In the conventional narrative, the genesis of Indonesia’s authoritarian military regime known as the “New Order” is often depicted as a sudden event catalyzed by the kidnapping and killing of six Army generals on September 30th-October 1, 1965. General Suharto, who avoided capture, seized the opportunity to establish a military autocracy that would endure for over three decades (1966-1998). Yet scholars have portrayed the 1950s favorably as a time when Indonesia experimented with liberal and constitutional democracy. By that implication, the New Order was an unforeseen anomaly. Joshua’s research challenges this view. He will argue that the 1950s in Indonesia were beset by underdevelopment, insecurity, disorder, and conflict, which promoted militarization that ultimately paved the way for the New Order’s ascendance. This militarizing process, he will show, offers fresh insight into an understudied period in Indonesian history and helps us better understand the origins of authoritarian military regimes worldwide.

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Norman Joshua is a historian working on civil-military relations and authoritarianism in Southeast Asia.  Other topics covered in his publications include revolutionary politics, counterinsurgency, intelligence, and the political economy of petroleum in Indonesia. He obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University in 2018 and 2023 respectively, where he was also an Arryman Scholar at the Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs from 2016 to 2023.

Lunch will be served

The registration form for this event is closed. If you wish to attend, please proceed to the event check-in table in front of the Bechtel Conference Center, Encina Hall.

The College Freedom Forum connects university students with world-renowned activists working to promote democracy and human rights in authoritarian regimes. During this event, students will gain exposure to some of today’s most pressing human rights issues, resources to enhance their academic endeavors, and connections for professional growth.

Programming will focus on human rights, democratic movements, and activism in countries ruled by authoritarian regimes in the Asia-Pacific region. Speakers will shed light on some of the region’s most pressing human rights issues, from the Chinese Communist Party’s repression of the Uyghur people to Kim Jong-un’s totalitarian regime in North Korea to crackdowns on free speech in Vietnam, among others. Activists will convene to share their personal stories and highlight what the international community can do to stand in solidarity with their causes.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Jewher Ilham, Uyghur advocate and daughter of imprisoned scholar Ilham Tohti
• Mai Khoi, Vietnamese pop star and political activist
• Eunhee Park, North Korean defector
• Lobsang Sangay, Former Prime Minister of the Central Tibetan Administration’s government-in-exile

We will also have a panel discussion with Stanford faculty on authoritarian repression in the Asia-Pacific region and the responses of civil society and pro-democracy movements.

At a catered reception following the event, students will have the opportunity to meet and talk with the speakers.

This event is hosted by the Human Rights Foundation, and co-sponsored with Stanford's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

Co-sponsored by Peking University's Institute for Global Health and Development and the Asia Health Policy Program

This event delves into the complex landscape of technological advancements in healthcare, focusing on the critical balance between embracing innovative tools and managing their implications for provider skills and patient outcomes. It presents two pivotal papers that collectively shed light on the nuanced trade-offs inherent in the adoption of new technologies like robotic surgery. The first paper utilizes a Roy model to articulate the coexistence of new and incumbent technologies, emphasizing the trade-offs between different quality dimensions and productivity. The second paper examines the adoption of surgical robots in England's healthcare system. It offers an insightful analysis of how such technologies can bridge the skill gap among healthcare providers, potentially leading to more equitable patient outcomes. The study underscores a significant variance in the benefits of robotic surgery based on the surgeon's expertise, highlighting an uneven landscape of technology utilization. Through these discussions, the event aims to navigate the intricate interplay between technological innovation, healthcare provider skill enhancement, and the ultimate goal of improved patient care.

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Nathaniel Breg earned his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University and his BA at Tufts University. His interest in health care providers intersects with questions from labor economics and industrial organization. Nate's current research investigates how providers respond to incentives, how they decide to adopt new technology, and how health care services affect local economies and local health. He is a 2020-2021 recipient of the Fellowship in Digital Health from CMU's Center for Machine Learning and Health. He previously worked at RTI International on evaluations of government health care initiatives, prospective payment systems, and health care delivery quality measures.

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Elena Ashtari Tafti is an applied microeconomist working on topics at the intersection of innovation, health, and personnel economics. In September 2023, she joined the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich as an Assistant Professor in Economics. Elena holds a PhD in Economics from University College London and is a Scholar at the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice (CeMMAP).

Note: This talk is also offered as a virtual webinar on April 4 at 6 p.m.

International procurement institutions have played an important role in drug supply. This paper studies price, delivery, and procurement lead time of drug supply for major infectious diseases (antiretrovirals, antimalarials, antituberculosis, and antibiotics) in 106 developing countries from 2007-2017 across four procurement institution types. We find that pooled procurement institutions lower prices: pooling internationally is most effective for small buyers and more concentrated markets, and pooling within-country is most effective for large buyers and less concentrated markets. Pooling can reduce delays, but at the cost of longer anticipated procurement lead times. Finally, pooled procurement is more effective for older-generation drugs, compared to intellectual property licensing institutions that focus on newer, patented drugs. We corroborate the findings using multiple identification strategies, including an instrumental variable strategy, the Altonji-Elder-Taber-Oster method, and reduced-form demand estimation. Our results suggest that the optimal mixture of procurement institutions depends on the trade-off between costs and urgency of need, with pooled international procurement institutions particularly valuable when countries can plan well ahead of time.

Coauthor: Nahim Bin Zahur (Queen’s University).

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Dr. Lucy Xiaolu Wang is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst, a Faculty Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Germany, and a Faculty Associate at the Canadian Centre for Health Economics. Her research focuses on the economics of innovation & digitization in health care markets (national and global), particularly in the biopharmaceutical and digital health industries. Dr. Wang earned her PhD in economics from Cornell University, her master’s degree in economics from Duke University, and her bachelor’s degree in applied economics (specialty: insurance) from Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, China. 

Note: This talk is also offered as an in-person seminar on April 5 at 12 p.m.

International procurement institutions have played an important role in drug supply. This paper studies price, delivery, and procurement lead time of drug supply for major infectious diseases (antiretrovirals, antimalarials, antituberculosis, and antibiotics) in 106 developing countries from 2007-2017 across four procurement institution types. We find that pooled procurement institutions lower prices: pooling internationally is most effective for small buyers and more concentrated markets, and pooling within-country is most effective for large buyers and less concentrated markets. Pooling can reduce delays, but at the cost of longer anticipated procurement lead times. Finally, pooled procurement is more effective for older-generation drugs, compared to intellectual property licensing institutions that focus on newer, patented drugs. We corroborate the findings using multiple identification strategies, including an instrumental variable strategy, the Altonji-Elder-Taber-Oster method, and reduced-form demand estimation. Our results suggest that the optimal mixture of procurement institutions depends on the trade-off between costs and urgency of need, with pooled international procurement institutions particularly valuable when countries can plan well ahead of time.

Coauthor: Nahim Bin Zahur (Queen’s University).

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Dr. Lucy Xiaolu Wang is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst, a Faculty Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Germany, and a Faculty Associate at the Canadian Centre for Health Economics. Her research focuses on the economics of innovation & digitization in health care markets (national and global), particularly in the biopharmaceutical and digital health industries. Dr. Wang earned her PhD in economics from Cornell University, her master’s degree in economics from Duke University, and her bachelor’s degree in applied economics (specialty: insurance) from Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, China. 

Co-sponsors:
Southeast Asia Program, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) and the
Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL)
in the
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI)
Stanford University

Discussants:
Larry Diamond, Mosbacher Senior Fellow of Global Democracy, FSI
Scot Marciel, Oksenberg-Rohlen Fellow, APARC 

Chair: Donald K. Emmerson, Director, Southeast Asia Program, APARC

Optimism marked the New Year’s Day statement released on 1 January 2024 by Myanmar’s opposition-in-exile — the National Unity Government (NUG) and the advisory National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC). The “daily expansion” of territory controlled by inter-ethnic “revolutionary forces” and the “steady shrinking of military-controlled areas” were attributed to the “key success” of the Burmese people’s “defensive war.” Reportedly, as of December 2023, the junta’s forces may have ceded more than 180 outposts and strongpoints in the country to trans-ethnic rebel militias bent on overthrowing the regime. Meanwhile, NUG is working internationally to gain recognition and support while trying to persuade the junta’s foreign backers to desist. Leading those and related efforts is NUG’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Daw Zin Mar Aung. In this webinar, she will address the challenges met, the progress achieved, and the chances of undercutting and overthrowing Myanmar’s brutal dictatorship for the benefit of the country’s long-suffering people.

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Daw Zin Mar Aung, in addition to her service as NUG’s foreign minister, is a member of the committee that represents Myanmar’s elected parliament as it was before its dispersal by the military junta that seized power on 1 February 2021. In democratic contests prior to the termination of democracy, she was twice elected to parliament. Honors she has received include nomination by the World Economic Forum as a World Global Leader (2014) and selection as a CDDRL Draper Hills Summer Fellow at Stanford (2013). She received an International Women of Courage Award from the US State Department in 2012 after having spent eleven years in Burmese prisons for her activism on behalf of democracy and human rights. She is also a co-founder of the Yangon School of Political Science.

Please note that this event is now webinar only

In this seminar, three presenters from Google Health will share their perspectives on what it takes to bring a medical AI product from “code to clinic” in Southeast Asia. Google Health’s mission is to help everyone, everywhere be healthier, applying cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to improve patient outcomes and care delivery and incubate new AI-based products from initial research to clinical deployment. Representing different facets of a multidisciplinary team of experts (Product, Partnerships, and Program Management), the presenters will discuss the journey of developing and deploying a diagnostic AI solution that addresses an unmet need for the detection of diabetic blindness in Southeast Asia, real-world challenges and opportunities (particularly in the context of low- and middle-income countries), and the importance of building strategic partnerships and trust.

Richa Tiwari's work focuses on driving research on Google’s health innovations and working with partners on real-world deployment of digital and AI solutions in APAC and Africa. Richa holds a PhD in Molecular Biology and has over a decade of experience in Pharma, bringing cancer treatments to market and running clinical trials. An accidental technologist and a scientist at heart, Richa is passionate about bringing forward cutting-edge health tech innovations to address healthcare challenges

Sunny Virmani, during his time at Google and Verily Life Sciences, has focused on translating machine learning research into real-world clinical applications working with key opinion leaders and partners globally. His team’s pioneering research in the field of diabetic retinopathy screening using machine learning has helped advance the technology in this field significantly. Previously, he has held Product Management positions at Carl Zeiss Meditec and Philips Healthcare building products in the field of medical imaging. By education, he is an engineer with a Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering.

Rajroshan Sawhney leads Partnerships for Google Research (Health AI & Sustainability). During his time at Google, Raj has focused on catalyzing the adoption of human-centered AI in healthcare by driving strategic partnerships across both public and private sector in APAC, working closely with regulators, policy makers and academic partners to improve health outcomes in low-resource environments, and to develop go-to-market strategies to graduate research into real-world deployments.  Prior to Google, Raj was the Head of Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Development at a leading Computer Vision startup based out of San Francisco and Singapore. Raj holds a Computer Science BE (Hons) degree from BITS-Pilani, is a member of Mensa International and the India Young Leaders Forum.