The Program on Human Rights Collaboratory Series is an interdisciplinary investigation of human rights in the humanities. It is funded under the Stanford Presidential Fund for Innovation in International Studies as the third in a sequence of pursuing peace and security, improving governance and advancing well-being.
Japan leads, chased closely by South Korea, with China, on a vastly larger scale, not far behind. Not as mercantilist development states nor as threats to America's high-tech industry, but rather as the world’s most rapidly aging societies.
A wave of unprecedented demographic change is sweeping across East Asia, the forefront of a phenomenon of longer life expectancy and declining birthrates that together yield a striking rate of aging. Japan already confronts a shrinking population. Korea is graying even more quickly. And although China is projected to grow for another couple of decades, demographic change races against economic development. Could China become the first country to grow old before growing rich? In Southeast Asia, Singapore also is confronting a declining birthrate and an aging society. Increasingly, Asia’s aging countries look to its younger societies, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and India, as sources of migrant labor and even wives. Those countries in turn face different demographic challenges, such as how to educate their youth for global competition.
The third Stanford Kyoto Trans-Asian Dialogue will focus on demographic change in the region and its implications across a wide range of areas, including economies, societies, and security. Asia’s experience offers both lessons and warnings for North America and Europe, which are facing similar problems. Questions to be addressed include:
What are the inter-relationships between population aging and key macroeconomic variables such as economic growth, savings rates, and public and private intergenerational transfers?
How and why do policy responses to population aging differ in Japan, South Korea, and across different regions of China?
What are the effects of demographic change on national institutions such as employment practices, pension and welfare systems, and financial systems?
What policies can or should be pursued to influence future outcomes?
How will demographic change affect security in the Asia-Pacific region?
How have patterns of migration impacted society and culture in East Asia, in comparative perspective?
How will demographic change influence the movement of people across the region and the prevalence of multicultural families?
What lessons can Asia, the United States, and Europe learn from each other to improve the policy response to population aging?
The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) established the Stanford Kyoto Trans-Asian Dialogue in 2009 to facilitate conversation about current Asia-Pacific issues with far-reaching global implications. Scholars from Stanford University and various Asian countries start each session of the two-day event with stimulating, brief presentations, which are followed by engaging, off-the-record discussion. Each Dialogue closes with a public symposium and reception, and a final report is published on the Shorenstein APARC website.
Previous Dialogues have brought together a diverse range of experts and opinion leaders from Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, India, Australia, and the United States. The first Dialogue examined the global environmental and economic impacts of energy usage in Asia and the United States. It also explored the challenges posed by competition for resources and the possibilities for cooperating to develop sustainable forms of energy and better consumption practices. Last year’s Dialogue considered the question of building an East Asian Community similar in concept to the European Union. Participants discussed existing organizations, such as ASEAN and APEC, and the economic, policy, and security implications of creating an integrated East Asia regional structure.
The annual Stanford Kyoto Trans-Asian Dialogue is made possible through the generosity of the City of Kyoto, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, and Yumi and Yasunori Kaneko.
Kyoto International Community House Event Hall
2-1 Torii-cho, Awataguchi,
Sakyo-ku Kyoto, 606-8536
JAPAN
Despite the significance of Southeast Asia, India, and Australia, they are often overlooked in economic analyses of Asia. SEAF director Donald K. Emmerson took part in a Pacific Pension Institute roundtable event, July 13-15, focusing on the economic potential of this "southern rim." He opened the conference by reviewing the historical and social diversity of these countries and assessing the extent to which that diversity is an asset or a liability for economic growth, political stability, and democratic reform.
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The container port of Surabaya, East Java, is Indonesia's second largest container hub after Jakarta.
The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) is pleased to announce that undergraduate senior honors student Yihana von Ritter was awarded The Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research for her outstanding thesis examining HIV/AIDS policy in Papua New Guinea. Von Ritter was presented with the award at a ceremony held on June 11 during commencement weekend at Stanford University.
Larry Diamond with Yihana von Ritter (Firestone awardee)
Von Ritter, a political science major, spent the summer of 2010 on the Papua New Guinea island of Karkar, where she performed extensive field research. She interviewed over 40 government officials, medical personnel, religious and civic leaders, youth, and HIV positive individuals. Her thesis entitled "Between Hope and Despair: An Assessment of HIV/AIDS Policy in Papua New Guinea," underscored the fact that while only 1% of Papua New Guinea's adult population is AIDS-infected, a public health crisis is looming if preventative policies are not swiftly adopted.
According to her thesis co-advisor Professor Emeritus David Abernethy, Von Ritter's thesis received the Firestone Medal--awarded to the top ten percent of honors theses in social science, science, and engineering--for its remarkable combination of social science analysis and informed policy advocacy.
"Von Ritter provides policy-relevant recommendations in her thesis to enhance interagency communication and encourage active government leadership (in Papua New Guinea)," said Abernethy. Von Ritter also worked closely with Francis Fukuyama, FSI senior fellow and CDDRL faculty member, who provided guidance and support during the thesis writing process.
Purun Cheong and Kamil Dada were both recipients of the CDDRL Undergraduate Honors Program "Best Thesis Award" for their outstanding research and policy-relevant scholarship. Cheong, an international relations major, critically evaluated the failed United Nations state-building efforts in East Timor in his thesis, "When the Blind lead: The United Nations in East Timor-Lessons in State Building."
After spending a summer conducting research in Pakistan, Dada, a political science major, wrote "Understanding International Democracy Assistance: A Case Study of Pakistan," a sobering account of democracy assistance to Pakistan. Cheong and Dada were both advised by CDDRL director Larry Diamond.
CDDRL congratulates the 2011 graduating class of CDDRL Undergraduate Honors
Students:
Purun Cheong
International Relations
"When the Blind Lead: The United Nations in East Timor- Lessons in State Building"
Kamil Dada
Political Science
"Understanding International Democracy Assistance: A Case study of Pakistan"
Sarah Guerrero
International Relations
"Automation Nation: Electronic Elections, Electoral Governance and Democratic Consolidation in the Philippines"
Ayesha Lalji
International Relations
"Unleashing the Cheetah Generation: How Mobile Banking Enables Access to Capital for the Poor in Developing Countries"
Lauren Swartz
International Relations
"Agribusiness as a Means of Economic Development: Case Studies of Chile and Mexico"
Ann Thompson
History
"The Other Side of the Coin: The US Military and Afghan Women in Contemporary Counterinsurgurgency Operations"
Yihana von Ritter
Political Science
"Between Hope and Despair: An Assessment of HIV/AIDS Policy in Papua New Guinea"
International Scholars in Residence at the Humanities Center 2011-2012
Distinguished scholars from Australia, Hong Kong - Ghana, Spain, the United Kingdom and France chosen as joint Stanford Humanities Center/FSI international visitors.
The Stanford Humanities Center and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) are pleased to announce that four international scholars have been chosen to come to Stanford in 2011-12 as part of a jointly sponsored international program entering its third year. Nominated by Stanford departments and research centers, the international scholars will be on campus for four-week residencies. They will have offices at the Humanities Center and will be affiliated with their nominating unit, the Humanities Center, and FSI.
A major purpose of the residencies is to bring high-profile international scholars into the intellectual life of the university, targeting scholars whose research and writing engage with the missions of both the Humanities Center and FSI.
The following six scholars have chosen to be in residence during the 2011-2012 academic year:
Adams Bodomo (October-November 2011) isthe Chair of the Department of Linguistics in the School of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong and the Director of the University’s African Studies Program. A linguist hailing from Ghana, his primary expertise resides in the structure of West-African languages (Akan, Dagaare). He has recently undertaken research on the African diaspora in Asia, as well as conducted fieldwork on Zhuang, a minority language in China. He was nominated by the Department of Linguistics.
Mario Carretero (January 2012) is a Professor of Psychology at Autonoma University of Madrid, and one of the most prominent leaders studying how young people develop historical consciousness and how they understand history. His work has been at the forefront of the “history wars” since the 1990s over what and who should determine the curriculum on the Spanish-speaking world. Carretero’s research, unlike scholars who explore such issues by dissecting textbooks, is unique in its commitment to fieldwork - conducting interviews with adolescents and observing them in real life situations to understand the dynamics of cultural transmission and resistance. He was nominated by the School of Education.
Catherine Gousseff (February 2012)is a world-renowned leading figure in East-Central European history, politics and society of the twentieth Century, as well as of the former Soviet Union. A researcher at the French CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) she is currently affiliated with the Marc Bloch Center in Berlin. While at Stanford, she will share insights into her new research project on collective memories of displacements, diaspora politics in wartime and post-war eras, notably the Polish-Ukrainian population exchange (1944-1950). She was nominated by the Europe Center.
James Laidlaw (April 2012) is an anthropologist at Cambridge University. Professor Laidlaw is deeply engaged in fieldwork in Asia, researching the Buddhist ethics of self-cultivation, looking at how the traditional means by which Buddhists practice self-cultivation –asceticism, meditation- are undergoing a massive restructuring. Practices once reserved for male monks are now being adopted by women and laity. James Laidlaw has edited seven books, the two latest ones on the cognitive approaches to religion, exploring them from an ethnographic perspective. He is also an expert on Jainism, a tradition of monastic renunciation like Buddhism that is also the religion of choice of a larger lay population. He was nominated by the Department of Anthropology.
Monica Quijada (October-November 2011) is a public intellectual and historian of Spain and Latin America at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) in Madrid. Her engagement with the UN in Argentina (working with refugees) and her directorship of the investigation carried out in the late 1990s regarding Nazi activities during the Second World War and in post-war Argentina shows her commitment to the public space. She has written extensively on dictatorship, populism, and war and their effect on the public sphere in Argentina and Spain as well as on the relationship between nineteenth-century Latin American states and their indigenous populations. She was nominated by the History Department and the Center for Latin American Studies.
Patrick Wolfe (May-June 2012) is a historian at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. He is a premier historian of settler colonialism, currently working on a comparative transnational history of settler-colonial discourses of race in Australia, Brazil, the United States, and Israel/Palestine. While at Stanford, he will give lectures based on his core work on Australia and also on his forthcoming book Settler Colonialism and the American West, 1865-1904 (Princeton University Press). He was nominated by the Bill Lane Center for the American West.
While at Stanford, the scholars will offer informal seminars and public lectures and will also be available for consultations with interested faculty and students. For additional information, please contact Marie-Pierre Ulloa, mpulloa@stanford.edu.
Platts Coal Trader International Vol. 11, Issue 67, Pages 5-6
Australia faces serious
challenges over the next 20 years in maintaining its hard-won place as a
leading coal exporting country and capturing new market share, according to a research
paper published by Stanford University's Program on Energy and Sustainable
Development April 5.
Following earlier papers on
China, Indonesia and South Africa's coal industries, the latest PESD paper,
entitled Australia's Black Coal Industry: Past Achievements and Future Challenges,
has been written by coal industry expert Bart Lucarelli.
The paper sketches the
development of Australia's export coal industry, from its shaky start in the
aftermath of the Second World War amid a glut of cheap oil, to the "phenomenal success
story" of today. The renaissance of
Australia's coal industry was assisted by the discovery of vast deposits of
high-quality coking coal and thermal coal in Queensland's Bowen Basin and the
Hunter Valley of New South Wales
respectively, along with new mining technologies and the economic expansions of
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Lucarelli said.
During the Australian coal
industry's competitive phase - 1987 to 2003 - export coal prices were
relatively stable, but the growth rate of Australia's coal industry slowed as Indonesia
became a significant coal exporter. Since
2003, Australia's coal industry has been in a "volatile price phase," as export
coking and thermal coal prices have soared to record highs with the entry of
China and latterly India into the international seaborne market, while weather
events have affected supplies from coal exporting countries.
Looking to the next 20 years,
Lucarelli forecasts serious challenges to the preeminence of Australia's export
coal industry in the shape of infrastructure constraints, regulatory risks and
under-investment in railways and ports by government-owned companies. "The most pressing and immediate technical
challenge to the black coal industry of Australia is the shortage of rail and port infrastructure to
support its further growth," said Lucarelli in the research paper.
‘Chronic infrastructure shortages'
Governments in Queensland and New South Wales have proposed projects for expanding
their rail and port networks to support a significant increase in Australian
coal exports, which are forecast to grow to 540 million mt by 2020 from 240
million mt in 2010. "Part of the reason
that chronic infrastructure shortages are likely to persist has to do with the
type of technology being implemented - large rail and fixed land port systems,"
Lucarelli explained. Large port and rail
projects are required for economies of scale, but involve long lead times, high
upfront costs and complex regulatory clearances.
"A second reason for the chronic
shortage of infrastructure has been the reliance on state-owned entities to
make the necessary investments in the rail and port systems," Lucarelli said. Government-owned
rail and port companies tend to be less nimble and entrepreneurial in their
decision-making than the private sector, though some port and rail companies have
been privatized recently - most notably Queenslandbased rail company QR
National and the port of Brisbane. Regulatory
uncertainty stemming from the Australian government's stop-start policy on
curbing carbon emissions and its proposed Mineral Resource Rent Tax on
coal-mining profits are additional factors clouding the expansion of Australia's
coal industry. "Potential coal mining
projects most at risk due to regulatory uncertainty are the massive new steam
coal projects planned for the Galilee, Gunnedah and Surat basins," Lucarelli
said. Illustrating the potential for
expansion within Australia's coal industry, Lucarelli said that if only two of
the advancedstage projects in the Surat Basin in Queensland started production on
schedule, they could add 110 million mt/year of thermal coal exports by 2015. This is almost as much thermal coal as
Australia exported for the whole of 2008, at 115 million mt.
As Asian coal demand skyrockets, the world's largest coal
exporter now faces a number of critical challenges: infrastructure constraints, emerging carbon
policy, resource depletion, and regulatory challenges. Drawing on a detailed analysis of Australia's
coal industry since WWII, Dr. Bart Lucarelli addresses key questions that
will shape both the Australian and global coal trade in the coming decade.
Covering everything from new mining
investments to the potentially disruptive emergence of a the coal bed methane
sector and Australia's investments in carbon capture and storage, the study
offers the most comprehensive, forward-looking analysis of Australia's coal
sector available in print.
Conventional wisdom holds that the emigration of highly skilled workers depletes local human capital developing countries. But when the very prospect of emigration induces people to invest more in their education, the effects might not be so negative. We analyze a unique natural quasi-experiment in the Republic of Fiji Islands, where political shocks have provoked one of the largest recorded expoduses of skilled workers from a developing country. We use rich census and administrative microdata to show that high rates of emigration by tertiary-educated Fiji Islanders not only raised investment in tertiary education in Fiji, but also raised the stock of tertiary-educated people in Fiji - net departures.
Michael Clemens is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development where he leads the Migration and Development initiatiave. His research focuses on the effects of international migration from and in developing countries. Michael joined the Center after completing his Ph.D. in economics at Harvard. His past writings have focused on the effects of foreign aid, determinants of capital flows and effects of tariff policy in the 19th century and the historical determinants of school system expansion. Michael has served as a consultant for the World Bank, Bain & Co., the Environmental Defense Fund, and the United Nations Development Program.
CISAC Conference Room
Michael Clemens
Senior Fellow, The Center for Global Development
Speaker
Larry Diamond with Yihana von Ritter (Firestone awardee)
