Due to the large response we have received, registration for this event is for the wait list only.

This event will be livestreamed here when the event begins.

In an age of terrorism, where should a democratic society draw the line on government surveillance? Edward Snowden’s explosive disclosures about the National Security Agency’s intelligence-collection operations have ignited an intense debate about the appropriate balance between security and liberty in America. In a special series this year, nationally prominent experts will explore the critical issues raised by the NSA’s activities, including their impact on our security, privacy, and civil liberties. This timely series will address one of the most challenging questions the nation faces today as it tries to strike the right balance between safety and liberty.

The Security Conundrum will look behind and beyond the headlines, examining the history and implementation of the NSA operations, the legal questions generated by them, the media’s role in revealing them, and the responsibility of Congress to oversee them. It will also address the NSA’s uneasy and evolving relationship with Silicon Valley. Each session in the series is designed to explore these issues from a different vantage point. The guest speakers, in conversation with Stanford scholars, will probe the problems, explain the political, legal, and technological contours of the NSA actions, and outline ways to preserve the nation’s security without sacrificing our freedoms. 

An Evening with Senator Mark Udall

Mark Udall was the senior US Senator from the state of Colorado from 2009–2015. During his tenure in the US Senate, Senator Udall held various national security committee assignments, both with the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. An active member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Udall gained notoriety for his vocal opposition to NSA surveillance programs in the wake of the Edward Snowden disclosures in June of 2013. However, as early as 2011, Senator Udall called on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify material related to US government surveillance. Following the Snowden revelations, Senator Udall advocated for adopting the recommendations from the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, as well as substantively reforming the NSA. 

In a conversation with Amy Zegart, CISAC Co-Director and Davies Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Senator Udall will provide a lawmaker’s perspective on the oversight of controversial NSA programs. He will discuss the divide between security and civil liberties, as well as his thoughts on reform of US intelligence collection activities.

Ticket information: Admission is free but advance registration is required. Doors open at 6:30 PM; no entry after 7:40 PM. Registration is limited to 1 ticket per person. A photo ID will be required at the door.

The Security Conundrum is co-sponsored by Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Center for International Security and Cooperation, the Hoover Institution, Stanford Continuing Studies, Stanford in Government, and the Stanford Law School.

At the NATO Summit in Wales in September 2014, NATO leaders were clear about the security challenges on the Alliance’s borders. In the East, Russia’s actions threaten our vision of a Europe that is whole, free and at peace.  On the Alliance’s southeastern border, ISIL’s campaign of terror poses a threat to the stability of the Middle East and beyond.  To the south, across the Mediterranean, Libya is becoming increasingly unstable. As the Alliance continues to confront theses current and emerging threats, one thing is clear as we prepare for the 2016 Summit in Warsaw: NATO will adapt, just as it has throughout its 65-year history.

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In August 2013, Douglas E. Lute was sworn-in as the Ambassador of the United States to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).  From 2007 to 2013, Lute served at the White House under Presidents Bush and Obama, first as the Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, and more recently as the Deputy Assistant to the President focusing on Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.  In 2010, AMB Lute retired from the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant General after 35 years on active duty.  Prior to the White House, he served as the Director of Operations on the Joint Staff, overseeing U.S. military operations worldwide. He served multiple tours in NATO commands including duty in Germany during the Cold War and commanding U.S. forces in Kosovo.  He holds degrees from the United States Military Academy and Harvard University.

A light lunch will be provided.  Please plan to arrive by 11:30am to allow time to check in at the registration desk, pick up your lunch and be seated by 12:00 noon.

Co-sponsored by The Europe Center, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.

Karen Dawisha is the author of Putin’s Kleptocracy. Who Owns Russia? and the Walter E. Havighurst Professor of Political Science and Director of the Havighurst Center at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, The Europe Center, and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.

Join the Catalan conductor and multi-instrumentalist for a free lecture and demonstration of Turkish and Iberian traditions with musicians Hakan Güngör and Yurdal Tokcan.

TO RSVP FOR THIS EVENT, PLEASE SEND EMAIL TO: davisr@stanford.edu

Co-sponsored by Stanford Live, The Europe Center's Iberian Studies Program and the Mediterranean Studies Forum.

The logic of global capitalism is no longer cultural (as Fredric Jameson argued), but has evolved into a logic of war. Consequently, I argue that the frame of cultural recognition that became dominant during postmodernity has been superseded by a frame of survival. While recognition aimed to save subjectivities from the total destruction of twentieth-century wars and project them onto a postmodern marketplace, survival is composed of immanent singularities that take place within the creative destruction of global war. Singularities are neither egalitarian nor subaltern. They simply emerge as Althusserian aleatory events whose causes are immanent in their effects. Singularities within global capitalism are acts of freedom dissociated from a position of structural barring and linked to the production of war that organizes the new conjuncture.

Edgar Illas is assistant professor with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures and The Europe Center's Iberian Studies Program.