Stanford University

The Cold War, Human Rights and Self-Determination

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About the Topic: During the Cold War countless peoples and movements in both the decolonizing world and the advanced industrial states mobilized under the banner of self-determination, and sought to institutionalize its status as a human right in international law. This talk, focusing on the end of European empire in the 1970s will explore why self-determination came to have such expansive and potentially disruptive meaning in the post-WWII era, serving as a short-hand for a wide range of claims to sovereignty.
 
About the Speaker: Brad Simpson is an assistant professor of history and international studies at Princeton University. His research and teaching interests are twentieth-century U.S. foreign relations and international history. His first book, Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations, 1960-1968 (Stanford 2008) explores the intersection of anti-Communism and development thinking in shaping U.S. Indonesian relations. 
 
He is currently researching a global history of self-determination, exploring its political, cultural and legal descent through post 1945 US foreign relations and international politics. Simpson is also a founder and director of a project at the non-profit National Security Archive to declassify U.S. government documents concerning Indonesia and East Timor during the reign of General Suharto (1966-1998). He has recently published in International History Review, Cold War History, Reviews in American History, Diplomatic History, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Critical Asian Studies, and Peace and Change.

Encina Hall Basement, Room E008

Brad Simpson Assistant Professor of History and International Studies Speaker Princeton University
Seminars

Demystifying Postcolonial International History: Revelations from the Algerian Front of the Third World's Cold War

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Abstract: Despite growing interest in the phenomenon of Third World internationalism, the post-colonial world’s contribution to modern international history is still greatly under-appreciated. Important South-South dynamics are neglected in order to privilege a North-South framework of analysis, while excessive preoccupation with the discourse of the 1955 Bandung Conference obscures the substantive and changing nature of the Third World project. However, new evidence from countries like Algeria and the former Yugoslavia now make it possible to re-examine “Third Wordlism” as a geopolitical project and diffuse ideology. This paper argues that Third Worldism evolved from a subversive transnational phenomenon into a conservative and state-centric international one. By determining the nature of decolonization—that is, the universalization of the sovereign state model—Third Worldist forces helped to reshape the entire contemporary international system. Moreover, by stoking international tensions for their own advantage (contrary to the public rhetoric of the Non-Alignment Movement), countries like Algeria played an under-appreciated role in prolonging and globalizing the Cold War.

About the Speaker: Jeffrey James Byrne studied at Yale University and the London School of Economics, and is now Assistant Professor of history at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He writes on the international history of the twentieth century, with a particular interest in Africa, the Middle East, decolonization, and the connections between developing countries. His work has been published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Diplomatic History, and numerous essay collections. His first book, Mecca of Revolution: Algeria and the Third World’s Cold War, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2015.

Africa's Cold War
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Encina Hall (2nd floor)

Jeffrey Byrne Assistant Professor, Department of History Speaker University of Britsh Columbia
Seminars

Healthcare Entrepreneurs in East Asia – Innovations in Primary Care and Beyond

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AHPP and CEAS joint event

Three distinguished healthcare entrepreneurs will share their experiences in adding value within health systems of East Asia. Mr. Zhang, founder of iKang Healthcare Group, Inc., will share his experience with merging traditional healthcare with a versatile online platform to build a preventative healthcare service network in China. Dr. Yang will share his experience in Taiwan and China to analyze opportunities in China, and use a case study of MissionCare to exemplify Value-driven Business Transformation. Dr. Wei will share his vision for Borderless Healthcare Group.

Mr. Lee Ligang Zhang has been a successful entrepreneur and business executive since 1998, bringing his knowledge and acumen to a number of companies in his professional career that range from healthcare to the Internet. Mr. Zhang founded iKang Healthcare Group, Inc. (“iKang”) in December 2003, successfully merging traditional healthcare with a versatile online platform to build a preventative healthcare service network that spanned the entire country. This “anytime, anywhere” network was to become the blueprint for the industry that transformed how customers accessed healthcare services in China. Since its inception, Mr. Zhang has been serving as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and has overseen many important milestones in its lifetime. iKang was listed on the NASDAQ on April 9, 2014 and is currently the largest provider in China's fast growing private preventive healthcare services market, accounting for approximately 12.3% of market share in terms of revenue in 2013.

Prior to iKang, Mr. Zhang was a co-founder of eLong.com, a NASDAQ-listed online travel service company, and served as CEO of its China operation from 1999 to 2003. From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Zhang served as head of product development at Sohu.com, a leading NASDAQ-listed Chinese Internet company. Mr. Zhang founded the Harvard China Review in 1997 and co-founded the Harvard China Forum in 1998 while studying at Harvard University.

Mr. Zhang studied biology as an undergraduate student at Fudan University in China, and went on to receive a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from Concordia College in the US before obtaining a master's degree in genetics from Harvard University. Mr. Zhang has been a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Science Alumni Association Council since 2005, and also serves as Vice President of the Harvard Club of Beijing and the Shanghai Alumni Association at Fudan University.

Dr. Fred Hung-Jen Yang is a physician executive and is currently Chairman of MissionCare Inc,, and President of Healthcare Corporation of Asia, a company that owns and operates four community hospitals and seven long-term care facilities in northern Taiwan.

After graduating from National Taiwan University Medical School with an MD degree in 1994, Fred chose to pursue a career in healthcare management.  He earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Harvard in 1995 and an MBA from the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, CA in 1997. Before going back to Taiwan in 1998, he worked as a financial analyst for Tenet Healthcare System, the second largest hospital chain in the US. He is currently a candidate in the doctorate program of Johns Hopkins Doctor of Public Health Part-time Program.

Since 1998, Dr. Yang has been actively serving  the MissionCare Group in many important capacities, such as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operation Officer and, Chief Executive Officer.

Over the past ten years, Dr. Yang has made significant contributions not only to his company but also to the healthcare industry in Taiwan. Under his leadership, MissionCare became Taiwan’s first JCI accredited hospital, hence helping to elevate Taiwan’s healthcare quality to a higher level.

In addition to hospital management, Dr. Yang also excels at health economics, financial engineering and strategic management. In 2010, he received an Ernst & Young Taiwan Entrepreneur Award for conducting the successful listing of his company on the Taipei OTC, making it the only hospital group listed in Taiwan.

Dr. Wei Siang Yu is a globally renowned pioneer in healthcare TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunication). He is the founder of Borderless Healthcare Group of companies which operates borderless healthcare initiatives around the world. Dr. Wei graduated as one of the top students at Monash Medical School in 1995 and went against the conventional career path of an honours student to become a medical inventor in the space of digital bio-communication. He gained worldwide recognition in his work on social application of digital bio-communication and became the youngest nominee of CNN People Choice Award in 2003. Dr. Wei’s work was featured by international media all around the world including Discovery Channel, CNN, BBC, Fox News, CNBC, ABC, Time, Wired, ZDF German TV, ARTE French TV, Japan TV, Yomiuri Shimbun, Korean SBS TV, Figaro, Asian Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Guardian UK, LA Times, Channel News Asia, Age, Sunday Times UK, Newsweek, Tatler, Bazaar, Marie Claire New York, Glamour Paris etc. Today, Dr. Wei chairs the Borderless Healthcare Group of companies with the key role of converging global healthcare practices with technology, media and telecommunication applications via strategic partnerships and merger & acquisition.

Philippines Conference Room

Encina Hall Central, 3rd Floor.

Stanford, CA 94305

 

 

Mr. Lee Ligang Zhang Chairman and CEO, Ikang Healthcare Croup, Inc.
Dr. Fred Hung-Jen Yang Chairman, MissionCare, Inc
Dr. Wei Siang Yu Founder, Borderless Healthcare Group
Seminars
Innovations in Primary Care

*NEW DATE* Does Judicial Independence Matter for Judicial Influence?

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Please note that this is a new date for this event.  It has been rescheduled from March 12th to May 7th, 2015.

 

Under what conditions is judicial independence from national governments necessary for judicial influence over national government action?  Some scholar argue that informal and sub constitutional factors matter more than "parchment protections", while others believe judicial independence is critical for judicial influence. Building off of a basic separation of powers argument, we demonstrate that formal institutional protections designed to ensure judicial independence should be critical only when elected officials are sufficiently unified, where "sufficiently unified" depends upon the design of the political system. That is, they are more than "parchment barriers" and less than necessary. To test the argument, we introduce a new cross-national database on high court constitutional review (CompLaw). The Complaw database is designed to systematically and consistently code data on high court constitutional decisions at a very fine-grained level across a large variety of political systems.

This talk is part of The Europe Center's "European Governance Seminar Series."

Professor Clifford Carrubba, Political Science, Emory University

 

Clifford J. Carrubba, B.A. (1991), Duke University; Ph.D (1998), Stanford University. Previous appointment at SUNY Stony Brook (Assistant Professor). Specialization: comparative legislative and judicial politics, comparative institutions, European politics, game theory. Current research projects include studies of legislative behavior and roll call vote analysis, the design and change of judicial institutions (with application to the European Court of Justice), and statistical tests of game theoretic models.

Carrubba is currently serving as the Director of The Institute for Quantitative Theory and Methods, developed and launched by Dr. Carrubba in December of 2011.

Does Judicial Independence Matter for Judicial Influence?
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Cliff Carrubba Professor of Political Science & Law by Courtesy Speaker Emory University
Seminars
European Governance

In Draghi We Trust: The Euro Crisis, Social Unrest and the European Central Bank

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The 2008 global financial crisis came with fears - and, for some, hopes of a new wave of public mobilisation in industrialised countries. Large protests were particularly expected in the epicentre of the crisis, the European Union. Yet, the force with which social groups garnered their calls for strikes ebbed quickly away. Gerald Schneider provides new evidence for why this was the case. He claims that strikes, and particularly political strikes, are 'bad weather' phenomena and crises exacerbate them. In monetary unions, where currency adjustments are difficult, fiscal changes are not supported by easing monetary measures and should unchain social unrest unless supranational actors get involved. Schneider argues that the political actions of the European Central Bank (ECB) have countered the potential for strikes in the Eurozone. He provides evidence for his theory with yearly panel data and a new original data  set of monthly strikes between 2001 and 2013. His analyses support the thesis that the EU institution was successful at attenuating social indignation over the Eurocrisis and its political fallout.

This paper is based on co-authored work with Dr. Federica Genovese (Essex) and Pia Wassmann (Hannover).

Professor Gerald Schneider, University of Konstanz

Gerald Schneider is Professor of International Politics and Executive Editor of “European Union Politics”. His main areas of research are European Union decision making, the causes and consequences of armed violence, the international political economy of financial markets, bargaining and conflict management.

Schneider defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich in 1991, worked as post-doc at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) for two years and was an assistant professor (1992 – 1995) at the Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales in Geneva. Before joining the faculty at Konstanz in 1997, he was a Professor of Political Science at the University of Stuttgart (1996-1997) and Program Director at the University of Berne (1994 – 1997). Gerald Schneider has also been visiting scholar at Università Bocconi (Visiting Research Professor), Charles University Prague, Harvard University, University of Kobe, Sciences Po Paris (Grosser Chair) and Università Siena. He has published around 150 articles in various journals and volumes. Schneider is President of the European Political Science Association (2013-2015) and was also in 2003-2004 Vice President of the International Studies Association, and served as Program Chair for the 50th annual convention in New York City in 2009. Schneider has acted as a consultant and referee for various organizations, including the World Bank and the U.S. National Science Foundation. He has served for various selection committees of the the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation since 2007 and was a member of the scientific board of the Swiss Network of International Studies (2008-2013). Besides his native German, Schneider speaks English, French and survives in Italian and Danish.

The Eurotower Strikes Back: Crises, Adjustments and Europe's Austerity Protests
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CISAC Central Conference Room
Encina Hall, 2nd floor
 

Gerald Schneider Professor of International Politics Speaker Universität Konstanz, Germany
Seminars
European Governance Seminar Series
Europe and the Global Economy Seminar Series

Delegation to the Device: What happens when we deploy quantitative models for complex matters of concern?

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Abstract: In 2011 I joined a team of global security analysts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to develop a systematic methodology for “information-driven” safeguards for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This methodology would link the IAEA’s nuclear inspection schedules, within a given state, to a heterogenous body of information about the state. As the lone physicist in the group, I was quickly fashioned as the “quantitative guy”, who would produce quantitative frameworks to make information-driven safeguards “more objective”, and “less political”. But as my quantitative contributions earned the respect of my peers, I became leery of the role they might play in the political shift I saw afoot. If safeguards was to be information-driven, then whose information would “drive” the IAEA? 
 
In this presentation, I tell the story of my experience as the “quant guy” at LLNL in order to explore a broader question: when is it useful to deploy quantitative methods of highly complex phenomena in matters of social consequence? I borrow from a distinction commonly made in the science studies literature - between disciplinary and mechanical objectivity - to argue that quantitative models serve us best when they are used not to “remove bias” or “increase rigor”, but to aid subjective judgement and facilitate communication.
 
 
About the Speaker: Chris Lawrence received his PhD in nuclear science at University of Michigan in 2014, and has published in the fields of nuclear detection and solid-state physics. His dissertation introduced novel neutron-spectroscopy techniques for the verification of warhead dismantlement. In 2011 he worked on nuclear safeguards policy issues in the Global Security Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is currently a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at CISAC, where he studies the creation and deployment of knowledge about nuclear programs and treaty compliance.

Encina Hall (2nd floor)

Christopher Lawrence Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow Speaker CISAC
Seminars

"Radioactive Knowledge: State Control of Scientific Information in Post Soviet Kazakhstan"

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About the Topic: Four decades of Soviet nuclear testing left behind a legacy of radioactive contamination in a sizable area of contemporary Kazakhstan. My research examines the social consequences and lasting implications of this on local populations living in a village of Koyan. Taking the 1949-1989 Soviet atomic weapons program and the secretive Cold War context as my starting point, I investigate local understandings of health and livelihood on a landscape marred by atomic testing and one continuously inhabited by rural Kazakhs for generations. I demonstrate that since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the advent of free market reforms in Kazakhstan a new kind of post-socialist identity has appeared. Furthermore, in order to navigate this post-Soviet social order and cultural marginalization, people in Koyan have “embraced” nuclear pollution as something natural in their environment. Specifically, they see their own survival as proof that they have evolved to fit a radioactive ecosystem. My Kazakh colleagues say “clean air is our death,” meaning that moving away from these damaged ecosystems will kill them. Emerging strategies for survival reflect a new social order in Kazakhstan: that order embraces a nuclear future by agreeing to accept funding to become a Global Nuclear Fuel Bank and a dumping ground for much of the West’s toxic waste, while at the same time publicly lamenting its Soviet nuclear past. I address how people in Koyan have learned to engage with the nuclear test site’s past, present state practices, scientific expertise and authority, and how health, suffering, and notions of well-being constitute a new post-socialist identity.

 

About the Speaker: Magdalena Stawkowski received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her dissertation, “Radioactive Knowledge: State Control of Scientific Information in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan,” is based on sixteen months of field work in the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site region and is an ethnographic account of the local understandings of health, livelihood, and suffering among rural ethnic Kazakh communities. In it, Magdalena traces the lesser-known history of the Soviet nuclear program from the perspective of people who were most affected by its military-industrial complex, exploring how they cope with their own present-day toxic environments. She is a recipient of an award for outstanding contribution to the anti-nuclear movement by Olzhas Suleimenov, the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to UNESCO, Kazakh poet, and the founder of the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Anti-Nuclear Movement in Kazakhstan. Magdalena’s recent co-authored article appeared in the Journal of the History of Biology and is titled “James V. Neel and Yuri E. Dubrova: Cold War Debates and the Genetic Effects of Low Dose Radiation.”

Encina Hall (2nd floor)

Magdalena Stawkowski Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow Speaker CISAC
Seminars

Health Plus: Spillovers from Foreign Aid for Health in Africa

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About the Topic: Foreign aid for health in low- and middle-income countries has increased five-fold over the past 25 years. Between 2005 and 2010, health aid made up more than 30% of all health spending in low-income countries.  Global health is also an increasingly important component of U.S. foreign aid, rising steadily from under 4% of all U.S. non-military aid in 1990 to 22.7% in 2011. There is growing evidence for the role of health aid in improving health among recipient countries, but is that it? In this talk I will address the arguments for and against health as a focus of aid efforts and present initial evidence on the role of health aid on human capital and economic development.

 

About the Speaker: Eran Bendavid is an infectious diseases physician and an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Medical Disciplines and a Stanford Health Policy affiliate. His research interests involve understanding the relationship between policies and health outcomes in developing countries. He explores how decisions about foreign assistance for health are made, and how those decisions affect the health of those whom assistance aims to serve.

He received a B.A. in chemistry and philosophy from Dartmouth College, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in infectious diseases at Stanford.

 


Encina Hall (2nd floor)

Eran Bendavid Assistant Professor of Medicine Speaker Stanford University
Seminars

Searching for ET: An Investment in our Long Future

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Abstract: Professor Philip Morrison once described SETI as the ‘archeology of the future’.  That characterization is both complex and immensely profound. We are a very young technology in a very old galaxy; detection of another technological civilization will validate the proposition that it is possible to become an old technology. 

SETI marked its semi-centennial as a scientific exploration in 2010. Now that exoplanets have been discovered in such abundance and diversity, and Earth 2.0 is a reasonable expectation, it seems more relevant than ever to ask the “Are we alone?” question.  What should we be doing to improve our capability to detect intelligent life beyond Earth? 

To date, technology has been our proxy for intelligence, and our searches have concentrated on electromagnetic radiation.  Should we be emphasizing artifacts? Perhaps collaborating with programs now systematically trying to explore our local solar neighborhood to find small bodies on collision courses with Earth?  Is there a case for genomic SETI?  Should we consider other information-carrying particles in addition to photons?  And if we do continue to emphasize EM signals, how do we improve our sensitivity to transient events, and what other portions of the spectrum can we explore?  Is it time to start transmitting instead of just listening?

There are lots of technical questions about how to move forward, but the most difficult question of all may be how do we integrate and support this vast, and potentially long-term endeavor into a world of short-term thinking?  How do we justify continued investment in SETI?  

 

About the Speaker: Dr. Jill Tarter holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.  Tarter received her Bachelor of Engineering Physics Degree with Distinction from Cornell University and her Master’s Degree and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley.  She is a Fellow of the AAAS and of the California Academy of Sciences, where she also serves on the Board of Trustees.  She is passionate about science education and strives to secure funding for SETI research, particularly with the Allen Telescope Array.  Tarter’s work has brought her wide recognition, including two Public Service Medals from NASA.  In 2004 Time Magazine named her one of the Time 100 most influential people in the world.  Tarter was one of three TED prizewinners in 2009, and was a recipient of the Silicon Valley Women of Influence 2010 Award.  Many people are now familiar with her work as portrayed by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact.

 


Encina Hall (2nd floor)

Jill Tarter Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI Research Speaker SETI Institute
Seminars

Strategies for Managing Biotechnology Risks

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Abstract: Biotechnology is diffusing globally. Efficient methods for reading, writing and editing genetic information, generating genetic diversity, and selecting for traits, are becoming widely available. Increasingly, the capacity to manipulate living systems is in the hands of individuals and small groups instead of only large institutions and states.

In this presentation I will explore key governance challenges coupled to the reorganization of practitioner communities and supply chains in biotechnology. In particular, I will examine the effectiveness of strategies proposed by new US federal policies for the oversight of so-called Life Sciences Dual-Use Research of Concern (DURC): experiments that while seeking to mitigate certain risks may pose new ones. More broadly, I will consider options and tradeoffs in building more centralized versus decentralized organizational structures for identifying and responding to emerging biotechnology opportunities and threats.

About the Speaker: Dr. Megan J. Palmer is a William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at CISAC for 2013-2015. She is also a research scientist UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, and serves on the advisory board for the synthetic biology program at the Joint Genomics Institute (JGI). Dr. Palmer is an investigator for the NSF Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (Synberc) and serves as its Deputy Director of Policy & Practices. She was previously a postdoctoral scholar in the Bioengineering Department at Stanford, where she first joined CISAC as an affiliate in 2012.

Dr. Palmer’s work seeks to develop and advise on best practices and policies for responsibly advancing biotechnology. She has directed projects in biological safety and security, property rights, and governance. She has also launched many programs on the societal aspects of biotechnology.

Dr. Palmer holds a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from MIT. She received a B.Sc.E. in Engineering Chemistry from Queen’s University, Canada.

Encina Hall (2nd floor)

William J. Perry Fellow in International Security Speaker CISAC
Seminars
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