About the event: Since the mid-2010s, scholars and analysts have declared the emergence of a dangerous ‘new’ or ‘third’ nuclear age. Beyond academia, the concept of the new nuclear age is proving influential with policymakers in a range of countries. The new nuclear age is understood to be characterized by technological change, nuclear multipolarity, eroding constraints on the behavior and competition of nuclear-armed states, and the likely emergence of new nuclear powers. That said, it remains unclear how we should understand the new nuclear age in broader terms: how new is it and does it require new theoretical frameworks to understand? Bell subjects the concept of the new nuclear age to scrutiny. He connects the discussion of the new nuclear age to ongoing but mostly separate debates about nuclear history and the ‘Theory of the Nuclear Revolution’ (TNR). The increasing body of literature challenging TNR reveals a more competitive, complex, and dangerous nuclear past than our prior understandings, but in doing so, it draws attention to continuities between the past and the emerging nuclear age. Bell then examines the empirical features thought to define the new nuclear age and show that many have historical precedent and do not require novel theoretical frameworks to understand. The new nuclear age may, therefore, be somewhat less new, though perhaps no less dangerous, than it appears.

About the speaker: Mark Bell is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. His book, Nuclear Reactions: How Nuclear-Armed States Behave, won the ISA Foreign Policy Analysis Section's best book award. Other work has been published in International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Strategic Studies, and Texas National Security Review. Policy-oriented work has been published in Foreign Affairs, War on the Rocks, and The Washington Quarterly. He holds a Ph.D from MIT, a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, and a B.A. from St Anne’s College, Oxford University.

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

No filming or recording without express permission from speaker.

Join Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies for the ST Lee Lecture featuring Jeff Flake. Jeff Flake served as a United States senator from Arizona from 2013 to 2019. A Republican, Flake previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013. From 2022 to 2024 he served as the U.S. ambassador to Turkey. The fireside chat discussion, moderated by Kathryn Stoner, the Mosbacher director at FSI's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, will be followed by audience Q&A. 

This event is open to the public.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ambassador Jeff Flake recently served as the United States Ambassador to The Republic of Türkiye. Prior to his ambassadorial service, Ambassador Flake represented Arizona in the United States Senate from 2013 to 2019. He also represented Arizona in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013.

Before entering Congress, Ambassador Flake served as Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, and he directed the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia during that nation’s transition to independence. Ambassador Flake holds a BA degree in International Relations and an MA degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University.

Ambassador Flake has guest lectured at Stanford, Princeton and Yale, and he was a Resident Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. Ambassador Flake delivered the 2018 commencement address at Harvard Law School, and is a frequent guest on the Sunday morning political talk shows.

Ambassador Flake currently serves as the Director of the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Arizona State University, and as Chairman of the Board of World Trade Center Utah. He also serves as a Visiting Fellow at Brigham Young University.

In January of 2025, Ambassador Flake was knighted by the Swedish Government, receiving the “Royal Order of the Polar Star” for his pivotal role in securing Sweden’s accession to NATO while serving as Ambassador to Türkiye.

He is the author of the New York Times best seller Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle. 

Ambassador Flake and his wife, Cheryl, are the parents of five grown children.

The S.T. Lee Lectureship is named for Seng Tee Lee, a business executive and noted philanthropist. Dr. Lee was director of the Lee group of companies in Singapore and of the Lee Foundation.

Dr. Lee endowed the annual lectureship at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies in order to raise public understanding of the complex policy issues facing the global community today and to increase support for informed international cooperation.

The S.T. Lee Distinguished Lecturer is chosen for his or her international reputation as a leader in international political, economic, social, and health issues and strategic policy-making concerns. See previous lectures in the series.

Join us for a lecture presenting an experimental model that moves beyond Cold War-era area studies approaches by reconceptualizing Japan as a transnational nexus within Three Worlds theory to critically reexamine Japanese cultural production from 1945-2000.

The Annual John Wang Distinguished Lecture in Asian Studies Series, sponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, was established in 2024 for the purposes of raising the profile of Asian studies on Stanford campus and promoting scholarly exchange and intellectual engagement among EALC faculty and students, the Stanford Asian studies community, and the global community of scholars, educators, and practitioners active in the broad intellectual field of Asian studies.

The annual John Wang Distinguished Speaker is chosen collectively by EALC faculty and students.

Kathryn Stoner is the Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), and the Satre Family Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). From 2017 to 2021, she served as FSI's Deputy Director. She is Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) at Stanford and teaches in the Department of Political Science, the Program on International Relations, and the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy Program. She is also a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at the Hoover Institution.

Join the Global Affiliates Program at Shorenstein APARC as our 2025-26 cohort of Global Affiliates visiting scholars presents findings from their research. This capstone event marks the culmination of their year-long research projects addressing Asia-Pacific issues related to their work.

In the second of two sessions, each of the five speakers will present their research for approximately 15 minutes, followed by a brief 5-10 minute Q&A session with the audience. 

AGENDA:

The Emergence and Persistence of Exploration in a Defense Organization – A Three-Layer Cyclical Model and Hybrid Leadership

Shinya Takasaka, Japan Air Self Defense Force

As the global security landscape rapidly evolves, emerging technologies–from artificial intelligence and unmanned systems to space and cyber–are reshaping how defense organizations innovate and operate. In this environment, success depends not only on refining existing capabilities, but also on continuously exploring new ones. 

However, defense organizations are structurally oriented toward ensuring mission reliability, minimizing risk, and maintaining institutional stability. As a result, they tend to prioritize the refinement of existing capabilities over the exploration of new ones. Consequently, achieving both exploitation and exploration simultaneously is not straightforward. How, then, can these two be effectively balanced? 

In this talk, Takasaka draws on the ambidexterity theory and real-world case studies, including Silicon Valley’s innovation ecosystem and U.S. defense initiatives such as the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), to examine how exploration can be cultivated and sustained. The discussion will also highlight the critical role of leadership in enabling long-term innovation within defense organizations. 

Electricity Market Design under an Evolving Market Environment

Noriaki Wada, Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry, Japan

Electricity markets are undergoing profound changes driven by decarbonization, demand growth, and the need for large-scale reinvestment in aging infrastructure. These shifts have intensified the challenge of maintaining investment incentives while ensuring system reliability. Traditional market designs–such as energy-only markets and capacity markets–address these issues in different ways, yet each exhibits inherent limitations under evolving conditions. 

Wada’s research examines how electricity market design influences investment incentives and system reliability by comparing major market models in the United States. It highlights how structural characteristics of power systems, including price formation constraints and non-storability, create persistent challenges that cannot be fully resolved by a single market mechanism. 

Wada argues that electricity market design should be understood not as a static choice among models, but as a dynamic process of combining multiple institutional tools. Based on this analysis, it draws implications for designing more adaptable and resilient electricity market frameworks. 

Institutional Environments, Technology Governance, and Organizational Adaptation: VMWare in China's Politically Sensitive Digital Economy

Ping (Jane) Jiang, NextG Tech Limited

As geopolitical tensions and regulatory divergence reshape the global technology landscape, multinational firms are increasingly forced to navigate complex and often conflicting institutional environments. Nowhere is this more evident than in sectors like cloud computing and AI, where issues of data sovereignty, national security, and technological control are deeply intertwined with policy and politics.

Jiang’s presentation examines how these pressures influence organizational strategy, focusing on VMware’s operation in China as a case study. Drawing on institutional theory, Jiang explores how regulatory demands, industry expectations, and strategic uncertainty drive key decisions–from local partnerships and governance restructuring to market exit.

By tracing these dynamics, the discussion highlights the growing challenge for global technology firms: balancing integrated business models with fragmented, sovereignty-driven regulatory systems. The findings offer broader insights into how institutional environments are shaping the future of technology governance and global market competition. 

Transformative Education for the Age of AI: Redefining Human Roles and Learning Structures

Takuya Tsunoda, Development Bank of Japan

As artificial intelligence continues to expand the boundaries of what technology can solve, the role of humans is also evolving. Rather than focusing on finding answers, the ability to define meaningful problems and effectively leverage technology is becoming an essential skill in the AI era. 

In this presentation, Tsunoda explores how education must adapt to meet this shift. He examines emerging approaches that prioritize human judgment, creativity, and critical thinking, with particular attention to frameworks such as design thinking and systems thinking. 

By rethinking how we learn, the discussion will consider what it takes to prepare individuals to work alongside increasingly capable technologies–and how education can better equip people to navigate, shape and lead in an AI-driven world. 

Redefining Job Satisfaction Factors for Generation Z and Organizational Talent Retention

Myongjin Bae, Republic of Korea Army

As Generation Z enters the workforce in growing numbers, their expectations around work are reshaping traditional ideas of job satisfaction. Compared to previous generations, they place great emphasis on personal growth, work-life balance, and a sense of purpose, fairness, and alignment within organizations. 

Yet many existing frameworks for measuring job satisfaction have not kept pace with these shifts. This gap can contribute to misunderstandings between generations, ultimately affecting employee engagement, workplace cohesion, and retention. 

In this presentation, Bae examines how job satisfaction can be redefined to better reflect Generation Z’s values. By analyzing generational differences and identifying key sources of workplace tension, the discussion will also explore practical strategies organizations can adopt to foster stronger collaboration and support long-term talent retention.

Join the Global Affiliates Program at Shorenstein APARC as our 2025-26 cohort of Global Affiliates visiting scholars presents findings from their research. This capstone event marks the culmination of their year-long research projects addressing Asia-Pacific issues related to their work.

In the first of two sessions, each of the five speakers will present their research for approximately 15 minutes, followed by a brief 5-10 minute Q&A session with the audience. 

AGENDA:

Does IP Strategy Create Firm Value? A Cross-Country Analysis of Patents and AI Innovation Premiums in the U.S. and Japan

Taiki Oki, Japan Patent Office

In today’s innovation-driven economy, competitive advantage depends not only on tangible assets, but on how effectively companies general and leverage ideas. Yet a key question remains: do patents and AI-related innovations translate into measurable firm value?

Oki examines the gap between the large number of patents held by Japanese companies and their comparatively lower market valuations relative to U.S. firms. Drawing on data from publicly listed companies across seven major industries over the past five years, he explores how firms in the U.S. and Japan use intellectual property strategies to drive corporate value.

Focusing on patent productivity, patent quality, and the emerging role of AI-related inventions, this presentation will highlight whether and how these factors contribute to a measurable market premium. The findings offer practical insights into how companies, particularly in Japan, can more effectively align innovation strategies with global competitiveness and long-term value creation.

The Evolution of Leadership Under Uncertainty: Connecting Succession, Longevity, and Change

Yasushi Maruyama, Egon Zehnder

Two years ago, Maruyama’s research began with a central question: how should CEO succession systems evolve for global companies in a dynamically changing world? In last year’s presentation, he focused on corporate governance reform in Japan. This year, he extends that inquiry by reframing CEO succession not simply as leadership replacement, but as a broader question of how leadership is transmitted, how organizational longevity is sustained, and how change is created at both the individual and organizational levels.

He examines long-lived Japanese companies and family businesses to identify leadership patterns that sustain performance over time, with a focus on succession, values, and long time horizons over short-term optimization. He then explores the kind of leadership required in complex environments where clear answers do not exist, considering how leaders make decisions, learn, adapt, and drive change. Building on these insights, he explores how such perspectives may be translated into practical implications for individuals navigating uncertainty, and seeks to offer ways of apply them in real-world contexts.

Through this work, Maruyama draws on Japanese cases as a lens to address a broader global question. It connects succession, longevity, and change into a more integrated understanding of leadership.

Multimodal IP for Multimedia in the AI Era

Edward Zeng, NextG Tech Limited

As artificial intelligence rapidly advances, it is doing more than enhancing existing tools–it is becoming a foundational layer that is reshaping how creative industries operate. From film and streaming to gaming and immersive digital environments, AI is increasingly embedded in the systems that produce, distribute, and scale cultural content worldwide. 

At the same time, creative ecosystems are no longer confined to single platforms or formats. Instead, they are evolving into interconnected, multimodal networks where intellectual property can expand across mediums, audiences, and technologies–unlocking new opportunities for growth while raising important questions about ownership, value creation, and control. 

Zeng explores how AI-driven infrastructure and multimodal IP ecosystems are converging to transform the global creative economy. Drawing on interdisciplinary research and real-world examples, the discussion will also address the challenges of governance, cultural representation, and institutional design in an AI-native world, and what it will take to ensure these systems remain innovative, inclusive, and aligned with human values. 

The Rise of the Finfluencers

Kota Shimoda, Ministry of Finance, Japan

In recent years, the growth of online financial platforms has transformed how individuals access and act on financial information. Increasingly, people are turning to social media for insights, where so-called “finfluencers” share content on investing, personal finance, and market trends. 

While finfluencers often provide timely and accessible information, their credibility can be difficult to assess. Many operate without formal oversight or verification, raising concerns about the risks of relying on unregulated advice. At the same time, they represent a new and influential source of financial information, distinct from traditional institutions and licensed advisors. 

In his talk, Shimoda examines how regulatory authorities across different countries are responding to the rise of finfluencers and explores how individuals and institutions should navigate this evolving information landscape. 

Product Innovation and Growth in General Insurance in Asia Pacific: The Changing Logic through Embedded and Parametric Models

Yibin (Ken) Zhao, Shanghai Narada Group

As risks grow more complex across the Asia-Pacific region, traditional insurance models are being pushed to evolve. New approaches–such as embedded insurance and parametric solutions–are reshaping how coverage is designed, delivered, and scaled to meet emerging needs. 

This presentation explores how these innovations are transforming the logic of general insurance, drawing on practitioner-led case studies including CMA CGM’s Cargo Value Serenity and China’s first rainfall-based parametric solution for the Meiyan hydropower project. These examples illustrate how data-driven, responsive models can expand access to protection and improve resilience. 

The discussion will also consider the broader implications for closing the region’s significant protection gap, and the role of the regulatory frameworks in enabling innovation. In particular, it will highlight the importance of more flexible, function-based supervision to support sustainable growth in the insurance sector.

Southeast Asia is one of the most climate change-vulnerable regions in the world. However, compounding the climate crisis are socioeconomic and geopolitical challenges that shape the unequal distribution of ecological burdens across communities. In this seminar, Yasmin Wirjawan and Gaea Morales explore where these intersecting vulnerabilities create opportunities for policy innovation and meaningful change across sectors and levels of governance.

Wirjawan discusses the importance of regional digitalization initiatives in fostering climate resilience, with a focus on addressing gender-based differences in mobile connectivity among youth NEET (not in education, employment, or training). She will also evaluate the strategic implications of the recently published ASEAN Community Vision 2045 within the framework of regional demographic shifts and digital transformation in advancing social inclusion. Meanwhile, Morales provides insights on how local governments in the region are responding to the climate crisis through norm “localization,” drawing on the example of city-level adoption of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

By exploring the collaborative nature of these planning practices, the case studies demonstrate how local governments fill resource and technical state capacity gaps, and in doing so develop innovative climate action projects through city-to-city learning and advocacy networks. Together, both presentations highlight the agency of local communities and governments in paving the way for the region’s sustainable future from the bottom up. 
 

Speakers
 

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Yasmin Wirjawan joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as a visiting scholar from 2024 to 2026. Her research focuses on economic participation and climate change resilience among women and youth in Southeast Asia. She has over 20 years of experience serving on corporate and nonprofit boards across diverse industries. She also serves as Independent Commissioner of TBS Energi Utama, Advisor to Ancora Group and Sweef Capital, and leads the Ancora Foundation. Wirjawan holds a Doctor of Education in Leadership and Innovation and a MSc in Management and Systems from New York University. She also earned a MSc in Finance from Brandeis University and BA in International Business from the American University of Paris.

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Gaea Morales is the 2025-26 Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow on Contemporary Asia at APARC. Her work studies how global norms translate into local action, with a focus on cities, global environmental governance, and human rights. Her book project explores both the motivations and mechanisms by which cities “localize” (i.e., translate) environmental norms using case studies of Southeast Asia’s coastal capitals. She received her MA and PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Southern California, and her BA in Diplomacy and World Affairs and French Studies from Occidental College. Her work is also informed by past experiences in international and local agencies, including UNDP Philippines and the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of International Affairs. In Fall 2026, she will join Loyola University Chicago as the Helen Houlahan Rigali Assistant Professor of Political Science.