Joshua Tucker and his colleagues have introduced a novel classification of strategies employed by autocrats to combat hostile activity on the web and in social media in particular. Their classification looks at these options from the point of view of the end internet user and distinguishes online from offline response and exerting control from engaging in opinion formation. For each of the three options - offline action, infrastructure regulation and online engagement - they provide a detailed account for the evolution of Russian government strategy since 2000. In addition, for online engagement option they construct the tools for detecting such activity on Twitter and test them on a large dataset of politically relevant Twitter data from Russia, gathered over the period of nine month in 2014.
Bio:
Joshua Tucker is a Professor of Politics and, by courtesy, Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University with an affiliate appointment at NYU-Abu Dhabi. He is a Co-PI of the NYU Social Media and Political Participation laboratory (SMaPP), a Co-Author of the award winning politics and policy blog - The Monkey Cage at The Washington Post, and the Co-Editor of the Journal of Experimental Political Science.
"Preventing Cardiovascular Disease: Pathways through Diagnostic Testing, Clinical Guidelines, and Patient Decision Making"
Please note: All research in progress seminars are off-the-record. Any information about methodology and/or results is embargoed until publication.
Abstract
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and consumes 17% of our national healthcare expenditures. Diagnostic testing in clinical settings—particularly for coronary heart disease—and incorporation of economic evidence into professional society guidelines represent underdeveloped opportunities to catalyze adoption of preventive health measures. Financial incentives that influence patient decision-making may also be an effective tool to increase adoption of preventive health measures, and we are currently testing their effectiveness and return on investment in high-risk, hospitalized smokers.
Abstract: Cybersecurity depends heavily on civilian cyber defense, which is decentralized, private, and voluntary. Although the structure of this field stands to have a profound impact on national and international security, its history is rarely subject to critical or comparative analysis. Why is civilian cyber defense organized this way? There are at least three plausible explanations for the origins and evolution of cyber defense as an organizational field: technology, bureaucracy, and ideology. I examine the influence of each factor during the formative years of the Internet in the United States. From the beginning, malware was described in terms of infectious disease (viruses and worms), so I use public health to provide comparative context for cyber defense. I find that technological determinism explains far less about the genesis of this field than often assumed. Bureaucratic politics are also insufficient. Therefore, I argue that the American ideology of anti-statism is necessary to explain civilian cyber defense, and this family of ideas has important implications for security cooperation at home and abroad.
About the Speaker: Frank Smith is a Senior Lecturer with the Centre for International Security Studies and the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. His teaching and research examine the relationship between technology and international security. His book, American Biodefense, explains why the U.S. military struggled to defend itself and the country against biological warfare and bioterrorism. His current research examines cyber security cooperation; he is also analyzing the potential impact of quantum computing on international relations. Previously, Smith was a visiting scholar with the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, a research fellow with the Griffith Asia Institute, and a pre-doctoral fellow with the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. He has a Ph.D. in political science and a B.S. in biological chemistry, both from the University of Chicago.
Frank Smith
Senior Lecturer
Speaker
Centre for International Security Studies; Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney
Kenji Kushida will provide an overview of canonical works of Silicon Valley, including work of Martin Kenney and his classic co-edited volume "Understanding Silicon Valley" and other more recent work drawn from the Stanford Silicon Valley - New Japan project’s "Top Ten Reading List of Silicon Valley." He will also share insights from a recent report co-authored with Richard Dasher, Nobuyuki Harada, Takeo Hoshi, and Tetsuji Okazaki entitled "Institutional Foundations for Growth" which partially draws from research on Silicon Valley.
Kanetaka Maki will present his new research from a paper entitled "Milestones to University-Based Startup Success: What Is the Impact of Academic Inventor Involvement?” Based on the data analysis of 533 University of California startups, he will explain the impact of inventor involvement in the growth and success of university-based startups.
Technological advances have brought us to a potential tipping point in the delivery of financial services that will affect the individual, firm, the industry and the country. How important will this development be for potential growth in developed and developing countries? Will the changes occur without official intervention, or will they need the state’s guiding hand to ensure that they provide their benefits with minimal risk? What measures are needed from policy makers and regulatory authorities to clear the path for faster growth?
This seminar, co-sponsored by the Stanford Center for International Development and the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, will look at how a group of companies, an industry and a country have effectively capitalized on conducive regulatory environment the opportunities offered by the technological advances and related disruptions. The talk will focus on the strategy of M-Pesa/Alibaba, Chinese Financial Sector and Singapore. The combination of Silicon Valley Technology and Smart Nation/City initiative may overcome some challenges of low productivity and low growth in many parts of the world especially in Asia and ASEAN.
David LEE Kuo Chuen is a visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) for the fall of 2015. He is currently the Director of Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics. He holds the appointment of Practice Professor of Quantitative Finance, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, in Singapore Management University. He is also the founder of Ferrell Asset Management Group. His research interests encompass digital and Internet finance, digital banking, Asia finance, impact investing, financial inclusion and asset allocation. During his time as a Fulbright Scholar at Shorenstein APARC, his research will focus on harnessing Silicon Valley technology for connectivity and financial inclusion in ASEAN and Singapore. David is also an Independent Director of two SGX-listed companies and sits on the Investment Committee and Council of two charitable organizations. He is the Vice President of the Economic Society of Singapore. He was the Founding Vice Chairman of the Alternative Investment Management Association (Singapore Chapter), a member of the SGX Security Committee, and MAS Financial Research Council. He was also the Group Managing Director of OUE Limited and Auric Pacific Limited, as well as the Non-Executive Chairman of MAP Technology Limited. David speaks frequently in international conferences with occasional appearances in Bloomberg, Reuters and Channel NewsAsia. He has published in Financial Analyst Journal, Journal of Investing, Journal of Wealth Management, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, Applied Financial Economics, and several books and chapters on Household Economics and Hedge Funds. His two books on Asia Finance focus on Banking, Sovereign Wealth Funds, REITs, Financial Trading & Markets, and Fund Performance. His latest book is on Digital Currency. He graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a BSc (Econs), MSc (Mathematical Economics and Econometrics) and a PhD in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics.
Smart Nation, Silicon Valley Technology and Asia Growth Strategy
Mathias Hoffmann is Professor of Economics at the University of Zurich. His research focuses on the macroeconomic aspects of international financial integration and on the link between financial markets and the macro-economy more generally. His recent published articles include papers on the determinants of international capital flows and imbalances, the international transmission of business cycles, on international risk sharing and banking regulation. Prior to arriving in Zurich, he was Professor at the University of Dortmund in Germany and a Lecturer at Southampton University (UK). He holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence and obtained his undergraduate education in economics and mathematics at WHU School of Management, Brandeis University and the University of Bonn.
Mathias Hoffmann is a fellow of CESifo Munich and has held visiting positions, at the University of California at Berkeley, the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Keio University.
“Improving Symptoms and Quality of Life in Chronic Heart Failure”
Please note: All research in progress seminars are off-the-record. Any information about methodology and/or results is embargoed until publication.
*Please note the irregular time for this seminar*
Abstract
David Bekelman, MD, MPH is a visiting lecturer at Stanford University and the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Nursing at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Bekelman is a board-certified internist, psychiatrist, and palliative care specialist. In this talk, he will present his research related to measuring and improving quality of life, testing novel health care delivery interventions, and behavioral clinical trials. He will describe his ongoing research that is examining ways to integrate palliative and psychosocial care into the primary care setting. These interventions expand the “reach” of palliative care by combining training of nurses and social workers in basic palliative care with case review by palliative care specialists. He will also discuss how his team has managed challenges in recruiting ill patients and their family caregivers into research, coordinating care, and integrating specialist care in the patient-centered medical home.
Human rights groups have only two assets: people and information. Learn about Benetech’s decade of putting information technology tools into the hands of human rights activists, with the goal of making these two assets more effective in advancing the global cause of human rights.
Speaker bio
Jim Fruchterman is the founder and CEO of Benetech, a Silicon Valley nonprofit technology company that develops software applications to address unmet needs of users in the social sector. He is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing his work as a pioneering social entrepreneur, including the MacArthur Fellowship, Caltech’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and the Migel Medal—the highest honor in the blindness field—from the American Foundation for the Blind. Since its founding in 1989, Benetech has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Its tools and services have transformed the ways in which people with disabilities access printed information, at-risk human rights defenders safely document abuse, and environmental practitioners succeed in their efforts to protect species and ecosystems. Through his work with Benetech and as a trailblazer in the field of social entrepreneurship, Jim continues to advance his vision of a world in which the benefits of technology reach all of humanity, not just the wealthiest and most able five percent.
How has the May 2014 coup in Thailand affected the country’s foreign policy? Has the junta realigned Thailand toward China and away from the US? Some Western governments reacted to the coup by criticizing the military government of prime minister cum army general General Prayuth Chan-o-cha and subjecting it to downgrades and penalties. Washington bluntly called on the junta to return power to the Thai people. In reply, hoping to lessen the effects of Western pressure, Prayuth tried to diversify Thailand’s links and options in foreign affairs, including strengthening relations with nearby China, and with Myanmar, Cambodia, and Japan.
A January 2015 visit to Bangkok by US assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs Daniel R. Russel did not improve US-Thai relations. When Russel called on the junta to lift marshal law, the junta told him to mind his own business. Yet president Obama has not revoked Thailand’s status as Washington’s “major non-NATO treaty ally” nor has Prayuth aligned his country fully with Beijing. Pavin will sketch the changing contours of these among other relationships and relate their tenor and prospects to the political crisis that continues to unfold in Thailand.
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Pavin Chachavalpongpun is an associate professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies in Kyoto University. His many publications include Reinventing Thailand: Thaksin and His Foreign Policy (2010) and A Plastic Nation: The Curse of Thainess in Thai-Burmese Relations (2005). He is chief editor of the multilingual on-line Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia. His PhD is from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. Following his fierce criticism of the 2014 coup in his country, the junta twice summoned him to Bangkok. Rather than comply, he reaffirmed his opposition to the coup. A warrant was eventually issued for his arrest, his Thai passport was revoked, and he was obliged to apply for refugee status in Japan.
Pavin Chachavalpongpun
2015-16 Lee Kong Chian National University of Singapore-Stanford University Distinguished Fellow on Southeast Asia
Prof. Booth will assess the socioeconomic consequences of Japanese colonialism in Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria from 1910 to 1945. She will compare Japan’s policies with those implemented by other colonial powers in South and Southeast Asia. In particular she will address the writings of what has been termed the “Stanford School”—an influential group of scholars who published widely on Japanese colonial policies over the last fifty years. Their work has been used to support the argument that Japanese rule was more developmental than that of other colonial powers, and that it laid the foundations for the stellar economic performance of Taiwan and the Republic of Korea in the decades after 1950. She will challenge these conclusions by comparing economic and social indicators for Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria with those from other Asian colonies and also from Thailand. While Japan’s colonies, especially Taiwan, do score well on some indicators, they do less well on others. The notion that Japanese rule was exceptionally “developmental” does not merit support.
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Anne Booth has been an Asia-focused professor of economics in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, since 1991. She studies the modern economic history of Southeast Asia with emphasis on the 20th century. Her many writings in this field include Colonial Legacies: Economic and Social Development in East and Southeast Asia. Her latest book, Economic Change in Modern Indonesia, is due from Cambridge University Press in April. Before coming to SOAS, she held research and teaching positions in Singapore and Australia. Her degrees are from Victoria University of Wellington (BA) and the Australian National University (PhD). Before 1991 she held research and teaching positions in Singapore and Australia. She grew up in New Zealand.
Anne Booth
2015-16 NUS-Stanford Lee Kong Chian Distinguished Fellow on Southeast Asia, Stanford University
2015-16 NUS-Stanford Lee Kong Chian Distinguished Fellow on Southeast Asia, Stanford University
