Korea achieved national health insurance coverage for the entire population in 1989, thirteen years after Korea adopted a national health insurance policy. Its success drew a lot of attention from other countries, including the US. This talk will explain the secrets of its success and also critique the pitfall of its national health insurance system. However, more recently, Korea has faced challenges from most parts of its health care system. The national health insurance corporation has been showing financial deficits. Also, the health care delivery sector has experienced a series of political battles among professional groups: physician vs. pharmacist, and oriental medical doctors vs. pharmacists. The seminar will analyze the reasons for these challenges, and discuss the direction for Korea's health care reforms. Those who have interests in the Korean national health insurance systems, please refer to Gerard Anderson (1989) "Universal Health Care Coverage in Korea." Health Affairs, Summer ,24-35. Miron Stano (1990) "Comparing US and Korean Health Care." Health Affairs, Summer, 237-238. Those who have interests in the political battles among professional groups, please refer to Hoy-Je Cho, (2000) "Traditional Medicine, Professional Monopoly and Structural Interests: a Korean Case." Social Science & Medicine, Vol 50, Issue 1, 123-135. These articles can be downloaded from the Stanford e-journal lists. This program is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided for those who RSVP before noon on Wednesday, Novermber 28 to Okky Choi. Tel: (650) 724-8271 or Email: okkychoi@stanford.edu

This program is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided for those who RSVP before noon on Wednesday, November 14 to Okky Choi. Tel: (650) 724-8271 or Email: okkychoi@stanford.edu

In recent years, Koreans playing in mass-mediated sports, such as Major League Baseball and the LPGA, have become important sites of transnational ethnic imagining for Koreans in the United States. Mass-mediated transnational sports are a powerful mode through which Korean nationalisms are produced outside the boundaries of the nation. This seminar will be a workshop discussion of the possibilities and problematics of investigating the production of Korean nationalist identities in an era of global flows of people, commodities, and information.

The terrorist attacks on September 11 threw Afghanistan back into the international spotlight. This time, the events impacted not only Afghanistan's relationship with the United States and Russia, but also its relations with Pakistan. Dr. Amin Tarzi will work to put this change in relations between Afghanistan, her neighbors, the United States, and Russia into a perspective that will allow for a discussion on the current situation in the region and the future geopolitical role of Afghanistan. Amin Tarzi is a U.S. national of Afghan origins. His academic and professional expertise is in the history and politics of the Middle East and Central Asia, with a particular focus on the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, as well as Iran and Afghanistan. Dr. Tarzi has written extensively on topics related to the proliferation and politics of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems, the politics of oil, the United States vis a vis the Arab world, and current affairs in Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan -- including the Taliban and U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

Lunch will be served. RSVPs must be received no later than noon, 10/17/01.

Reading available in IIS library, 5th floor, Encina Hall.