Abstract: The purpose of this book project is to explain what it is about terrorism that makes it inherently difficult for the American government to formulate an effective counterterrorism policy. Why is terrorism such an intractable problem?  What are the obstacles to developing a consistent and coherent counterterrorism strategy?  The barriers that we identify flow from the issue itself, not the particular political predispositions of individual policy makers or flawed organizational processes.  We also find that scholars and policy makers face similar difficulties – the study of terrorism is often confused and contentious, and the study of counterterrorism can be even more frustrating.  

The book is co-authored by Martha Crenshaw and  Gary LaFree, Director of the National Center for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, as well as professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

About the Speaker: Martha Crenshaw is a senior fellow at CISAC and FSI and a professor of political science by courtesy at Stanford. She was the Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor of Global Issues and Democratic Thought and professor of government at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., where she taught from 1974 to 2007. She has written extensively on the issue of political terrorism; her first article, "The Concept of Revolutionary Terrorism," was published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution in 1972. Her recent work includes “Trajectories of terrorism: Attack patterns of foreign groups that have targeted the United States, 1970–2004,” in Criminology & Public Policy, 8, 3 (August 2009) (with Gary LaFree and Sue-Ming Yang), “The Obama Administration and Counterterrorism,” in Obama in Office: the First Two Years, ed. James Thurber (Paradigm Publishers, 2011), and “Will Threats Deter Nuclear Terrorism?” in Deterring Terrorism: Theory and Practice, ed. Andreas Wenger and Alex Wilner (Stanford University Press, 2012). She is also the editor of The Consequences of Counterterrorism (Russell Sage Foundation, 2010). In 2011 Routledge published Explaining Terrorism, a collection of her previously published work.

She served on the Executive Board of Women in International Security and is a former President and Councilor of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP). She coordinated the working group on political explanations of terrorism for the 2005 Club de Madrid International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security. In 2005-2006 she was a Guggenheim Fellow. Since 2005 she has been a lead investigator with the National Center for the Study of Terrorism and the Response to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, funded by the Department of Homeland Security. In 2009 she was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation/Department of Defense Minerva Initiative for a project on "mapping terrorist organizations." She serves on the editorial boards of the journals International Security, Political Psychology, Security Studies, Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, and Terrorism and Political Violence. She is currently a member of the Committee on Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Global Nuclear Detection Architecture of the National Academies of Science.

Abstract: CRISPR-Cas9 and other new tools are making genome editing faster, cheaper, and more accurate. When coupled with cheaper sequencing and our more slowly increasing understanding of the effects of DNA sequencing, this breakthrough technology may bring within our reach the power to transform, fundamentally, all of life.  Most of the attention so far has focused on human germ line genome editing, but the implications stretch much farther. This talk will explore some of the issues for the use of this technology, in humans (germ line or somatic cell) and in other life-forms. It will also note the limits of our current understanding and regulatory framework.

About the Speaker: Hank Greely is the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law and Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics at Stanford University.  He specializes in ethical, legal, and social issues arising from advances in the biosciences, particularly from genetics, neuroscience, and human stem cell research.  He directs the Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences and the Stanford Program in Neuroscience and Society; chairs the California Advisory Committee on Human Stem Cell Research; and serves on the Neuroscience Forum of the Institute of Medicine, the Advisory Council for the National Institute for General Medical Sciences of NIH, the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law of the National Academy of Sciences, and the NIH Multi-Council Working Group on the BRAIN Initiative. He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007.

Professor Greely graduated from Stanford in 1974 and from Yale Law School in 1977.  He served as a law clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom on the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Potter Stewart of the United States Supreme Court.  After working during the Carter Administration in the Departments of Defense and Energy, he entered private practice in Los Angeles in 1981 as a litigator with the law firm of Tuttle & Taylor, Inc.  He began teaching at Stanford in 1985.  

All research in progress seminars are off-the-record. Any information about methodology and/or results are embargoed until publication

Abstract:

Studying physicians in training, I investigate how uncertainty and tacit knowledge may give rise to significant practice variation, via learning and influence in organizations. Consistent with tacit learning, and empirically exploiting a discontinuity in the formation of teams, I find that relative experience substantially increases the influence of a physician on variation. Learning sufficient to generate convergence exists in specialist-driven services but not in the generalist-driven service, a difference unexplained by formal diagnostic codes. Convergence in specialist services occurs with both general and specific experience. In contrast to learning and influence, rich physician characteristics correlated with preferences and ability determine little if any variation.

Please note: All research in progress seminars are off-the-record. Any information about methodology and/or results are embargoed until publication

Abstract:

This talk will introduce new quantitative data on over 1000 social, economic, and environmental policies in 193 countries.  It will open a discussion on how the global data revolution could transform how we can examine what works to address social inequalities and their impact on global health.

Please join us after the seminar for light refreshments with the presenter.

Please note: All research in progress seminars are off-the-record. Any information about methodology and/or results are embargoed until publication.

Abstract:

Advanced cancer affects over ½ million people annually requiring high quality care delivery that addresses patients’ goals of care, symptoms, and complex care coordination.  In 2011, using a hybrid of human-centered design methodologies, we designed a composite of innovative, low-cost implementation strategies to improve advanced cancer care delivery. The strategies include lay health coaches who elicit patient and family goals, assist in advance care planning and symptom management, and connect patients and families to supportive community-based services.   In August 2013, supported by funding from the Veterans Administration Specialty Care Transformation Office of Healthcare Transformation, we launched the first pilot test using a randomized control trial to evaluate the feasibility of the program and the effect on patient satisfaction and healthcare utilization.  Although the trial is ongoing, the presentation will focus on the preliminary analysis of the advanced cancer care program’s success in achieving feasibility, improved patient satisfaction, and reduced healthcare utilization and expenditures.   We will describe the unique study design and discuss implications for future efforts focused on improving advanced cancer care within and outside the VA health care delivery system.

This event has been cancelled.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Please note: All research in progress seminars are off-the-record. Any information about methodology and/or results are embargoed until publication

Dr. Barry Zuckerman, Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at Boston University School of Medicine and Chair Emeritus, will discuss the development, implementation and lessons learned from four programs for low income patients and their parents at Boston Medical Center; Reach Out and Read, Medical legal Partnership, Health Leads, and Healthy Steps that were disseminated nationally. The second part of the presentation will present future ideas for transforming Child health care based on the needs of community based efforts to promote children entering school ready to learn that can best be met by clinicians who have a regular and trusting relationship with parents. The best way to help children is to help their parents and the best way to reach parents is thru their children. Specifically, this includes a two generation model of child health care care focusing on identification of prevalent maternal health problems that interfere with children's development and learning; maternal depression, maternal trauma, cigarettes, drug and alcohol use and unplanned pregnancy. In addition the development and use of digital media showing parents instead of telling them about how best to promote their children's development, early literacy, and nutrition with well designed follow up text messages emphasizing age appropriate concrete activities to promote learning  coupled with the mindset of how hard one has to work to be a good parent given multiple stresses.