China's Year of Decision - Hu's in Charge?
-
The year ahead in China's politics promises a level of activity and rhetorical heat comparable to American politics during a presidential campaign year. In the fall of 2007, the Chinese Communist Party will convene its 17th national congress. Because the congress offers the occasion for new directions in China's domestic and foreign policies and for changes in China's top leadership, preparations for party congress are already heating up the political atmosphere in Beijing. This series offers several perspectives by prominent China scholars and analysts on prevailing trends in leadership politics and policy issues heading into the 17th party congress and on what may emerge from it. Professor Alice Miller, organizer of this series, will set the scene.
This talk is part of the "China's Year of Decision" colloquium series sponsored with the Center for East Asian Studies.
Philippines Conference Room
Alice Lyman Miller
Research Fellow
Speaker
Hoover Institution
Seminars
Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid and Reform
-
In the mid-1990s, North Korea experienced a famine that killed up to a million people. In this talk, Professor Haggard will examine the origins of the famine, the subsequent humanitarian aid effort, including the problems of diversion of aid, and the market reforms that followed in the famine's wake. These political economy questions have played an important backdrop to the current negotiations over a resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue.
Stephan Haggard is the Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is the author of Pathways from the Periphery: the Political Economy of Growth in the Newly Industrializing Countries (1990), The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions (1995, with Robert Kaufman) and The Political Economy of the Asian Financial Crisis (2000). In addition to Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid and Reform (forthcoming 2006) he has completed a report on North Korean refugees for the US Committee on Human Rights in North Korea and is initiating a project with TaiMing Cheung and Barry Naughton on Chinese-North Korean economic relations.
Philippines Conference Room
Stephan Haggard
Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies
Speaker
University of California, San Diego
Seminars
A Lost Decade? Costs and Benefits of the Post-crisis Financial Reforms in South Korea
-
Almost a decade has passed since the financial crisis in South Korea. At the time Korean banks, already under financial stress, were faced with bad loans stemming from bankruptcies in the corporate sector. To resolve the bad loan problem, the Korean government actively intervened in the financial sector. The policy of "shock therapy" worked to restructure failed or failing banks.
Myung-Koo Kang will discuss this "shock therapy" approach in Korea and look at this approach to financial restructuring in a broader comparative context. He will also explore the impact of Korea's restructuring efforts on financial intermediation and the consequences of rapid privatization on the Korean financial sector.
Myung-Koo Kang is a postdoctoral fellow of Shorenstein APARC. Kang is currently revising his dissertation for publication titled, "Growing out of the "Vortex": The Politics of Financial Restructuring in Japan and South Korea". His dissertation explores the reasons why, despite similar institutional legacies emphasizing economic development, South Korea and Japan have responded so differently to their respective banking crises. Kang received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2006. He was a visiting scholar to the Policy Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance, Japan, in 2003-4. His research focuses on comparative political economy, international relations, public administration, and East Asia.
Philippines Conference Room
Myung-Koo Kang
Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall, Room E301
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
0
nicekang@stanford.edu
Postdoctoral Fellow
Myung-Koo Kang holds Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (major in political science, specialty: comparative political economy, public administration, and East Asia) and M.A and B.A. from the Seoul National University (major in international relations). He was brought up in a rural area of South Korea, observing the massive social mobilization during the 1970s, and he served in the DMZ for three years before he came to the U.S. He conducted research at the Policy Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance, Japan, for a year as a visiting scholar about Japanese financial reforms.
Dr. Kang is currently conducting research on various projects: (1) preparing the dissertation for publication about the financial reforms in Japan and South Korea, and effects of financial restructuring on corporate financing and governance; (2) research on the social and historical origin of Korean power elite, and as its extension, leading research project on comparative studies on power elite in Japan, South Korea, and China; (3) the pattern of uneven regional integration in East Asia and its prospects; (4) research on the political and economic difficulties faced by North Korean refugees living in South Korea.
Seminars
The First Korea-West Coast Strategic Forum
-
The first Korea-West Coast Strategic Forum, held in Seoul on December 11-12, 2006, convened policymakers, scholars and regional experts to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue, the state of the U.S.-ROK alliance, and notions of a formalized mechanism for security cooperation in Northeast Asia. Gi-Wook Shin, Daniel Sneider, Siegfried Hecker, and Kristin Burke represented the Freeman Spogli Institute.
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Workshops
The Best Knowledge that Money Can Buy: The Effect of Foreign Human Capital on Nuclear Weapons Programs
-
Alisa Carrigan (speaker) is a PhD candidate in the War Studies Department at King's College, London and a predoctoral fellow at CISAC. For the past three years, she has been researching nuclear non-proliferation policy, with special focus on the training and movement of nuclear human capital under the current non-proliferation regime. At CISAC, Carrigan is working on a project entitled "Strengthening the WMD Non-Proliferation Regime." Carrigan earned her master's degree in international security from the University of St. Andrews (UK), and her BA in government and psychology from Claremont McKenna College. As an undergraduate, she interned at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Alex Montgomery (respondent) was a postdoctoral fellow at CISAC in 2005-2006 and is now an assistant professor of political science at Reed College. He has published articles on dismantling proliferation networks and on the effects of social networks of international organizations on interstate conflict. His research interests include political organizations, social networks, weapons of mass disruption and destruction, social studies of technology, and interstate social relations. His current book project is on post-Cold War U.S. nonproliferation policy, evaluating the efficacy of policies towards North Korea, Iran, and proliferation networks.
Reuben W. Hills Conference Room
Alisa Carrigan
Speaker
Alexander Montgomery
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Speaker
Reed College
Seminars
Shorenstein APARC participates in the first Korea-U.S. West Coast Strategic Forum held in Seoul
News Type
News
Date
Paragraphs
Executive Summary
The first Korea - West Coast Strategic Forum held in Seoul on December 11-12, 2006, convened policymakers, scholars and regional experts to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue, the state of the U.S.-ROK alliance, and notions of a formalized mechanism for security cooperation in Northeast Asia. Participants engaged in lively and frank exchanges on these issues. Gi-Wook Shin, Daniel C. Sneider, Siegfried S. Hecker, and Kristin C. Burke represented the Freeman Spogli Institute.
Participants were concerned that North Korea's drive toward nuclear weapons has exposed disparate interests among the five parties committed to arresting this ambition, including differences in threat perception between the United States and South Korea. But they also believed that multilateral dialogue still offers the best possibility for resolving the DPRK nuclear issue through peaceful means. Participants argued that in the wake of the nuclear test, pressure and use of force should be discounted as viable options and "rollback" through negotiations should be pursued. Such an approach necessitates clearer articulation of North Korea's options, a new consensus on mutual priorities, hard work on sequencing, and a more developed vision for alternative policies should diplomacy fail.
The U.S.-ROK alliance has entered a new era characterized by new American security imperatives, such as nonproliferation and counterterrorism, as well as a new Korean policy of engagement toward the DPRK. These factors, coupled with domestic political challenges and an evolving regional security environment, call for serious, strategic discussions on the state of the alliance. Though the U.S. and the ROK have exhibited diverging threat perceptions of North Korea the - core of the strategic rationale for the alliance - the instructive precedent set by NATO demonstrates that alliances can survive redefinition of the primary security threat, though not the absence of a common threat.
Participants discussed the prospects for greater regional cooperation in Northeast Asia, including the possibility of converting the six-party talks into a new institutional mechanism for multilateral security cooperation. However, there are serious obstacles to deeper integration in the region, not least unresolved historical issues that still elicit passionate responses. But if understandings on these issues can be reached, a regional security organization could address critical traditional and non-traditional security issues and mitigate uncertainty about China's rise.
The full text of the report can be found at The First Korea-West Coast Strategic Forum.
All News button
1
Shared History in Northeast Asia?
-
If the twentieth century is remembered as a century of war, Asia is certainly central to that story. In Northeast Asia, where issues of historical injustices seem to have generated a vicious circle of accusation and defense, overcoming historical animosities has become one of the most important issues for the future of the region.
Last year, the Yomiuri Shimbun, the largest daily paper in Japan, conducted an unprecedented year-long project analyzing the responsibility of Japanese leaders in Pacific war of World War II. The results of the project were published in August in the newspaper and then in a book that was published, both in Japanese and English in late 2006. Mr. Tennichi will discuss the project and the paper's findings. The newspaper articles can be found at Daily Yomiuri.
In 2003, Shorenstein APARC hosted a conference on issues of historical injustice in Korea. The conference produced a book, released in November 2006, titled Rethinking Historical Injustice and Reconciliation in Northeast Asia: The Korean Experience. Our director, Gi-Wook Shin and Chunghee Sarah Soh, who wrote one of the chapters of the book, will present their research in the second panel.
2:15 - 3:45 Panel One
"Who was Responsible?: From Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor"
Presenter:
Takahiko Tennichi, editorial writer, Yomiuri Shimbun
Commentator:
Mark Peattie, visiting scholar, Shorenstein APARC
4:00 - 5:30 Panel Two
"Rethinking Historical Injustice and Reconciliation in Northeast Asia: The Korean Experience"
Panelists:
Chunghee Sarah Soh, professor, anthropology, San Francisco State
Gi-Wook Shin, director, Shorenstein APARC and associate professor, Sociology, Stanford University
Commentator:
Charles Burress, interim bureau chief, East Bay bureau, San Francisco Chronicle
You can read the Financial Times review of the Yomiuri Shimbun book at Financial Times Review
Philippines Conference Room
Takahiko Tennichi
editorial writer
Speaker
Yomiuri Shimbun
Mark Peattie
0
Visiting Scholar
Mark R. Peattie was a visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He was a professor of history emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and was the John A. Burns Distinguished Visiting Professor of History at the University of Hawai'i in 1995.
Peattie was a specialist in modern Japanese military, naval, and imperial history. His current research focused on the historical context of Japanese-Southeast Asian relations. He was also directing a pioneering and international collaborative effort of the military history of the study of the Sino-Japanese war of 1937–45 being sponsored by the Asia Center at Harvard University.
He is editor, with Peter Duus and Ramon H. Myers, of the Japanese Wartime Empire, 1937–1945 (Princeton University Press, 1996). Peattie is the author of the Japanese Colonial Empire: The Vicissitudes of Its Fifty-Year History (Tokyo: Yomiuri Press, 1996).
He coauthored, with David Evans, Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887–1941 (Naval Institute Press, 1997), winner of a 1999 Distinguished Book Award of the Society for Military History. A sequel, Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909–1941, was published by the Naval Institute Press in 2001.
Peattie is also the author of the monograph A Historian Looks at the Pacific War (Hoover Essays in Public Policy, 1995).
Peattie was a reader for Columbia University, University of California, University of Hawai'i, Stanford University, University of Michigan, and U.S. Naval Institute Presses.
Peattie frequently served as lecturer in the Stanford University Continuing Studies Program and in the Stanford Alumni Travel Program.
He was named an associate in research at the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University from 1982 to 1993.
He was a member of the U.S. Information Agency from 1955 to 1968 with service in Cambodia (1955–57), in Japan (Sendai, Tokyo, Kyoto, 1958–67), and in Washington, D.C. (1967–68).
Peattie held a PhD in Japanese history from Princeton University.
Chunghee Sarah Soh
professor of anthropology
Speaker
San Francisco State University
Gi-Wook Shin
Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall E301
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
0
gwshin@stanford.edu
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor of Sociology
William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea
Professor, by Courtesy, of East Asian Languages & Cultures
Gi-Wook Shin is the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in the Department of Sociology, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the founding director of the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) since 2001, all at Stanford University. In May 2024, Shin also launched the Taiwan Program at APARC. He served as director of APARC for two decades (2005-2025). As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, democracy, migration, and international relations.
In Summer 2023, Shin launched the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), which is a new research initiative committed to addressing emergent social, cultural, economic, and political challenges in Asia. Across four research themes– “Talent Flows and Development,” “Nationalism and Racism,” “U.S.-Asia Relations,” and “Democratic Crisis and Reform”–the lab brings scholars and students to produce interdisciplinary, problem-oriented, policy-relevant, and comparative studies and publications. Shin’s latest book, The Four Talent Giants, a comparative study of talent strategies of Japan, Australia, China, and India to be published by Stanford University Press in the summer of 2025, is an outcome of SNAPL.
Shin is also the author/editor of twenty-seven books and numerous articles. His books include The Four Talent Giants: National Strategies for Human Resource Development Across Japan, Australia, China, and India (2025); Korean Democracy in Crisis: The Threat of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization (2022); The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security (2021); Superficial Korea (2017); Divergent Memories: Opinion Leaders and the Asia-Pacific War (2016); Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea (2015); Criminality, Collaboration, and Reconciliation: Europe and Asia Confronts the Memory of World War II (2014); New Challenges for Maturing Democracies in Korea and Taiwan (2014); History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia: Divided Memories (2011); South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society (2011); One Alliance, Two Lenses: U.S.-Korea Relations in a New Era (2010); Cross Currents: Regionalism and Nationalism in Northeast Asia (2007); and Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (2006). Due to the wide popularity of his publications, many have been translated and distributed to Korean audiences. His articles have appeared in academic and policy journals, including American Journal of Sociology, World Development, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Asian Studies, Comparative Education, International Sociology, Nations and Nationalism, Pacific Affairs, Asian Survey, Journal of Democracy, and Foreign Affairs.
Shin is not only the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, but also continues to actively raise funds for Korean/Asian studies at Stanford. He gives frequent lectures and seminars on topics ranging from Korean nationalism and politics to Korea's foreign relations, historical reconciliation in Northeast Asia, and talent strategies. He serves on councils and advisory boards in the United States and South Korea and promotes policy dialogue between the two allies. He regularly writes op-eds and gives interviews to the media in both Korean and English.
Before joining Stanford in 2001, Shin taught at the University of Iowa (1991-94) and the University of California, Los Angeles (1994-2001). After receiving his BA from Yonsei University in Korea, he was awarded his MA and PhD from the University of Washington in 1991.
Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL)
Explore SNAPLReengaging North Korea
Learn moreStanford Asia-Pacific Innovation
Learn moreDirector of the Korea Program and the Taiwan Program, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Director of Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab, APARC
Hide publication sections
Off
Charles Burress
interim bureau chief, East Bay bureau
Commentator
San Francisco Chronicle
Workshops
Rethinking the War on Terror: A Counter-Epidemic Approach
-
Over five years since 9/11, the United States is still struggling to define the nature of the terrorist challenge it faces let alone fully comprehend it. As a consequence, the United States and its partners in the "global war on terror" still lack a comprehensive strategy for responding to the challenge. Drawing on a growing area of social science research relating to "social contagion" phenomena, the challenge posed by "Islamist militancy" will be assessed using the principles and practices of epidemiology. A new more promising strategy emerges as a consequence.
Paul B. Stares is vice president of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and director of its Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. He currently focuses on northeast Asian security issues, U.S. post-conflict stability operations, and counterterrorism policy. He has authored or edited nine books in addition to numerous book chapters, articles, and op-eds in leading U.S. and European newspapers. In 2006, Stares led the Iraq Study Groups Strategic Environment Expert Working Group.
Prior to joining USIP in 2002, Stares was associate director and senior research scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. From 1996 to 2000 he worked in Japan, first as a senior research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs and then as director of studies at the Japan Center for International Exchange. At various times, Stares has been a senior fellow and research associate in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution as well as a NATO fellow, a scholar-in-residence at the MacArthur Foundation Moscow Office, a Rockefeller International Relations Fellow, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
He has also held academic posts at the University of Sussex and the University of Lancaster in Great Britain, where he received his PhD.
Reuben W. Hills Conference Room
Paul Stares
Vice President, Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention
Speaker
U.S. Institute for Peace
Seminars
Cooperative Threat Reduction: Former Soviet Biological Weapons Facilities
-
The speaker will describe his experiences over ten years of developing a comprehensive program to engage the formerly top secret Soviet biological weapons complex through joint scientific research and disease surveillance. He will also discuss how lessons learned can be applied to potential new efforts to reduce global threats of bioterrorism and potential pandemics.
Andrew Weber is the adviser for cooperative threat reduction policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. His responsibilities include developing and overseeing CTR biological threat reduction programs in the former Soviet Union, and nuclear and chemical weapons threat reduction projects in Central Asia. Before coming to the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 1996, Weber served as a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Kazakhstan, and Hong Kong. Weber holds an MSFS degree from Georgetown University and a BA from Cornell University. He speaks Russian. Weber is an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Graduate School of Foreign Service.
Reuben W. Hills Conference Room
Andrew Weber
Senior Adviser for Cooperative Threat Reduction Policy
Speaker
Office of the Secretary of Defense
Seminars