 5" ensuring that when China uses economic coercion against one ally, all respond together.
Addressing the Skeptics Doshi acknowledged "the new pessimism," the view that Trump-era damage to U.S. alliances has made allied scale impossible. The strain is real, he said, but not terminal, for three reasons:
The alternatives are worse. Spheres of influence, unrestrained multipolarity, and a China-led order all leave the U.S. and its partners poorer and less secure.
Alliances have absorbed serious shocks before and survived. For example, France's withdrawal from NATO's unified command, Nixon's opening to China, the Plaza Accord.
The underlying logic of interdependence persists. Allied economies are growing more dependent on U.S. markets as China buys less from them, allies are purchasing record numbers of American weapons, and even the Trump administration has not escaped the pull of allied scale, with Vice President Vance publicly calling for a trading bloc among allies to break China's chokehold on critical minerals.
Allied scale can't just be about balancing China, it has to be about building the kind of world that we want to see and live in.
Rush Doshi
Eight Principles to Achieve Allied Scale Doshi closed with a practical blueprint — eight principles for building allied scale.
Turn the page on the Trump era. Persuade allies that the most damaging recent policies were products of individual leadership rather than durable features of the American political system.
Begin with humility. Start with small, achievable projects: a joint shipbuilding effort, a critical minerals offtake agreement, a co-production line. Build from there.
Build mutually beneficial bargains. Allies invest in America; America invests in allies. All extend each other more preferential terms than they do to non-market economies like China.
Pay attention to domestic politics. “The danger of the ‘Trump Approach’ is alienation and polarization of allied politics that makes diplomacy impossible.” Any allied scale strategy must be first grounded in domestic politics.
Build ad hoc coalitions. Allied scale does not mean doing everything with everyone. It means assembling the right groupings for specific challenges and opportunities.
Bolster credibility through congressional legislation. Executive orders are too easily reversed. Durable commitments to allies require legislative backing that is harder to undo with a change in administration.
Build on existing platforms. Frameworks like the Quad, AUKUS, the U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral, and the G7 already exist. Allied scale should strengthen what works, not start from scratch.
Articulate an affirmative vision. "Allied scale can't just be about balancing China," Doshi said. "It has to be about building the kind of world that we want to see and live in."
“That work is hard,” Doshi concluded, but “it's not impossible. And the alternatives are far more concerning than the future that I’m outlining.” Doshi ended his address on a note of optimism: a call to action for the U.S. to reforge our alliances and rebalance the world order to create a better world for not just the U.S., but for nations across the globe.
A full recording of Dr. Rush Doshi’s talk is available on YouTube and below.
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China's Innovative Capacity Is Underestimated — and the Stakes Are Growing
SCCEI brought together leading China scholars this spring for its third annual China Conference under the theme “Understanding ‘DeepSeek Moments’ and China’s Innovation Ecosystem.” Conversation centered around the idea that the world’s prevailing frameworks for assessing China’s innovative capacity often underestimate it, and the consequences of that blind spot are growing.
The High Cost of Miscalculation: Sean Stein on U.S.-China Trade Fallout
In a keynote address during the 2025 SCCEI China Conference, U.S.-China Business Council President Sean Stein cautioned that strategic miscalculations and trade tensions have left the U.S. economy with lasting setbacks—and few clear gains.
Strategic Shifts: Understanding China’s Global Ambitions and U.S.-China Dynamics with Elizabeth Economy
At the 2025 SCCEI China Conference, Elizabeth Economy, Hargrove Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, outlined China’s ambitious bid to reshape the global order—and urged the U.S. to respond with vision, not just rivalry, during a Fireside Chat with Professor Hongbin Li, Senior Fellow and SCCEI Faculty Co-Director.
Rush Doshi, keynote speaker at the 2026 SCCEI China Conference, laid out an eight-point blueprint for transforming U.S. alliances into an engine of shared economic and industrial capacity.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Stanford e-Tottori Program, a milestone that provides an opportunity to reflect on a decade of learning, cross-cultural exchange, and partnership between Stanford University and Tottori Prefecture.
Launched in 2016, Stanford e-Tottori was the first regional program in Japan developed by SPICE. The program was created through a partnership between SPICE and the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education with the goal of helping high school students in Tottori engage in global issues, deepen their understanding of the United States and U.S.–Japan relations, and strengthen their English communication skills.
When the program began, none of us could have imagined that it would still be thriving 10 years later. Over the past decade, approximately 250 students from across Tottori Prefecture have participated in the program. Through weekly assignments, online discussions, virtual classroom sessions, guest lectures, and independent research projects, students have explored topics ranging from education and entrepreneurship to sustainability, diversity, leadership, and U.S.–Japan relations.
Having taught every cohort since the program’s founding, I have had the privilege of working with an extraordinary group of students. Each year, I am impressed by their curiosity, thoughtfulness, and willingness to engage with complex issues. Although students enter the program with varying levels of English proficiency and different academic interests, they consistently demonstrate a desire to learn, challenge themselves, and better understand perspectives beyond their own.
One of the defining features of the program has been the students’ final research projects. At the end of each course, students select a topic of personal interest, conduct independent research, and present their findings in English. Over the years, they have investigated subjects as diverse as artificial intelligence, environmental sustainability, education systems, cultural identity, social welfare, entrepreneurship, history, and international relations. These presentations have provided students with opportunities not only to strengthen their research and communication skills but also to share their passions and interests with others.
The success of Stanford e-Tottori also helped to lay the foundation for SPICE’s broader expansion of regional programs throughout Japan. What began as SPICE’s first regional program has grown into a network of educational partnerships that now serve students in prefectures and cities across the country. Today, SPICE offers regional programs in Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Oita, Tottori, and Yamaguchi prefectures, as well as in the cities of Kagoshima, Kawasaki, and Kobe.
Education is ultimately about people, and one of the greatest rewards of teaching Stanford e-Tottori has been the opportunity to learn from and work with so many talented students, teachers, and colleagues in both Japan and the United States.
One of the greatest joys of the program has been seeing students experience California and Stanford University firsthand. Each year, two top-performing students are invited to Stanford as honorees in recognition of their outstanding achievement in the course. During their visits, students participate in award ceremonies, tour the Stanford campus, meet Stanford faculty and staff, and connect with fellow students from other SPICE regional programs.
These visits have also provided opportunities for students to glimpse into American high school life firsthand. Over the years, I have had the pleasure of accompanying students to local schools, where they have attended classes and met with American students. I am especially grateful to local educators, including Yoko Sase of The Nueva School in Hillsborough and Matt Hall of Gunn High School in Palo Alto, who have generously welcomed our students into their classrooms and school communities.
The Stanford e-Tottori Program would not exist without the vision, dedication, and support of many individuals and organizations. I am especially grateful to Takeshi Homma, whose passion for education, entrepreneurship, and international exchange helped inspire the creation of the program 10 years ago. Since its inception, Homma-san has remained a steadfast supporter, generously sharing his experiences and insights with students through annual guest lectures on entrepreneurship, innovation, and global citizenship.
I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to Governor Shinji Hirai for his longstanding commitment to international education and global engagement. His support of educational exchange between Tottori and Stanford has helped create opportunities for hundreds of students to broaden their horizons and develop a deeper understanding of the United States and U.S.–Japan relations.
I am deeply grateful to the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education for its partnership and commitment to providing meaningful international educational opportunities for students. Over the years, I have had the pleasure of working with many dedicated educators and teacher consultants whose efforts have been essential to the program’s success, including Koji Tsubaki, Takuya Fukushima, Tomoya Minohara, Shuichi Hata, Natsu Odahara, and Satoru Hamahashi. Their enthusiasm, professionalism, and unwavering support have helped make the Stanford e-Tottori Program a rewarding experience for students throughout Tottori Prefecture.
As I reflect on the past 10 years, what stands out most are not the individual lessons, assignments, or presentations, but the relationships that have developed through the program. Education is ultimately about people, and one of the greatest rewards of teaching Stanford e-Tottori has been the opportunity to learn from and work with so many talented students, teachers, and colleagues in both Japan and the United States.
As Stanford e-Tottori enters its second decade, I am excited to see what the future holds. I look forward to continuing to learn alongside future generations of students and to strengthening the bonds of friendship and understanding that have connected Stanford and Tottori over the past 10 years.
Congratulations to all of the students, educators, and partners who have been part of the Stanford e-Tottori story. Thank you for making the past 10 years such a remarkable journey.
The Stanford Deliberative Democracy Lab, based at the University’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, today released the findings from two national Community Forums on the evolving expectations around privacy and governance of AI-powered wearable devices. In collaboration with Meta, the forum engaged a representative sample of 550 participants — 300 from the United States and 250 from India — to solicit people's perspectives on user controls and societal expectations. The Community Forums were conducted as national Deliberative Polls.
What makes a corporation American, Italian, Chinese, or any other nationality – and who gets to decide? In the contemporary global economy, corporate national identity (CNI) can no longer be understood as a fixed legal attribute. Rather, it emerges from the interaction of four interrelated facets – legal, economic, (geo)political, and symbolic – whose relative salience varies across contexts and over time. Classical legal tests such as the jurisdiction of incorporation, real seat doctrine, and corporate control remain important, but they are increasingly insufficient. In a world of weaponized interdependence, data location and access, supply-chain geography, state influence over private firms, and efforts to shape public perceptions of corporate identity now play central roles in determining how firms are classified and treated. Two nascent tests are emerging across these facets: what might be called a “data seat” doctrine that treats data location and access as a marker of CNI, and a government influence test that looks beyond voting equity to assess the degree of state leverage over corporate decision-making.
Drawing on case studies involving TikTok, Shein, Pirelli, and Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel, the article illustrates how CNI is increasingly contested and actively reconstructed. The result is a potential shift away from a binary world in which cross-border transactions are either permitted or blocked, toward a more intrusive model in which states restructure governance arrangements midstream in the name of national security, while firms seek to strategically shape their identities to navigate this new reality. The article explores new questions CNI contestation and engineering raise for corporate law, investor protection, and cross-border investment.
Related Blog Post - Published in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance:
American Political Development (APD) scholars have long sought to escape notions of American exceptionalism — the view that the United States is qualitatively distinct in ways that limit the usefulness of comparative analysis. This article presents a comparative framework that reframes the issue of exceptionalism by distinguishing between two analytic logics: divergence and lack of convergence. The exercise consists of examining the U.S. divergence from cases with shared starting points in Latin America and assessing convergence — or its absence — with European cases that began from markedly different initial conditions. Viewed from these two lenses, the U.S. fits neither pattern of development neatly. It followed a different trajectory shaped by contingent historical choices and specific structural characteristics. However, treating the U.S. as a comparative case study proves analytically productive: it sharpens counterfactual reasoning, permits the transfer of comparative lessons, and revises interpretations of core theories of political development, including debates over institutional sequencing.
This article was written by Dr. Larry Becker, Africa Project Coordinator at SPICE, 1982–1985, and Professor Emeritus of Geography at Oregon State University in Corvallis. This is the fourth of several articles—focusing on the 50-year history of SPICE—that will be posted this year. In its early years, SPICE comprised several separate area-focused projects.
Happy 50th birthday to SPICE! Those 50 years are a testament to the enduring value of the program and its ability to change with the times.
While enrolled in the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) in 1982, I took David Grossman’s Global Education course and learned about the work of SPICE. It felt like a comfortable fit and welcome program following my upbringing in the integrated Berkeley public schools and undergraduate degree in geography. After the course, David approached me about the SPICE Africa Project Coordinator position. The coordinator at the time, Nebby Crawford, was leaving. Two years earlier, I had spent a summer in Mali with Operation Crossroads Africa. I gave a presentation at the Bay Area Global Education Program (BAGEP) Africa Summer Institute for teachers, plunging into the SPICE world of in-service teacher education at age 23.
Over the next three years, I had the privilege of working with the SPICE team, Stanford African Studies faculty and students, Bay Area K–12 teachers, and a network of African Studies outreach coordinators around the country. At the time, the Africa Project Coordinator position was partly funded by the Title VI Joint Center for African Studies at Stanford and U.C. Berkeley. I thus was exposed to rich academic African Studies educational resources while representing SPICE at annual conferences. I also established working relationships with members of the Stanford African Students Association. Graduate students from various countries contributed to the Summer Institute on Africa, visited precollegiate classrooms, and reviewed supplementary curriculum SPICE units that we developed with K–12 teachers.
In the summer of 1984, I co-led a U.S. Department of Education-funded summer education trip for teachers to Nigeria. Together with co-leader, Dr. Faye McNair-Knox—with a background in Hausa linguistics and community organizing in East Palo Alto—we navigated a country recently under military rule with an overvalued currency on a limited budget. As the group travelled from a festival in the Gumel Emirate near the Niger border south to the metropolis of Lagos on the Gulf of Guinea, we stayed at university campuses where Bay Area teachers were exposed to Nigeria’s rich culture through professors from a variety of fields, local leaders, and artists. (Photo below of the Emir of Gumel’s entourage at the end of Ramadan, June 1984, in what is now Jigawa State, Nigeria, as seen during a summer education trip for teachers; courtesy of Larry Becker.)
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By the time I left SPICE, the Africa Project had five curriculum units: Analyzing the Press (1985), Development Decisions: Ghana’s Volta River Project (1985), What Is a Resource? (1985), Two Voices from Nigeria: Nigeria through the Literature of Chinua Achebe and Buchi Emecheta by Nigeria trip participants Lyn Reese and Rick Clarke (1985), and Voici l’Afrique Francophone with Foster City French teacher Joan Henley (1986).
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Enriched by the work at SPICE, I completed a PhD in geography with research on agrarian change in Mali at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and a postdoc at the Africa Rice Center in Cote d’Ivoire. I had a university career teaching geography, notably large enrollment world regional geography courses, that greatly benefited from what I learned while at SPICE.
Over the years of teaching about Africa in the U.S., I saw how attention to the context, identity, and positionality of the instructor and students contributes to successful classroom strategies and curriculum development. My SPICE experience provided a base for understanding this evolving pedagogy. In touch with SPICE colleagues years later, former colleague Steve Thorpe contributed to a seminar series that I led at Oregon State University aimed at globalizing courses throughout the campus. The ideas of SPICE carry on in familiar ways in new teaching settings!
Laurie Yokoyama Becker, Larry Becker, and SPICE Founding Director David Grossman in Kaneohe, Hawaii, in May 2026. | Photo courtesy of Larry Becker
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Professor Emeritus Larry Becker reflects on the early years of SPICE’s Africa Project and how his experience with SPICE enriched and informed his academic journey and teaching practice.
The return of President Donald Trump to the White House has not only increased geopolitical volatility – it has fundamentally altered expectations about how far major powers are willing to go to secure strategic advantage. What once seemed rhetorical excess—such as his repeated remarks about acquiring Greenland – now appears less implausible in light of recent events. From the escalating crisis in Venezuela in early 2026 to the ongoing Iran War as of May 2026, the United States has signaled a willingness to pursue geopolitical advantage with fewer constraints than before.
Against this backdrop, the Arctic is no longer a peripheral theater. It is rapidly emerging as a central arena where climate change, energy security, and great-power competition intersect. The question is not whether the Arctic matters, but how states will position themselves in a region where the rules are still being written.
A Strategic Arctic, not a Peripheral One
The renewed US interest in Greenland should not be understood narrowly as a territorial ambition. Rather, it reflects a broader strategic calculation about the Arctic. The melting of Arctic ice – combined with technological advances—is making previously inaccessible resources and shipping routes increasingly viable. In this sense, Greenland is not the story – the Arctic is.
The Arctic is estimated to hold roughly 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its natural gas, making it one of the last major frontiers of global energy development. At the same time, new maritime routes such as the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and the emerging Transpolar Sea Route (TSR) promise to significantly shorten shipping distances between Asia and Europe.
For major powers, the implications are profound. Russia has already positioned itself as the dominant Arctic actor, leveraging its geography and resource base. China, through its “Polar Silk Road” initiative, seeks to embed the Arctic into its broader connectivity strategy. Meanwhile, the United States, increasingly viewing the region through a strategic lens, is attempting to mobilize its alliances to counterbalance these moves.
As recent studies suggest, the Arctic is becoming a new frontier of great-power competition – one where economic, military, and legal dimensions are deeply intertwined.
Why South Korea Is Paying Attention to the Arctic
For South Korea, interest in the Arctic may appear surprising at first glance – especially given the ideological orientation of its current progressive government. Traditionally, progressive administrations in Seoul have emphasized engagement with continental powers such as China and Russia, while seeking rapprochement with North Korea. They have also shown interest in infrastructure connectivity across the Eurasian landmass.
Yet the Arctic presents a different kind of opportunity – one that aligns with both geopolitical necessity and economic ambition.
Eunjung Lim, a professor in the Division of International Studies at Kongju National University (KNU), is a visiting scholar at Shorenstein APARC from April 2026 to February 2027. She is also a member of the governing board of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network and a member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Just Transition of the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth. She earned a BA from the University of Tokyo, an MIA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
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Indo-Pacific Powers Diversify and De-Risk as Multipolar World Takes Shape
At the 2026 Oksenberg Conference, scholars and foreign policy experts assessed how Indo-Pacific powers are coping with a less predictable United States as China pursues selective leadership and Russia exploits Western divisions.
Reactionary Politics in South Korea: Understanding Far-Right Ideas and Practices
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa sociologist Myungji Yang offers a historical account of South Korea’s far right, arguing that recent reactionary mobilization reflects long-standing Cold War legacies, anti-communism, and conservative political networks. Although South Korea is often viewed as one of Asia’s democratic success stories, Yang suggests that recent political turmoil has revealed how deeply rooted illiberal forces remain.
A Homecoming for Korean Studies: The Journal of Korean Studies Returns to Stanford
The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center’s Korea Program welcomes back The Journal of Korean Studies with the publication of Volume 31, Issue 1.
Snow-capped mountains and a seascape on the shore of the Arctic town of Longyearbyen. | Dragon_XXC via Pixabay
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As Arctic ice melts, South Korea sees new opportunities in energy, shipping, and shipbuilding – but also growing geopolitical risks tied to US-China-Russia competition.
