Stanford University

Security

FSI scholars produce research aimed at creating a safer world and examing the consequences of security policies on institutions and society. They look at longstanding issues including nuclear nonproliferation and the conflicts between countries like North and South Korea. But their research also examines new and emerging areas that transcend traditional borders – the drug war in Mexico and expanding terrorism networks. FSI researchers look at the changing methods of warfare with a focus on biosecurity and nuclear risk. They tackle cybersecurity with an eye toward privacy concerns and explore the implications of new actors like hackers.

Along with the changing face of conflict, terrorism and crime, FSI researchers study food security. They tackle the global problems of hunger, poverty and environmental degradation by generating knowledge and policy-relevant solutions. 

Muslims of India: Their Politics, Identity, and Economy

India’s 160 million Muslims differ geographically by language, socio-economic status, and culture. The Muslim-Indian community shares a common trajectory of challenges in their political power and socio-economic status. Their identity, in the eyes of the average Indian, is evermore monolithic and faith-based. To some politicians, Muslim Indians are now considered a security risk. In a talk held August 10 at the Commonwealth Club of California, Rafiq Dossani discussed the causes of their challenges and possible future.

 

Commonwealth Club of California

Rafiq Dossani

No longer in residence.

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Rafiq Dossani was a senior research scholar at Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) and erstwhile director of the Stanford Center for South Asia. His research interests include South Asian security, government, higher education, technology, and business.  

Dossani’s most recent book is Knowledge Perspectives of New Product Development, co-edited with D. Assimakopoulos and E. Carayannis, published in 2011 by Springer. His earlier books include Does South Asia Exist?, published in 2010 by Shorenstein APARC; India Arriving, published in 2007 by AMACOM Books/American Management Association (reprinted in India in 2008 by McGraw-Hill, and in China in 2009 by Oriental Publishing House); Prospects for Peace in South Asia, co-edited with Henry Rowen, published in 2005 by Stanford University Press; and Telecommunications Reform in India, published in 2002 by Greenwood Press. One book is under preparation: Higher Education in the BRIC Countries, co-authored with Martin Carnoy and others, to be published in 2012.

Dossani currently chairs FOCUS USA, a non-profit organization that supports emergency relief in the developing world. Between 2004 and 2010, he was a trustee of Hidden Villa, a non-profit educational organization in the Bay Area. He also serves on the board of the Industry Studies Association, and is chair of the Industry Studies Association Annual Conference for 2010–12.

Earlier, Dossani worked for the Robert Fleming Investment Banking group, first as CEO of its India operations and later as head of its San Francisco operations. He also previously served as the chairman and CEO of a stockbroking firm on the OTCEI stock exchange in India, as the deputy editor of Business India Weekly, and as a professor of finance at Pennsylvania State University.

Dossani holds a BA in economics from St. Stephen's College, New Delhi, India; an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India; and a PhD in finance from Northwestern University.

Senior Research Scholar
Executive Director, South Asia Initiative
Rafiq Dossani Speaker
Lectures

Adama Gaye

CDDRL
Encina Hall
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Adama Gaye, author, political commentator, and scholar, from Senegal, has joined Stanford University this Academic year as a Visiting Scholar both at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and at the African Studies Center...He is working on the increasing economic and political relations between China and Africa. China has recently become Africa's number one economic partner ahead of the traditional Western nations States of Europe and the United States of America.

Gaye, the first author to have published a book, in 2006, on this newly growing China-Africa connections under the title: Chine-Afrique -Le dragon et l'autruche (Ed. L'Harmattan, Paris), has been monitoring this relationship since then, notably as a Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University (Washington Dc) and at China's premier University, Peiking University.

A well-known African journalist, Gaye has been a regular commentator on African Affairs for Cnn, AlJazeera, France 24, Radio France Internationale, NPR, The Bbc, CCTV. He has written extensively on African Affairs for Newsweek, Jeune Afrique, Beijing Review; he is a former Editor of the London-based newsweekly, West Africa Magazine, Africa's oldest magazine.

Adama Gaye holds various university degrees, including post-graduate degrees from University Paris 2 and The Pantheon-Sorbonne. He obtained the coveted Oxford Diplomatic Studies Certificate and holds the China Senior Executive Management Certificate jointly delivered by Tsinghua University, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) and Harvard Business School.

Gaye studied journalism at the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (Bachelor), in Senegal.

He intends to publish a new book on China-Africa while pursuing his other research interests during his tenure at Stanford. In addition to Africa's international relations, mainly with China, these include the unsteady democratic evolution of Africa and the renewed interests generated by Oil and Gas resources in the continent.

Examining the violence in Mexico

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More than 40,000 people have died in drug-related homicides in Mexico since 2006, and recent figures indicate that the pace and severity of drug-related violence is increasing. Organized crime is widespread and appears deeply embedded throughout much of the country. Citizens feel an increasingly pervasive sense of insecurity, and the situation is causing growing concern throughout the hemisphere. 

In an attempt to understand and develop potential solutions to these problems, a group of political scientists, economists, lawyers, policy-makers, and military experts from around the world will visit Stanford this October for a private, two-day conference that will explore problems of violence, organized crime, and governance in Mexico, as well as other countries that have experience tackling similar issues. 

“The increasing violence in Mexico is a major problem for Mexicans and the entire region,” says Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, incoming co-director of Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, one of the lead sponsors of the event. “The situation underscores the urgency of problems involving crime, security, and governance not only in our hemisphere but throughout the world. Investigating these problems from a comparative perspective will bring us closer to solutions that can improve security and accountability.” 

In a series of discussions, panelists from the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Germany will examine the effect Mexico's violence has had on civil society, the role of U.S. policies in affecting organized crime and violence, and what lessons may have been learned about combating violence in other contexts, such as the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, police and security reform in Brazil, and the sharp decline in drug-related violence in Colombia. Participants will also look at the potential mechanisms for developing institutional capacity and the rule of law in some of the world’s most fragile democracies. 

“Conflict and insecurity pose the greatest challenge to the development of effective institutions of governance and rule of law in Mexico,” says Beatriz Magaloni, a political scientist and the director of the Program on Poverty and Governance at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law. “But surprisingly little is known about the dynamics of violence. Greater understanding could help policy makers craft and pursue effective strategies for tackling the issues in a comprehensive way.” 

The event, scheduled for October 3 and 4, will conclude with a public address by Karl Eikenberry, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. He is currently in residence at Stanford as the 2011-2012 Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecturer at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. 

Other sponsors of the conference include the Center for Latin American Studies and the Stanford Law School.

 

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The Global Religious Challenges to the Secular State

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Mark Juergensmeyer is director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, professor of sociology, and affiliate professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is an expert on religious violence, conflict resolution and South Asian religion and politics, and has published more than two hundred articles and twenty books, including the recently-released Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State. His widely-read Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, is based on interviews with religious activists around the world--including individuals convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, leaders of Hamas, and abortion clinic bombers in the United States--and was listed by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times as one of the best nonfiction books of the year. 

One of Juergensmeyer's earlier books, The New Cold War? Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State, covers the rise of religious activism and its confrontation with secular modernity. It was named by the New York Times as one of the notable books of the year. 

For additional information on the series, please visit the Stanford Ethics and War series website.

Annenberg Auditorium
Stanford University

Mark Juergensmeyer Professor of Global and International Studies Speaker UC Santa Barbara
Seminars
Stanford Ethics & War Series

"Proportionality in War" by Avishai Margalit

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Avishai Margalit is one of the foremost thinkers and commentators on the contemporary human condition, the moral issues of our time, and current problems facing Western societies. In addition to his influence as a philosopher, he is highly regarded for his profound and cogent observations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the broader struggle between Islam and the West. As the author of Idolatry (with Moshe Halbertal), The Decent Society, Views in Review: Politics and Culture in the State of the Jews, The Ethics of Memory, Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies (with Ian Buruma), and On Compromise and Rotten Compromises , Margalit has transformed philosophical perspectives on a range of political and societal issues.

 

For additional information, please visit the Stanford Ethics and War series website.

Annenberg Auditorium, Stanford

Avishai Margalit Professor, School of Historical Studies Speaker the Institute for Advanced Study
Seminars
Stanford Ethics & War Series

"Restrepo" and post-film discussion

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"Restrepo" is a feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, "Restrepo," named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 90-minute deployment. 

The film was creaetd by Sebastain Junger and Tim Hetherington, both of whom were embedded with battle company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, in the remote and heavily contested Korengal valley of eastern Afghanistan. Reporting on the war from the soldiers’ perspective, they spent weeks at a time at a remote outpost that saw more combat than almost anywhere else in the entire country. 

Following the screening, Junger will be in conversation with Kristine Samuelson (Art and Art History).

On February 21, Junger is in conversation with Professor Tobias Wolff.

Watch the trailer.

For additional information on the series, please visit the Stanford Ethics and War series website.

Cemex Auditorium, Zambrano Hall
Knight Management Center
Stanford

Sebastian Junger Co-filmmaker, "Restrepo" Speaker
Kristine Samuelson Professor of art and art history Speaker Stanford
Seminars
Stanford Ethics & War Series

Shaping public diplomacy in the Arab world

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Lina Khatib head of the Program on Arab Reform at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, examines the role of public diplomacy in the Arab world in two new pieces. Commenting for Bloomberg.com, Khatib highlights Muammar Qaddafi's strategic partnership with Bashar al-Assad in Syria to perpetuate his propaganda machine. Turning attention to US public diplomacy efforts in the region in a blog post for the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, Khatib characterizes the Obama administration's approach as one where words and action do not equate.
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The Structural Sources of Authoritarianism in Pakistan

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Sumit Ganguly holds the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University in Bloomington. He has previously been on the faculty of James Madison College of Michigan State University, Hunter College of the City University of New York and the University of Texas at Austin. He has also taught at Columbia University in New York City. He has also been a Fellow and a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC and a Visiting Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. His research and writing focused on South Asia has been supported by grants from the Asia Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the W. Alton Jones Foundation.

He serves on the editorial boards of Asian Affairs, Asian Survey, Current History, the Journal of Strategic Studies and Security Studies. He is also the founding editor of both the India Review and Asian Security, two referred journals published by Taylor and Francis, London. Professor Ganguly is the author, editor or co-editor of a dozen books on South Asia. His most recent books are Fearful Symmetry: India and Pakistan Under the Shadow of Nuclear Weapons (co-authored with Devin Hagerty) jointly published by Oxford University Press (New Delhi) and the University of Washington Press (Seattle) and More Than Words: U.S.-India Strategic Cooperation Into the Twenty-First Century (co-edited with Brian Shoup and Andrew Scobell) published by Routledge, London. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, New York and the International Institute of Strategic Studies, London. He is currently at work on a book, India Since 1980, under contract with Cambridge University Press, New York.

He received his PhD from University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign in 1984.

CISAC Conference Room

Šumit Ganguly

Herbert Hoover Memorial Building room 234
434 Galvez Mall, Stanford, CA 94035

650.724.5484
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Šumit Ganguly is a Senior Fellow and directs the Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is Distinguished Professor of Political Science Emeritus and the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations Emeritus at Indiana University, Bloomington. He has previously taught at James Madison College of Michigan State University, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the University of Texas at Austin.

Professor Ganguly has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, a Visiting Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, a Guest Scholar at the Center for Cooperative Monitoring in Albuquerque and a Visiting Scholar at the German Institute for International and Area Studies in Hamburg. He was also the holder of the Ngee Ann Chair in International Politics at the Rajaratnam School for International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in the spring term of 2010. In 2018 and 2019 he was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Professor Ganguly is member of the Council on Foreign Relations (New York) and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves on the editorial boards of Asian Security, Current History, Journal of Democracy, Foreign Policy Analysis, The Nonproliferation Review, Pacific Affairs, International Security and Small Wars and Insurgencies. A specialist on the contemporary politics of South Asia is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 20 books on the region. His most recent book (edited with Eswaran Sridharan) is the Oxford Handbook of Indian Politics.

Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
CDDRL Affiliated Faculty
CDDRL Visiting Scholar, 2009
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"Beyond Terror: America After bin Laden"- Lawrence Wright in conversation with Tobias Wolff and Martha Crenshaw

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"Beyond Terror: America After bin Laden"

Lawrence Wright is an author, screenwriter, playwright, and a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. His history of al-Qaeda, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, was published to immediate and widespread acclaim, spending eight weeks on The New York Times best seller list and being translated into twenty-five languages. It was nominated for the National Book Award and won the Lionel Gelber Award for nonfiction, the Los Angeles Times Award for History, the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. The NYU School of Journalism recently honored the book as one of the ten best works of journalism in the previous decade.

Wright will be in conversation with Tobias Wolff (English) and Martha Crenshaw (Center for International Security and Cooperation).

For additional information on the series, please visit the Stanford Ethics and War series website.

Cemex Auditorium, Zambrano Hall
Knight Management Center

Lawrence Wright author, "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" Speaker
Tobias Wolff Professor of English Host Stanford
Martha Crenshaw Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) and Senior Fellow at CISAC and FSI Speaker Stanford
Seminars
Stanford Ethics & War Series

"Copenhagen": Performance of Michael Frayn's 1998 play

Performance of Michael Frayn's 1998 play. Scott Sagan will introduce the Saturday, December 3 performance.

Open to the public, requires a ticket purchase at:http://www.stanford.edu/dept/drama/1112_events/copenhagen.html. 

  • Winner of three 2000 Tony Awards, including Best Play
  • Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Best New Play
  • Winner of the New York Drama Critics' Circle for Best Play

Presented by McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society as part of the Ethics & War Events Series, in collaboration with Stanford Summer Theater and Stanford Drama. Directed by Stanford Summer Theater Artistic Director and Stanford Professor of Drama and Classics, Rush Rehm. Starring Bay Area professionals Julian Lopez-Morillas, Peter Ruocco, and Courtney Walsh. 

In 1941, German physicist Werner Heisenberg visited his Danish counterpart Niels Bohr in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen, where they discussed the development of nuclear weapons. What really happened in their encounter? Given the unreliability of memory, the indeterminacy of personal motives, and the uncertainty at the core of things, how can we ever know? Frayn’s Copenhagen asks impossible questions, and – with the nuclear threat still over us – demands that we find the answers.

This production is made possible in part by the Stanford Institute for Creativity in the Arts (SiCa) and the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC).

  • "The most invigorating and ingenious play of ideas in many a year. An electrifying work of art." -The New York Times
  • "Superb. Dynamic." -The New Yorker
  • "Gripping. A brilliant play." -London Guardian
  • "The word 'tremendous' is often used but seldom deserved. In this case it is. Copenhagen is an intellectual and theatrical tour de force." -London Times

For additional information on the series, please visit the Stanford Ethics and War series website.

Pigott Theater, Stanford

Seminars
Stanford Ethics & War Series
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