FSI researchers consider international development from a variety of angles. They analyze ideas such as how public action and good governance are cornerstones of economic prosperity in Mexico and how investments in high school education will improve China’s economy.
They are looking at novel technological interventions to improve rural livelihoods, like the development implications of solar power-generated crop growing in Northern Benin.
FSI academics also assess which political processes yield better access to public services, particularly in developing countries. With a focus on health care, researchers have studied the political incentives to embrace UNICEF’s child survival efforts and how a well-run anti-alcohol policy in Russia affected mortality rates.
FSI’s work on international development also includes training the next generation of leaders through pre- and post-doctoral fellowships as well as the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program.
Is the Party Over? The Obsolescence of Authoritarian Growth in Singapore and Malaysia
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Stanford scholar recognized for contributions to the field of international affairs
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Jeremy M. Weinstein, an associate professor of political science and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, received the Karl Deutsch Award from the International Studies Association (ISA).
The award recognizes scholars younger than 40 - or within 10 years of defending their dissertation - who have made the most significant contributions to the study of international relations and peace research.
Weinstein, 37, focuses his research on civil wars and political violence; ethnic politics and the political economy of development; and democracy, accountability, and political change. He is the Ford Dorsey Director of Stanford’s Center for African Studies and is also an affiliated faculty member at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law and the Center for International Security and Cooperation.
He was presented with the award on April 4 by ISA, which promotes research and education in international affairs.
Other Stanford researchers who received the award include Michael Tomz (2011), Kenneth A. Schultz (2003), and James D. Fearon (1999).
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Stanford Conference on Japanese Entrepreneurship
On June 6 and 7, the Stanford Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship (STAJE) of SPRIE at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, in cooperation with the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) of the Stanford School of Engineering, will present the 5th Annual Academic Conference on Japanese Entrepreneurship at the Huang Engineering Center at Stanford University. The theme of the conference is "Entrepreneurial Policy, Outcomes, and Strategies in Japan: Lessons for the Rest of the World". We invite papers, as in past years, from the fields of management, strategy, organizations, sociology, political science and economics to be submitted to this conference, which will be attended by scholars from Japan, the United States, and Europe.
Consul General Hiroshi Inomata will give the opening address.
The following scholars will deliver keynote speeches:
Hugh Patrick, Columbia University
Tom Byers, Stanford University
Tina Seelig, Stanford University
The following scholars will present papers:
Christina Ahmadjian, Hitotsubashi University
Serguey Braguinsky, Carnegie-Mellon University
Steven Casper, Keck Graduate Institute, Claremont Colleges
Joseph Cheng, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Robert Cole, UC Berkeley
Charles Eesley, Stanford University
George Foster, Stanford University
Masayo Fujimoto, Doshisha University
Kathryn Ibata-Ahrens, DePaul University
Martin Kenney, UC Davis
Robert Kneller, Tokyo University
Masahiro Kotosaka, Oxford University
Kazuyuki Motohashi, Tokyo University
Renee Rottner, New York University
Ulrike Schaede, UC San Diego
Kay Shimizu, Columbia University
Janet Smith, Claremont-McKenna University
Richard Smith, UC Riverside
The following are confirmed discussants:
Charla Griffy-Brown, Pepperdine University
Richard Dasher, Stanford University
Robert Eberhart, Stanford University
Kathleen Eisenhart, Stanford University
Nobuhiko Hibara, WASEDA Business School
Glenn Hoetker, University of Arizona
Takeo Hoshi, Stanford University
Riitta Katila, Stanford University
Christine Isakson, Stanford University
Joachim Lyon, Stanford University
Tammy Madsen, Santa Clara University
William F. Miller, Stanford University
Tom Roehl, Washington University
Steve Vogel, UC Berkeley
Dan Wang, Stanford University
Jennifer Wooley, Santa Clara University
The following practitioner and financial supporter will give short talks:
Mike Alfant, CEO Fusion Systems, President ACCJ
STAJE applies the principles of entrepreneurship to the academic domain by creating opportunities for innovative, creative and multidisciplinary approaches to research on contemporary Japan. During this conference we will present high quality contributions on issues related to entrepreneurship, institutions, and Japan such as empirical studies, case studies, political and social institutional studies in Japan, and new research methodology including experimental design.
More information on last year's conference can be found at:
http://sprie.gsb.stanford.edu/news/sprie_hosts_4th_annual_stanford
_project_on_japanese_entrepreneurship_conference_20120521/
For additional information or to request an invitation, please write to Robert Eberhart at eberhart@stanford.edu.
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Mackenzie Room, 3rd floor, Huang Engineering Center, School of Engineering, 475 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305
Conferences
East and West in a Changing Global Order
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Ian Morris, Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of Classics, Professor of History, and Fellow of the Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford Unviersity
Thomas Fingar, Oksenberg-Rohlen Distinguished Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford Unviersity (moderator)
In his two recent books, "Why the West Rules--For Now" and "The Measure of Civilization", Ian Morris has designed an index of social development, to quantify social power in different parts of the world across the 15,000+ years since the end of the last ice age. The index suggests three main conclusions--first, that geography has been the main force behind the West's global dominance; second, that the East is likely to catch up in the late 21st century; and third, and most importantly, that the world will see bigger transformations in the next 100 years than it did in the last 100,000 years.
Philippines Conference Room
Panel Discussions
Film Screening -- Without A Fight
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Without a Fight is a feature length documentary film that explores how soccer can facilitate social change in Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums.
When: Thursday, April 11th at 6pm
Where: Branner Lounge, Stanford University
RSVP: Join the event on Facebook
Dinner Provided from DARBAR Indian Restaurant
· Introduction by Sarina Beges, CDDRL Program Manager
· Post-screening Q&A with CFK-Kenya Executive Director Hillary Omala and Producer Beth-Ann Kutchma
About the Film
Footage of violent clashes fueled by polarizing national presidential elections is intertwined with profiles of youth from different religious and ethnic backgrounds as they navigate daily life and prepare for the final championship soccer game of the season. The film provides a glimpse often a very positive one into an Africa few have seen. It attempts to break stereotypes associated with people who live in extreme poverty while depicting sports as a tool that could be used to prevent violence among at-risk youth. The film made its World Premiere at the 11 MM Festival in Berlin, Germany in March 2012 and its North American Premiere at the Full Frame Documentary Festival in Durham, NC in April 2012. The soccer league is run by the international development organization,Carolina for Kibera. Watch the Film’s Trailer.
Branner Lounge, Stanford University
Sarina Beges
CDDRL Program Manager
Speaker
Conferences
What works for climate adaptation? Testing and targeting strategies in crop development
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This talk is part of Stanford's Environmental Earth System Science seminar series.
Y2E2 room 111
Stanford, CA 94305-4020
David Lobell
Energy and Environment Building
473 Via Ortega
Stanford CA 94305
0
dlobell@stanford.edu
Professor, Earth System Science
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)
Affiliate, Precourt Institute of Energy
David Lobell is the Benjamin M. Page Professor at Stanford University in the Department of Earth System Science and the Gloria and Richard Kushel Director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment. He is also the William Wrigley Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy and Research (SIEPR).
Lobell's research focuses on agriculture and food security, specifically on generating and using unique datasets to study rural areas throughout the world. His early research focused on climate change risks and adaptations in cropping systems, and he served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report as lead author for the food chapter and core writing team member for the Summary for Policymakers. More recent work has developed new techniques to measure progress on sustainable development goals and study the impacts of climate-smart practices in agriculture. His work has been recognized with various awards, including the Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union (2010), a Macarthur Fellowship (2013), the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences (2022) and election to the National Academy of Sciences (2023).
Prior to his Stanford appointment, Lobell was a Lawrence Post-doctoral Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He holds a PhD in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University and a Sc.B. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University.
Lobell Lab
A project to advance the science that guides investment in food security and crop productivity, and to effectively communicate this science to a broad audience.
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G-FEED: Global Food, Environment and Economic Dynamics
An interdisciplinary group working cooperatively to understand the relationship between society and the environment by examining regional and global scale phenomena using statistical analyses of real world data.
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Seminars
Steering Through a Sea of Change
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Remarks by
His Excellency
Ma Ying-jeou
President, Republic of China (Taiwan)
To be followed by a panel discussion chaired by
Professor Condoleezza Rice
with panelists
Larry Diamond
Director, CDDRL
Francis Fukuyama
Senior Fellow, FSI
Admiral Gary Roughead
Former Chief of Naval Operations
US Navy (Ret.)
Reception to follow.
Doors will open at 5:15pm,
and attendees should arrive before 5:50pm.
On May 20, 2008, Ma Ying-jeou was inaugurated as the 12th-term president of the Republic of China (ROC). During the presidential election Ma campaigned on a platform to revive Taiwan's flagging economy and restore core values of integrity, tolerance, and enterprising spirit. Ma secured a landslide victory with a total of 58.5 percent of the vote. The 2008 election represented Taiwan's second peaceful transfer of political power, marking a milestone in the country’s democratic development. On January 14, 2012, he was re-elected as the 13th-term president, with 51.6 percent of the vote.
President Ma graduated in 1972 from Taiwan's foremost academic institution, National Taiwan University, with a bachelor's degree from the College of Law. After earning a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from New York University in 1976, Ma received a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1981, specializing in law of the sea and international economic law.
In his early political career, Ma Ying-jeou served as deputy director of the First Bureau of the Presidential Office, where he acted as President Chiang Ching-kuo's English interpreter and secretary; Chairman of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission of the Executive Yuan; and Minister of Justice. After teaching law at the College of Law, National Chengchi University, in 1998 Ma Ying-jeou was elected Mayor of Taipei with 51 percent of the vote, and four years he won a landslide victory for a second term with 64 percent of the vote. In 2005 he was elected chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT), again by a decisive margin, and three years later he was elected president of the Republic of China.
As President, Ma Ying-jeou has addressed the repercussions of the global financial crisis, stepping up efforts to bring about a more diversified industrial structure and to jump-start new engines for economic growth in Taiwan. President Ma has attached great importance to promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction, which has helped Taiwan’s energy efficiency to exceed 2%. Crafting a response to regional economic integration in Asia has been another key policy focus for the Ma administration. In 2010, his administration successfully negotiated an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with the People's Republic of China, a landmark in the improvement of Cross-Strait relations. President Ma's creative diplomacy has brought a significant improvement in cross-strait relations while putting an end to a long and vituperative standoff between the two sides in the diplomatic sphere.
This event is co-sponsored with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, San Francisco and the Office of the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Steering Through a Sea of Change
Bechtel Conference Center
Ma Ying-jeou
President, Republic of China on Taiwan
Keynote speaker
Condolezza Rice
Professor
Moderator
FSI
Larry Diamond
CDDRL
Stanford University
Encina Hall, C147
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
0
ldiamond@stanford.edu
Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science and Sociology
Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He is also professor by courtesy of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford, where he lectures and teaches courses on democracy (including an online course on EdX). At the Hoover Institution, he co-leads the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region and participates in the Project on the U.S., China, and the World. At FSI, he is among the core faculty of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, which he directed for six and a half years. He leads FSI’s Israel Studies Program and is a member of the Program on Arab Reform and Development. He also co-leads the Global Digital Policy Incubator, based at FSI’s Cyber Policy Center. He served for 32 years as founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy.
Diamond’s research focuses on global trends affecting freedom and democracy and on U.S. and international policies to defend and advance democracy. His book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, analyzes the challenges confronting liberal democracy in the United States and around the world at this potential “hinge in history,” and offers an agenda for strengthening and defending democracy at home and abroad. A paperback edition with a new preface was released by Penguin in April 2020. His other books include: In Search of Democracy (2016), The Spirit of Democracy (2008), Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (1999), Promoting Democracy in the 1990s (1995), and Class, Ethnicity, and Democracy in Nigeria (1989). He has edited or coedited more than fifty books, including China’s Influence and American Interests (2019, with Orville Schell), Silicon Triangle: The United States, China, Taiwan the Global Semiconductor Security (2023, with James O. Ellis Jr. and Orville Schell), and The Troubling State of India’s Democracy (2024, with Sumit Ganguly and Dinsha Mistree).
During 2002–03, Diamond served as a consultant to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and was a contributing author of its report, Foreign Aid in the National Interest. He has advised and lectured to universities and think tanks around the world, and to the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other organizations dealing with governance and development. During the first three months of 2004, Diamond served as a senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. His 2005 book, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, was one of the first books to critically analyze America's postwar engagement in Iraq.
Among Diamond’s other edited books are Democracy in Decline?; Democratization and Authoritarianism in the Arab World; Will China Democratize?; and Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for Democracy, all edited with Marc F. Plattner; and Politics and Culture in Contemporary Iran, with Abbas Milani. With Juan J. Linz and Seymour Martin Lipset, he edited the series, Democracy in Developing Countries, which helped to shape a new generation of comparative study of democratic development.
Download full-resolution headshot; photo credit: Rod Searcey.
Former Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Faculty Chair, Jan Koum Israel Studies Program
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Francis Fukuyama
Encina Hall, C148
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305
0
f.fukuyama@stanford.edu
Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Director of the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy
Research Affiliate at The Europe Center
Professor by Courtesy, Department of Political Science
Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a faculty member of FSI's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). He is also Director of Stanford's Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy, and a professor (by courtesy) of Political Science.
Dr. Fukuyama has written widely on issues in development and international politics. His 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man, has appeared in over twenty foreign editions. His book In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir will be published in fall 2026.
Francis Fukuyama received his B.A. from Cornell University in classics, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in Political Science. He was a member of the Political Science Department of the RAND Corporation, and of the Policy Planning Staff of the US Department of State. From 1996-2000 he was Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, and from 2001-2010 he was Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He served as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2001-2004. He is editor-in-chief of American Purpose, an online journal.
Dr. Fukuyama holds honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, Doane College, Doshisha University (Japan), Kansai University (Japan), Aarhus University (Denmark), the Pardee Rand Graduate School, and Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland). He is a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rand Corporation, the Board of Trustees of Freedom House, and the Board of the Volcker Alliance. He is a fellow of the National Academy for Public Administration, a member of the American Political Science Association, and of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is married to Laura Holmgren and has three children.
(October 2025)
Global Populisms
A new project examining the global surge in populist movements and what it means for established democratic rules and institutions.
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Gary Roughead
Admiral (Ret.), Former Chief of Naval Operations
Discussant
US Navy
Lectures
Chinese Thinking on Nuclear Weapon Development and Disarmament
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Dr. Sun’s science seminar will focus on China's nuclear doctrine, introducing its decision-making regime and history, its major principles on nuclear weapons development and employment, and its position on and approach to the arms control.
About the speaker: Dr. Sun Xiangli is the director of the Arms Control Research Division of the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS), China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP). Before her entering into CSS in 2008, she worked at the Beijing Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics (IAPCM) since 1993. During 1995 to 1996 and in early 2008, she worked at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University, as a visiting scholar. Her research focuses on arms control and international security such as verification technologies for nuclear disarmament, China's nuclear strategy, U.S. nuclear policies, and Proliferation issues. She received her B.S. in nuclear physics from Peking University in 1990, M.S. in nuclear physics from the Graduate School of the CAEP in 1993, and PhD in international politics from Peking University in 2001.
CISAC Conference Room
Sun Xiangli
Director of Arms Control Research Division, Center for Strategic Studies, China Academy of Engineering Physics
Speaker
Seminars
Rural China: Poor Governance in Strong Development
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