FSI's research on the origins, character and consequences of government institutions spans continents and academic disciplines. The institute’s senior fellows and their colleagues across Stanford examine the principles of public administration and implementation. Their work focuses on how maternal health care is delivered in rural China, how public action can create wealth and eliminate poverty, and why U.S. immigration reform keeps stalling.
FSI’s work includes comparative studies of how institutions help resolve policy and societal issues. Scholars aim to clearly define and make sense of the rule of law, examining how it is invoked and applied around the world.
FSI researchers also investigate government services – trying to understand and measure how they work, whom they serve and how good they are. They assess energy services aimed at helping the poorest people around the world and explore public opinion on torture policies. The Children in Crisis project addresses how child health interventions interact with political reform. Specific research on governance, organizations and security capitalizes on FSI's longstanding interests and looks at how governance and organizational issues affect a nation’s ability to address security and international cooperation.
Listen to Francis Fukuyama in conversation with Frederic Filloux on the need of regulations of platforms, the preservation of free speech, and the role of Europe here on The Monday Note.
This event is now full. Please send an email to sj1874@stanford.edu if you would like to be added to the wait list.
Crimea has become a precedent in the newest world history. After annexation, Russia turned the peninsula into a testing ground for new tactics of information warfare, suppression of dissent, and the formation of militaristic sentiment. The former resort has been transformed into a powerful military base whose missiles can reach targets in the Baltic States, Poland, the Czech Republic, and other nearby countries.
Russia has closed access to international organizations in Crimea. For the past five years, about 2.5 million people have remained without any legal protection from the actions of the occupying power. Forced disappearances, politically-motivated arrests, religious persecution, censorship, and the destruction of independent media have all become an everyday reality.
This event is co-sponsored by The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, The European Security Initiative at The Europe Center, and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, Stanford University. It is free and open to the public.
Interested in learning more about the Ford Dorsey Master's Program in International Policy at Stanford University? Then please join us for an informational webinar on May 23, 2018 at 9:30am PST. We will be going over program specifics and answering any questions.
RSVP on Eventbrite - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ford-dorsey-masters-program-in-internation…
Contact Email:
The recent developments in North Korea's summit diplomacy and the feasibility of CVID (complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement) of the nuclear program have received unprecedented responses, both optimistic and pessimistic, from the international community.
Please stay tuned to this page for APARC researchers' commentary and analysis on the CVID of the North Korean nuclear program through articles published in various news media.
Latest Commentaries:
How to Keep the Ball Rolling on North Korean Negotiations (East Asia Forum, May 2, 2019)
Why Walking Away from Kim's Deal May Have Been the Right Move (Axios, February 28, 2019)
Success of Second Trump-Kim Summit Will Lie in the Details (Axios, February 26, 2019)
The Second Trump-Kim Summit Must Settle the Big Questions (The National Interest, February 19, 2019)
Normalising, Not Denuclearising, North Korea (East Asia Forum, October 3, 2018)
Moon-Kim Summit in Pyongyang Was Promising, But No Game Changer (Axios.com, September 19, 2018)
Towards Normality: What's Next with North Korea? (East Asia Forum Quarterly, September 2018)
The Singapore Summit Empowers South Korean Chaebols (The New Republic, June 26, 2018)
Korean Elections Give Moon Momentum, But Could Shift U.S. Alliance (Axios, June 14, 2018)
Despite Lack of Plan, North Korea Denuclearization Could Still Happen (Axios, June 12, 2018)
Ambassador Kathleen Stephens shares reactions following the Trump-Kim summit, including her thoughts on President Trump's pledge to cancel military exercises on the Korean Peninsula (KQED's Forum, 06/12/18)
With North Korea, Let's Not Forget the Big Picture (The Diplomat, June 8, 2018)
"[T]he mere prospect of the June summit has already enhanced Kim's status on the international stage," observes APARC Director Gi-Wook Shin, Trump needs leadership and allies to salvage the North Korea summit (Axios, May 25, 2018)
Stanford Scholars Discuss Diplomacy’s Future after U.S.-North Korea Summit Is Canceled (May 24, 2018)
Dan Sneider understands Japanese skepticism of North Korea's conversion to disarmament in Japan, China and South Korea Get Together (The Economist, May 10, 2018)
Future of U.S. troops in South Korea uncertian (Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2018)
Related articles:
A new start or a rerun on the Korean Peninsula? (East Asia Forum, May 6, 2018)
Stanford Panel Discusses North-South Summit and What Happens Next (APARC News, April 28, 2018)
North Korea Summit Diplomacy (The Diplomat, March 30, 2018)
Moon's Bet on the Olympics: What Comes Next? (East Asia Forum, February 18, 2018)
An Evening with ECE TEMELKURAN
Co-Sponsors: Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies; CDDRL Program on Turkey; Department of Comparative Literature;
Division for Literatures, Cultures, and Languages; Stanford Humanities Center
Stanford Humanities Center, Levinthal Hall
RSVP required: Click here to register.
This is a book talk with Carter Eckert, the author of Park Chung Hee and Modern Korea: The Roots of Militarism, 1866-1945
Discussants:
Barak Kushner: Reader in Japanese History, University of Cambridge
Yumi Moon, Associate Professor of History, Stanford University
About the book:
For South Koreans, the twenty years from the early 1960s to late 1970s were the best and worst of times—a period of unprecedented economic growth and of political oppression that deepened as prosperity spread. In this masterly account, Carter J. Eckert finds the roots of South Korea’s dramatic socioeconomic transformation in the country’s long history of militarization—a history personified in South Korea’s paramount leader, Park Chung Hee.
For more information about this event, please visit CEAS event website.
This event is sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies, APARC Korea Program, Department of History, Stanford Humanities Center, and the FSI Japan Fund.
Public procurement accounts for a substantial portion of the taxpayers' money: approximately 12% of GDP and 29% of government expenditure in OECD countries. Governments are expected to carry it out efficiently and with high standards of conduct to ensure sustainable growth. In this talk, Lee will explain the unique auction system in South Korea's public procurement market, and discuss how government purchases can lead firms and the economy to grow. Firms that obtain short term public procurement contracts experience increased growth and activity, above the effects of the activity associated with the public contract, and this is observed especially among small, young and financially-constrained firms. Lee will also draw policy implications from those findings.
Munseob Lee is an assistant professor of economics at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. He is also a core faculty member at the UC San Diego Transnational Korean Studies. His research focuses on macroeconomics, firm dynamics, and Korea. Prior to joining UC San Diego, Professor Lee was a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, a research intern at the International Monetary Fund, and a sergeant in the Republic of Korea Army.Image
The Republic of China on Taiwan spent nearly four decades as a single-party state under dictatorial rule (1949-1987) before transitioning to liberal democracy. This talk is based on an ethnographic study of street-level police practices during the first rotation in executive power following the democratic transition (i.e. the first term of the Chen Shui-bian administration, 2000-2004). Summarizing the argument of a forthcoming book, Dr. Jeffrey T. Martin focuses on an apparent paradox, in which the strength of Taiwan's democracy is correlated to the weakness of its police powers. Martin explains this paradox through a theory of "jurisdictional pluralism" which, in Taiwan, is organized by a cultural distinction between sentiment, reason, and law as distinct foundations for political authority. An overt police interest in sentiment (qing) was institutionalized during the martial law era, when police served as an instrument for the cultivation of properly nationalistic political sentiments. Martin's fieldwork demonstrates how the politics of sentiment which took shape under autocratic rule continued to operate in everyday policing in the early phase of the democratic transformation, even as a more democratic mode of public reason and the ultimate power of legal right were becoming more significant.
Jeffrey T. Martin is an assistant professor in the Departments of Anthropology and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He specializes in the anthropological study of modern policing, and has conducted research in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the USA. His research interests focus on historical continuity and change in police culture, especially as this culture reflects specific changes in the legal, bureaucratic, or technical dimensions of police operations. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, Dr. Martin taught in the Sociology Department at the University of Hong Kong, and in the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Studies at Chang Jung Christian University.Image
Interested in pursuing a Master’s degree in International Policy? Come check out our newly redesigned Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy (MIP) at FSI!
MIP is a two-year Master of Arts program that emphasizes the application of advanced analytical and quantitative methods to decision-making in international affairs. It is also offered as a coterminal degree here at Stanford. If you are interested in hearing more, please join us for our upcoming MIP Coterm Info Session:
What: MIP Coterm Info Session
Date: May 22, 2018
Time: 12:30 -1:15pm
Location: International Policy Studies Kitchen, Ground Floor, Encina Hall Central (616 Serra St.)
Please see more details about the program, as well as application information, on our website: http://ips.stanford.edu/.
International Policy Studies Kitchen, Ground Floor, Encina Hall Central (616 Serra St.)
Even as Indian officials watch the rise of China and recent changes to its foreign policy with apprehension, they prefer to avoid having to choose sides between the United States and China.
That sentiment marked the keynote address by veteran journalist Siddharth Varadarajan, winner of the 2017 Shorenstein Journalism Award. Speaking on April 16 at the Award’s sixteenth anniversary panel discussion titled “India, the United States, and China: The New Triangle in Asia,” Varadarajan described a triangle where all three parties were in flux.
The award recognizes Varadarajan’s exemplary record of excellence in reporting on India’s domestic and foreign affairs in both traditional and new media. As founding editor of The Wire, Varadarajan combines innovative digital strategies with quality reporting that advances positive social, economic, and political change.
“Today we can see, across Asia as well as the United States, that journalism has been somewhat reinvigorated by… the growth of authoritarianism,” said Daniel Sneider, Shorenstein APARC visiting scholar, who chaired the noon panel. “I think we feel even more vindicated in hosting this award…and giving some attention to people who are making this kind of contribution.”
Thomas Fingar, a China specialist and a Shorenstein APARC fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute, and Nayan Chandra, the founder, former editor-in-chief, and current consulting editor of YaleGlobal Online magazine, joined Varadarajan on the panel.
The panelists addressed a host of questions related to Indian foreign policy under the geopolitical construct of a rising China and a retreating United States. Although the China-India-U.S. triangle has existed for some time, Varadarajan argued that present conditions make it an important topic for renewed discussion.
Pointing to recent internal changes by president Xi Jinping, India’s departure from the so-called Nehruvian consensus, as well as the unpredictability of U.S. foreign and trade polices under the Trump presidency, Varadarajan depicted a triangle comprised of shifting segment lengths and angles. He reviewed the India-U.S. and the India-China relationships and their evolution over the last decade-and-a-half; outlined significant changes in China’s foreign and economic policies over the last eight years; and elucidated the U.S.-India response to these changes.
Since 1998 and India’s declaration of its status as a nuclear power, U.S.-India relations have seen a succession of rises and falls under each presidency, with the present administration being no exception. “When the rest of the world was ambiguous, ambivalent, a bit worried about what the United States might do under Trump,” Varadarajan said, “Prime Minister Modi was one of the few world leaders to actually seek a doubling down of the relationship." Over the same period, India-China relations tended to follow a similar pattern of peaks and troughs, albeit in a reversed pattern. “If you look broadly at the India-China relationship,” Varadarajan summated, “it’s a textbook case of how improvements in economic relations and improvements in trade do not necessarily lead to improvements in political relations."
Varadarajan closed his remarks by arguing against the existing viewpoint of the triangle as a zero-sum game. “You cannot, on the one hand, talk of the need for a free and open Indo-Pacific region and, on the other hand, create forums or architecture that in some ways are designed to keep the Chinese out… India's interests lie perhaps in an architecture that is genuinely inclusive.”
The Shorenstein Journalism Award, which carries a cash prize of $10,000, recognizes accomplished journalists committed to critical reporting on and exploring the complexities of Asia through their writing. It alternates between honoring recipients from the West, who mainly address American audiences, and recipients from Asia, who pave the way for freedom of the press in their countries. Established in 2002, the award honors the legacy of Mr. Walter H. Shorenstein. A visionary businessman, philanthropist, and champion of Asian-American relations, Shorenstein was dedicated to promoting excellence in journalism and deeper understanding of Asia.
Varadarajan called the award a “boost to those of us in India who are fighting the good fight of keeping independent journalism alive-and kicking under difficult circumstances.”
Watch Varadarajan’s keynote speech:
