SPICE is pleased to share the announcement below from Stanford Global Studies about an upcoming Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) workshop for community college instructors that will feature a talk by Professor Tomás Jiménez on his latest book, States of Belonging: Immigration Policies, Attitudes, and Inclusion. This free virtual workshop will take place on Tuesday, November 9, 4:00–6:00PM (Pacific Time). All attendees will receive a copy of Professor Jiménez’s book after the workshop. Please see the workshop description below for more information as well as the registration link.

The Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) and Stanford Global Studies (SGS) are continuing their partnership to offer exciting professional development opportunities for community college instructors who wish to internationalize their curriculum. This two-hour workshop is presented by SPICE and SGS as part of the Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) and is supported by Department of Education Title VI funding.

This workshop will feature a talk by Stanford Professor Tomás Jiménez on his latest book, States of Belonging: Immigration Policies, Attitudes, and Inclusion. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss with Professor Jiménez the differing approaches and attitudes shaping today’s immigration policies in the United States.

As noted by the publisher of States of Belonging, “Political turmoil surrounding immigration at the federal level and the inability of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform have provided an opening for state and local governments to become more active in setting their own immigration-related policies. States largely dictate the resources, institutions, and opportunities immigrants can access: who can get a driver’s license or attend a state university, what languages are spoken in schools and public offices, how law enforcement interacts with the public, and even what schools teach students about history. In States of Belonging, an interdisciplinary team of immigration experts explore the interconnections among immigration policies, attitudes about immigrants and immigration, and sense of belonging.” (https://www.russellsage.org/publications/states-belonging)

Tomás Jiménez is Professor of Sociology and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University. His research and writing focus on immigration, assimilation, social mobility, and ethnic and racial identity.

Please register here at your earliest convenience.

“I’m a believer in the virtues of public service and what it means to our country,” Burns told the audience.

He recognized that this moment in American policy at home and around the world is one of transition and uncertainty and that the current climate of distrust between the American public and government has had a tremendous impact on domestic politics. Abroad, the rise of China cuts across all sectors of U.S. geopolitics, while even larger, non-state challenges such as climate change, global health insecurity, and the rapid advancement of technology pose even greater existential challenges.

Still, Burns has faith in the unique relationship that the United States has to its public service institutions.

“It’s my obligation as a leader, and your opportunity [as potential future public servants] to demonstrate that we can produce institutions in this country that are professional, apolitical, and devoted to the national interest and doing things in accordance with American values,” he emphasized.

In his jurisdiction over the C.I.A, Burns has already set benchmarks to ensure the agency remains competitive and serves its purpose of providing policymakers with high-quality, timely intelligence which supports their decision-making process. He is committed to streamlining the hiring process at the C.I.A. and making it more attractive to top talent, as well as diversifying the workforce and drawing on expertise from across all types of professional backgrounds and abilities. “We’re not going to be an effective intelligence organization if everyone at the C.I.A. looks like me,” he quipped.

Keeping the bigger picture in mind, Director Burns reiterated one of the underlying principles that has guided his approach to public service. “Both [diplomacy and intelligence] require a sense of humility. There are perspectives in the world that are not identical to ours. You don’t have to accept or indulge those perspectives, but understanding them is the starting point of effective intelligence work and effective diplomacy.”

When I first met Mayor Norihiko Fukuda in Kawasaki City several years ago, he shared two important values that he embraces. They are “diversity brings strength and greater possibilities” and “recognizing differences is beneficial.” I also learned of the three pillars of Kawasaki’s industrial policy. They are life innovation, green innovation, and welfare innovation. I was struck by his vision that was shaped by his education in both Japan and the United States, and began discussions with him about the development of an online course for high school students in Kawasaki that would introduce topics related to diversity and entrepreneurship. Stanford e-Kawasaki was launched in 2019.

The opening ceremony for the third-year offering of Stanford e-Kawasaki was held on September 23, 2021. Mayor Fukuda addressed the new students, saying, “Today, I am very happy that many of you have decided to participate in this program. I think that the willingness to challenge yourselves is a very important mindset for you to embrace as you prepare for the future.” He continued,

Stanford e-Kawasaki Instructor Maiko Tamagawa Bacha and I represented SPICE during the opening ceremony. During the ceremony, Bacha informed her 20 students from Kawasaki High School and Tachibana High School that they will be encouraged to think critically about issues related to diversity and entrepreneurship. Stanford scholars and leading entrepreneurs have been invited as speakers. Among the lineup of speakers are Dr. Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, Stanford University, and Sukemasa Kabayama, Founder and CEO of Uplift Labs in Silicon Valley and former President and Representative Officer, Telsa Motors, Japan. Reflecting on her first two years of serving as the Instructor of Stanford e-Kawasaki, Bacha noted, “Because I have family ties to Kawasaki City, formerly worked for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in San Francisco, and currently live in the United States, I feel both a personal and professional connection to Stanford e-Kawasaki. I hope that the course will inspire my students to pursue studies and work in U.S.–Japan relations as I have done.”

Bacha introduced the course requirements, including the development of final projects, and noted that the top two performing students will be invited to Stanford University for a ceremony during which they will be honored along with the top two students in SPICE’s four other regional programs in Japan. Earlier this year, two of the students in the 2020–21 Stanford e-Kawasaki course were honored. They were Eric Silang, whose final project was titled “Humor and America,” and Shunya Tani, whose final project was titled “Possible Ways to Promote Renewable Energy in Japan and the U.S.” Silang’s project noted the importance of considering diversity through the lens of cultural differences in humor, and Tani’s project stressed the need for Japan and the United States to cooperate, rather than compete, in promoting the use of renewable energy to tackle climate change.

I am most grateful to Mayor Norihiko Fukuda for his vision and for making this course possible. I would also like to express my appreciation to Mr. Nihei and Mr. Katsurayama from the Kawasaki Board of Education; and Mr. Abe, Mr. Tanaka, Mr. Kawato, and especially Mr. Inoue from Kawasaki City for their unwavering support. Importantly, I would like to express my appreciation to Principal Iwaki and his staff of Kawasaki High School and Principal Takai and his staff from Tachibana High School for their engagement with Stanford e-Kawasaki.

Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons pose a far greater threat to the safety and security of Americans than is reflected in our public discourse. While the United States must maintain a strong nuclear deterrent as an important tool of U.S. foreign and defense policy, an oversized global arsenal of nuclear weapons makes Americans equally unsafe. It is time to reinvigorate arms control discussions to seek reasonable reductions that will make us all more secure.

Too many nuclear weapons increase the risk of theft by terrorists or other nefarious actors, encourage more countries to develop nuclear arms, and raise the risk of nuclear war. Reasonable arms control measures, taken in conjunction with adversaries like Russia, make Americans safer by diminishing the large Russian nuclear arsenal, reinforcing norms against the development and use of nuclear arms, securing or eliminating nuclear material from theft or misuse by terrorists, and saving money that can be used to strengthen the United States military’s conventional deterrence against costly and destructive wars. 

In order to achieve those goals, Washington and Moscow have cut their strategic nuclear weapons since the height of the Cold War. Through the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which the U.S. and Russia recently extended, both countries each reduced their nuclear arsenals to no more than 1,550 deployed strategic warheads arming no more than 700 deployed strategic ballistic missiles and bombers.

Yet, despite these historic cuts, the United States and Russia each still have far more nuclear weapons than either side could conceivably use in a conflict, and at least ten times more weapons than any other country in the world. This actually makes Americans less safe, rather than the other way around.

In 2013, the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded that the United States could safely reduce the number of deployed strategic warheads by one-third. The Biden administration should use that study—along with the current Nuclear Posture Review– to set the United States on the path to reasonable reductions. 

The Biden administration should aim for new negotiations between the United States and Russian to limit each country’s armed forces to 1,000 deployed strategic warheads. The agreement can be executed incrementally, and the sides might informally agree once negotiations began to deploy no more than 1,400 strategic warheads, as an early confidence-building measure. This first step is an easy and safe one to take, as there have been times over the past decade when both countries already deployed fewer than 1,400 strategic warheads.

As part of a bold new vision for arms control and strategic stability, U.S. negotiators should seek an agreement that encompasses all U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads, including reserve (non-deployed) strategic warheads, and non-strategic nuclear weapons. Negotiators should work to limit all nuclear warheads to no more than 2,500 each, with an embedded sub-limit of 1,000 deployed strategic warheads within the overall aggregate limit. Even with the dramatic arsenal reductions outlined here, the United States would maintain the ability to deter and, if necessary, defend against any global adversary.

Such a nuclear arms reduction agreement would have significant additional advantages for the United States:

First, it could position Washington and Moscow to press China to freeze or limit its build-up of nuclear arms as long as the United States and Russia are reducing their nuclear arsenals. 

Second, such an agreement could give the Pentagon additional resources to support wider force modernization requirements for nuclear and conventional forces alike, including new ballistic missile submarines and the B-21 bomber. If we have the forces to deter conventional conflict, we dramatically reduce the prospect of nuclear war.

Third, such an agreement would bolster America’s non-proliferation credentials and leadership. A new U.S.-Russia nuclear arms reductions treaty may not lead North Korea to abandon its nuclear program overnight, but it would increase the ability of U.S. diplomats to urge third countries to pressure and sanction outliers such as North Korea.

Right-sizing U.S. and global nuclear arsenals strengthens deterrence, reduces proliferation risks, and lowers the threat of nuclear war to the United States and our allies. The Biden administration has an opportunity to reduce that risk. It should seize it.

Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation. Steven Pifer is a William J. Perry Research Fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation.

Originally for Defense One