Kim Cranston is C.E.O. and Chair of the Board of TransparentDemocracy, Chair of the Board of the Global Security Institute, a member of the Board of the Los Altos Community Foundation, and a member of the Human Rights Watch California Committee North. Born in San Francisco, Kim graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and from Hastings College of the Law. Kim has worked previously as director of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Transparent Commerce Initiative for One Cosmos Network, a new media company; as President of the Social Venture Network, a network of socially conscious business and social entrepreneurs and investors; as a consultant to the State of the World Forum; as Chief of Staff to California Lieutenant Governor Leo T. McCarthy; as Vice President of Business Affairs for Platypus Productions, Inc., a cable television production company; as a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; as a law clerk to Federal District Court Judge Terry J. Hatter; and in several political campaigns, including as Chair, Cranston for Senate, 1986. Kim has served as a board member and volunteer to organizations addressing issues affecting the environment, civic participation, and the nonprofit sector.

Professor Gardner discusses Ukraine's rise since its 'dramatic' recession in the 90s. He interprets this particularly from the perspective of the economy while examining other factors such as football and Ukraine's relationship with Russia. Professor Gardner also looks at Ukraine's integration with Europe and possible ascension into the EU.

Synopsis

Professor Gardner discusses Ukraine’s rise and possible ascension into the EU. Initially, he focuses on the dreadful state of the Ukrainian economy throughout the 1990s, with 20% lost before its independence and a steady 9% annual loss in growth. Gardner identifies the turning point as 2000 where Prime Minister Yushchenko’s reform package transitions the country onto a growth path, now steadily growing at an annual 7%. However, although Gardner says the country has caught up what it has lost, it is still below the transition country average and faces both internal and external challenges. These include skyrocketing inflation, large current account deficit, depreciation of currency, and a substantial trade deficit. In addition, Ukraine’s internal political chaos has led to unreliability in the country’s policy constancy. Externally, Ukraine is caught between a reluctant EU and an aggressive Russia as Dr. Gardner puts it.

The latter half of Professor Gardner’s talk focuses primarily on Ukraine’s integration with Europe. He notes the various ratings Ukraine receives as a transition country in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Overall, Ukraine received a three out four in the transition index. He explains increasing mobile phone use, bank reform, small scale business success, and price liberalization as Ukraine’s strengths on the scale. On the other hand, Ukraine’s weaknesses lie partly in its competition policy and the riskiness of the Ukrainian Stock Exchange. He also cites various key integration signals such as Ukraine’s co-hosting of the 2012 Euro Championship football tournament and its exports to Europe. Professor Gardner believes for Ukraine to make the EU list it will have to raise its EBRD score and rewrite its constitution.

Prof. Gardner also kindly took questions and further discussed a variety of issues. One notable point was that when asked what single move could substantially shift the nation forward and away from Russia, Professor Gardner identified further opening the trade relationship with Europe by reducing trade barriers as key. He also addressed internal political conflict, language issues, and referendums.

This event is sponsored jointly by the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies and the Forum on Contemporary Europe.

Tensions between President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko came to a head in September, and the Orange parliamentary coalition broke up. What does this mean for Ukraine's political future, and for its ability to meet its key foreign policy challenges?

Steven Pifer is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a (non-resident) senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. A retired Foreign Service officer, his more than 25 years with the State Department focused on U.S. relations with the former Soviet Union and Europe, as well as on arms control and security issues. His assignments included deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (2001-2004), ambassador to Ukraine (1998-2000), and special assistant to the president and National Security Council senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia (1996-1997). He also served at the U.S. embassies in Warsaw, Moscow and London, as well as with the U.S. delegation to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces negotiations in Geneva. He holds a B.A. in economics from Stanford University, where he later spent a year as a visiting scholar at Stanford's Institute for International Studies. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

This event is jointly sponsored by the Forum on Contemporary Europe and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.

Dan Diner is Professor of Modern European History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Director of the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at the University Leipzig. He is also a member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences, and served previously as Director of the Institute for German History at Tel Aviv University. Professor Diner is the author of numerous articles and books on the history of the 20th century, the Near East, and German history, especially the history of National Socialism and the Shoah as well as Jewish history. He is the Editor of the Yearbook of the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture, and coeditor of Babylon.

This event is sponsored jointly by the Forum on Contemporary Europe and the Stanford Humanities Center.

Alberto Diaz-Cayeros earned his Ph.D at Duke University in 1997. Before joining the faculty at Stanford in 2001, he served as an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Diaz has also served as a researcher at Centro de Investigacion Para el Desarrollo, A.C. from 1997-1999. His work has primarily focused on federalism and economic reform in Latin America, and Mexico in particular. He has published widely in Spanish and English. His forthcoming book is entitled "Overawing the States: Federalism, Fiscal Authority and Centralization in Latin America."

Beatriz Magaloni joined the faculty at Stanford in 2001. She previously served as an Assistant Professor at UCLA where she taught in the Department of Political Science. She graduated with a PhD from Duke University in 1997. She won the American Political Science Association's Gabriel Almond Award for the Best Dissertation in Comparative Politics in 1998. She has been a visiting fellow at Harvard University

Mike Chinoy, the Pacific Council’s Edgerton Senior Fellow for Asia and author of the just-published and critically-received book, Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis will discuss the main themes in his book, update us on the recent developments in the Bush administration’s policy toward North Korea and assess what other policy options the next U.S. president might pursue.

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» Washington Post’s review of the "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis"

Mike Chinoy is one of America’s keenest observers of Asian affairs, having reported on the most important events in the region for almost thirty years. He previously served as CNN’s senior Asia correspondent (2000-06), its Hong Kong bureau chief (1996-2000), and Beijing bureau chief (1987-95).  Earlier, he spent four years as a reporter with NBC’s Hong Kong Bureau, and from 1975-78 he was a Hong Kong-based freelance reporter, contributing to CBS News as well as Newsday, The Far Eastern Economic Review and other publications.

Mr. Chinoy received an Emmy Award, an ACE Award, a Dupont Award and a Peabody Award for his coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crisis.  His critically-acclaimed reporting during those weeks has been credited with strengthening CNN as an authoritative force in international news coverage. Mr. Chinoy has also covered North Korea extensively, traveling there 14 times since 1989.  In April 1994, he became the first broadcaster to file live TV reports from North Korea, and was the only journalist to travel with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on his historic trip to Pyongyang in June of that year.

Dr. Shea will talk with us about her research on menopause and aging among Chinese women and issues surrounding romance, sex, and marriage in later life in mainland China, as part three of the colloquium series on "The Implications of Demographic Change in China," co-sponsored by the Stanford China Program and the Asia Health Policy Program. 

A sociocultural anthropologist who specializes in medical and psychological anthropology and Chinese culture, Dr. Shea's research interests include gender issues, health and healing, aging and the lifecycle, and intergenerational issues. She has spent three cumulative years living, studying, and doing research in the People's Republic of China.

Dr. Shea earned a B.A. in Asian Studies from Dartmouth College in 1989, followed by an M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University in 1994 and 1998.

The election of a new American president is an event of great importance to the entire world, not just the United States. From Japan to Afghanistan, the United States plays a crucial role in the security, political, and economic affairs of the region. America's 44th president will face many challenges once in office including rebuilding trust in America, reviving the American economy without protectionism, and how to combat terrorism. Ultimately, the United States must effectively utilize and support multilateral institutions to uphold international law and foster the common interests such as international justice. Future relations with Northeast, Southeast, and South Asia depend on how these efforts unfold. 

This is a CDDRL's seminar within our Democracy in Taiwan Program.

Vincent Wei-cheng Wang is Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Richmond. He was a former Coordinator of the American Political Science Association Conference Group on Taiwan Studies and a board member of the American Association for Chinese Studies. He has published over fifty scholarly articles and book chapters on Asian politics and international relations, Taiwan’s domestic politics and external relations, United States-Asian relations, and comparative political economy of East Asia and Latin America. His most recent publication is “Taiwan: Conventional Deterrence, Soft Power, and the Nuclear Option,” in Muthiah Alagappa, ed., The Long Shadow: Nuclear Weapons and Security in 21st Century Asia (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2008). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.