Stanford University

Security

FSI scholars produce research aimed at creating a safer world and examing the consequences of security policies on institutions and society. They look at longstanding issues including nuclear nonproliferation and the conflicts between countries like North and South Korea. But their research also examines new and emerging areas that transcend traditional borders – the drug war in Mexico and expanding terrorism networks. FSI researchers look at the changing methods of warfare with a focus on biosecurity and nuclear risk. They tackle cybersecurity with an eye toward privacy concerns and explore the implications of new actors like hackers.

Along with the changing face of conflict, terrorism and crime, FSI researchers study food security. They tackle the global problems of hunger, poverty and environmental degradation by generating knowledge and policy-relevant solutions. 

Switzerland in the United Nations: A Five-Year Report Card

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Peter Maurer is Switzerland's first Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, assuming the position in September 2004, when Switzerland became the body's 190th member. He was a leader of the ultimately successful effort to establish the Human Rights Council in early 2006.

Maurer studied history, political science and international law at universities in Berne and Perugia, obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Berne in 1983. After lecturing at the university's Institute for Contemporary History, he joined Switzerland diplomatic service in 1987. He was immediately posted to Switzerland's embassy in South Africa. There he witnessed the violent last throes of the Botha regime, and the first steps towards reforming and ultimately eliminating apartheid.

Maurer returned to Switzerland and became Secretary to the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In 1996 he was posted to New York where he served as Deputy Permanent Observer of the Swiss Mission to the UN. In May 2000 he assumed the rank of Ambassador and returned to Berne to become head of Political Affairs Division IV (Human Security). In that capacity, Maurer managed Switzerland's increasingly robust and innovative human rights diplomacy, launching, among other initiatives, the Berne process, a grouping of countries engaged in human rights dialogues with China.

Ambassador Maurer will talk about the UN Human Rights Council, of which Switzerland was in the forefront of creating. He will address questions related to Europe: how European human rights and security issues are being treated within the UN, and will attempt to answer the question of why the Swiss people have embraced the UN but have been reluctant to join the European Union.

Sponsored by Forum on Contemporary Europe and Stanford Law School.

 

Event Synopsis:

Ambassador Maurer describes Switzerland's decision to join the United Nations and outlines the achievements it has made in the 5 years since gaining membership. These achievements encompass a broad human security agenda and include developing mine detection technology, combatting small arms dealing, improving natural disaster preparedness, and promoting accountability for crimes against humanity and for the actions of UN peacekeeping troops. Switzerland was a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court and has pushed for improvements to the UN's mediation processes. It has also shaped discussion about the reform of the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Ambassador Maurer then offers prospects for issues such as engagement with North Korea, trans-regional alliances on issues of human rights, and the future of the Human Rights Council. He also describes recent cooperation with China and Russia on the topic of human rights. Moving forward, Ambassador Maurer believes Switzerland's best option for making its voice heard on the international stage will be to expand existing partnerships with European universities and to mobilize applied scientific research to help solve the world's most pressing issues.

A discussion session following the talk raised such issues as: What is Switzerland's approach to the areas of the world, for example those under Sharia law, where international human rights are not a common value? How will the western and non-western parts of the world bridge their very different approaches to human rights? Can cultural influence be more effective than formal multilateral institutions like the UN on certain issues? Should existing organizations like the ICRC deal with refugees from environmental degradation (like rising sea levels)? Is there conflict between different international organizations who deal with the same agenda items, such as between the EU and UN?

Encina Ground Floor Conference Room

Peter Maurer Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations Speaker
Seminars

The International Initiative First Annual Symposium: Technology & Culture

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The Symposium on Technology and Culture is open to the entire Stanford community, but is designed primarily for Stanford faculty to share their work with other faculty as a means of promoting collaborative interdisciplinary work on various aspects of the symposium's theme. "Technology" and "culture" are two of six global challenges and cross-cutting drivers that are the focus of the Stanford International Initiative.

8:00 - 8:30 AM Continental breakfast

8:30 - 10:00 AM Panel 1: Impact of Technology on Gender

10:15 - 11:45 AM Panel 2: Culture, Technological Change, and Development

11:45 - 12:30 PM Lunch (RSVP strongly suggested)

12:30 - 1:15 PM Keynote: David Kennedy

Does the United States Have a Mercenary Army?

How Technology Has Made it Too Easy to Go to War

1:30 - 2:45 PM Panel 3: Technology, Culture, and National Security

3:00 - 4:30 PM Panel 4: Health Technology Adoption

Impact of Technology on Gender

Richard Saller, Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, moderator

Denise Johnson, Associate Professor of Surgery

Clifford Nass, Professor of Communication

Christine Min Wotipka, Assistant Professor of Education

Culture, Technological Change, and Development

Jeremy Weinstein, Assistant Professor of Political Science, moderator

Avner Greif, The Bowman Family Endowed Professor in Humanities and Sciences

Jessica Riskin, Associate Professor of History

Romain Wacziarg, Associate Professor of Economics, GSB

Technology, Culture, and National Security

Scott Sagan, Professor of Political Science, moderator

David Kennedy, The Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History

Rebecca Slayton, Lecturer in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society

Health Technology Adoption

Grant Miller, Assistant Professor of Medicine, moderator

Lynn Hildemann, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Science

David Katzenstein, Professor (Research) of Medicine (Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine)

Aprajit Mahajan, Assistant Professor of Economics

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Bechtel Conference Center

Symposiums

What Arabs Think and Does It Matter?

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Shibley Telhami holds the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, and is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously, he was the Director of the Near Eastern Studies Program at Cornell University and has taught at Ohio State University, the University of Southern California, Princeton University, Columbia University, Swarthmore College, and the University of California at Berkeley. His publications include Power and Leadership in International Bargaining: The Path to the Camp David Accords (Columbia University Press, 1990); International Organizations and Ethnic Conflict, ed. with Milton Esman (Cornell University Press, 1995); and Identity and Foreign Policy in the Middle East , ed. with Michael Barnett (forthcoming, Cornell University Press, 2001); and numerous articles on international politics and Middle Eastern affairs.

Professor Telhami has actively been bridging the academic and policy world. He served as advisor to the United States delegation to the United Nations during the Iraq-Kuwait crisis, and was on the staff of Congressman Lee Hamilton. He is the author of a report on Persian Gulf security for the Council on Foreign Relations, and the co-drafter of a Council report on the Arab-Israeli peace process. Professor Telhami is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the advisory committee of Human Rights Watch/Middle East. He has been a member of the American delegation of the Trilateral American/Israeli/Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee mandated by the Wye River Agreement between Israel and the Palestinians and has a weekly radio commentary broadcasting widely over the Middle East.

He received his B.A. from the Queens College of the City University of New York (1974), M.A. from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley (1978), and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (1986).

Professor Telhami will be reporting on his latest poll of Arab public opinion and interpreting the results on key issues.

Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

Shibley Telhami Senior Fellow Speaker Brookings Institution
Seminars

Strike at the Root

Authors
Michael A. McFaul
News Type
Commentary
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OUR COUNTRY'S leaders have rightly stated that we must be prepared to use the full arsenal of our capabilities, defensive and offensive, to respond to the heinous acts of terrorism directed against the United States and the world.

We have also been cautioned not to expect a massive, one-time military response but rather a longer, and at times invisible, diplomatic and financial campaign aimed at crippling terrorists.

Good words and pragmatic thinking. But there are weapons in our arsenal that are not being sufficiently emphasized.

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Turtle Bay Tango

Authors
Michael A. McFaul
News Type
Commentary
Date
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Michael A. McFaul - First, the U.N. is not the world's legislature. Pretending that U.N. resolutions approximate laws is misleading in practice and misguided in principle. In practice, the barrage of resolutions passed every year by the General Assembly has little meaning beyond the U.N. walls. The notion, expressed by U.N. Undersecretary-General for Communications Shashi Tharoor in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, that Security Council resolutions passed under Chapter VII of the charter are "legally binding on all member states" is also deceptive. A Security Council resolution only becomes binding when a powerful state -- i.e., the U.S. -- makes it so. Nor should U.N. "legislation" be viewed as "international law" under the current rules for membership in the U.N. How can Syria's ambassador to the U.N. claim to represent the will of his people, when his government does not? What kind of legislative body allows one royal family an equal vote to a democratic India representing a billion people?
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McFaul
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Shaping US Policies toward the Malay Muslim World: Brunei and Beyond

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In his annual testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in March 2006, then - Pacific Commander Admiral William Fallon characterized Southeast Asia as "in the front line of the War on Terrorism." While some in the region welcomed this indication of official American interest, many would have wished to be singled out for more positive reasons. Yet, for many Americans, it took an event as dramatic as the Bali bombings of October 2002 to realize that there were more Malay-speaking Muslims in Southeast Asia than Arabic-speaking ones in the Middle East. Using the little-known sultanate of Brunei as a point of departure, Ambassador Christy will analyze how political Islam in the Malay Muslim world has changed, and how one American diplomat went about shaping US policies to respond to these changes.

Ambassador Gene Christy is a career foreign service officer. At the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, RI, he teaches in the National Security Decision-Making Department, including courses on Asian security perspectives and on Southeast Asia. In Washington D.C. he worked in the State Department on island Southeast Asia issues (2001-02 and 1985-89) and as director for Asia at the National Security Council (2000-01). His diplomatic posts in Southeast Asia prior to serving as ambassador to Brunei included Kuala Lumpur in the 1990s, Jakarta in the 1980s, and Surabaya in the 1970s.

This is the Southeast Asia Forum's eighth seminar of the 2006-2007 academic year.

Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

Gene Christy State Department Adviser, US Naval War College, and 2002-2005 US Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam Speaker
Seminars

Aftermath of Cataclysm: From Emergency to Recovery in Post-Tsunami Aceh, Indonesia

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On the morning of 26 December 2004, a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated coastal areas throughout the Indian Ocean region. Most damaged by far was the Indonesian province of Aceh. There, within 30 minutes, some 170,000 lives were lost. The international response was unprecedented. Governments, international agencies, and private citizens contributed massively to relief and reconstruction. The rest of the story is less well known: the difficult and critical transition from emergency aid to sustainable recovery. Based on his personal experience on the ground, Dr. Morris will analyze the successes and failures in managing this transition. He will examine issues of accountability, transparency, and equity. Particular attention will be paid to the convergence of tsunami recovery and conflict recovery in a province afflicted not only by a natural cataclysm but by thirty years of intermittent yet brutal conflict between the central government in Jakarta and the secessionist Free Aceh Movement.

Eric Morris, before his posting to Aceh, headed the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2002 to 2005. In 2000-2001 he served simultaneously as special envoy in the Balkans of the High Commissioner for Refugees and as UN humanitarian coordinator for Kosovo. In 1998-99 he was deputy special representative of the secretary general for the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He received his Ph.D from Cornell University, an MA from Yale University, and a BA from Baylor University.

This is the Southeast Asia Forum's seventh seminar of the 2006-2007 academic year.

Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

Eric Morris Practitioner in Residence, International Policy Studies, Stanford University, and United Nations Recovery Coordinator for Aceh and Nias (2005-2007) Speaker
Seminars

Amazing Peace: From Conflict to Compromise in War-torn Aceh, Indonesia

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From 1976 to 2005 an intermittent but bloody guerilla insurgency raged in the Indonesian province of Aceh. Just a few years ago the conflict seemed intractable, with no end in sight. The two sides had irreconcilable nationalist visions and both appeared committed to violent solutions. However, in August 2005, following the devastating December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, they signed a "Helsinki Agreement," committing themselves to a peaceful resolution. This breakthrough was possible, above all, because the chief secessionist organization, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM, Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) agreed to a compromise settlement by which it accepted Aceh's "self-government" within Indonesia.

How could an organization so intransigently committed to an ethno-nationalist vision of Acehnese independence, and for so long, have suddenly re-imagined Aceh as being compatible with Indonesia? Also surprisingly, the peace process has continued since 2005 with very few serious violations. (A former GAM leader, Irwandi Yusuf, was elected as the new governor of the province in December 2006.) In explaining these unexpected events, Aspinall will focus on the dynamics inside GAM. For evidence and illustration, he will draw on first-hand research in Aceh including interviews with former GAM leaders and combatants.

Edward Aspinall is writing a book on the Aceh conflict. Relevant publications include Opposing Suharto: Compromise, Resistance and Regime Change in Indonesia (2005); The Peace Process in Aceh: Why it Failed (2003), coauthored with Harold Crouch; and "Sovereignty, the Successor State and Universal Human Rights: History and the International Structuring of Acehnese Nationalism," Indonesia (April 2002). Before joining ANU, he taught Southeast Asian and Indonesia studies at the University of Sydney (2003-2005) and the University of New South Wales (1997-2001). Aspinall has a Ph.D from ANU and BA degrees from the Universities of Adelaide and Sydney.

This is the Southeast Asia Forum's fourth seminar of the 2006-2007 academic year.

Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

Edward Aspinall Fellow, Department of Political and Social Change Speaker Austrailian National University
Seminars
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