The end of the Cold War and the emergence of terrorism conducted by non-state actors have radically changed the manner in which science and technology can support national security. We no longer have a primary geographically focused enemy and may be confronted by improvised weapons that, as we have learned, are very effective. Additionally, dealing with terrorism within the boundaries of the country raises organizational and political questions that do not occur in military operations abroad. This talk explores these difficulties and suggests some technical and operational priorities for dealing with the new set of threats that have emerged.

Carter J. Eckert is Professor of Korean History and Director of the Korea Institute at Harvard University. Since 1985, he has been teaching Korean history at Harvard and working to build up the Harvard Korean studies program there. He is the author of a number of books and articles, including Offspring of Empire: The Colonial Origins of Korean Capitalism, which received the John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History from the American Historical Association, as well as the John Whitney Hall Book Prize from the Association for Asian Studies. Currently he is engaged in several projects relating to modern Korean history, including the Cambridge History of Korea, and a study of the late president of South Korea, Park Chung Hee, and the role of the military in South Korea's national development.

The past few years of political, economic, and social turbulence in Indonesia have led observers to wonder: "What is Indonesia?" Implicit in this question are others: "What has Indonesia been?" "What is it becoming?" and "What will become of it?"

To explore and debate possible answers, a roundtable has been scheduled for 5 April at the annual convention of the Association for Asian Studies in Washington DC. The six analysts who will speak at the roundtable have prepared brief essays--two or three pages each--that have been posted in easily downloadable form on the Asia/Pacific Research Center's website, at .

The most prominent of these analysts is Goenawan Mohamad, arguably the leading public intellectual in Indonesia today. "An Unfinished World" is his websited response to the question "What is Indonesia?" Those planning to hear Goenawan on 8 April here at Stanford need not have read his essay to understand his talk, which will go beyond his written words, but are welcome to download, print, and read it.

Goenawan Mohamad has for many years championed press freedom in Indonesia. In 1963, under the leftward regime of the country's first president, Sukarno, he signed a cultural manifesto against "socialist realism" in the arts. The manifesto was soon condemned as "counter-revolutionary." In 1964 the regime banned writings by independent-minded intellectuals such as Goenawan. In 1967 he returned from Europe to join a student newspaper that had opposed Sukarno's rule. Seven years later, the paper was banned by Sukarno's successor, Suharto. In the meantime, Goenawan had become chief editor of a weekly newsmagazine, Ekspres, and been fired by its owner for opposing government interference in a union of Indonesian journalists. Goenawan then helped to found a new weekly newsmagazine, Tempo, and became its chief editor. In 1984 Suharto banned the journal for two months because of critical coverage of the country's ruling party. Ten years later, Tempo was banned indefinitely for having criticized one of Suharto's cabinet ministers. The journal soon resurfaced on the Internet, but would not reappear in print until after Suharto's fall in 1998. Since 1999, in Jakarta, Goenawan has managed a community of media, cultural, and political activists dedicated to freedom of thought and expression. Over the course of his career, he has published books of essays and poetry, written a libretto for an opera that premiered in Seattle in 1999, and held visitorships at Harvard and UCLA, among other institutions.

The success of India's export-oriented software industry is well known. Whether information technology (IT) can contribute to development beyond the obvious income effects generated by software exports depends on how pervasive are IT's impacts on the economy, ranging from improving the efficiency of existing businesses, to enabling new kinds of goods and services. In a developing country such as India, it is of particular interest whether such benefits can reach the poor, and even help in directly reducing the deprivations associated with poverty. Professor Singh's talk and paper will examine two ongoing experiments that aim to provide IT-based services to rural populations in India. Several features distinguish these experiments from others: a combination of public and private efforts, with "nonprofit" organizations acting as catalysts; goals of commercial sustainability, both for the local entrepreneurs and the nonprofits; and an eclectic approach to the services that are sought to be provided. The paper's main contribution is to draw some preliminary lessons from comparing two different approaches in localities that are geographically close and economically similar. While the ultimate goals of the two organizations studied are quite similar, he identifies some important differences in implementation that may have more general implications for the success of such experiments. Nirvikar Singh is currently Director of the Business Management Economics Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he is Professor of Economics. He teaches courses on business strategy, technology and innovation, and electronic commerce, as well as graduate microeconomic theory. He has consulted for the World Bank and for high-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. Professor Singh's current research topics are electronic commerce, business strategy, technology and innovation, governance and economic reform in India, federalism, international water disputes, and economic growth.

Dr. Chowdhury is a vascular surgeon and pioneering public health leader from Bangladesh who wrote "The Politics of Essential Drugs: The Makings of a Successful Health Strategy: Lessons from Bangladesh." In 1971, Dr. Chowdhury left England to return to what was then East Pakistan and join the war of liberation for Bangladesh. He helped establish a field hospital for freedom fighters and refugees, which lead to the development Gonoshasthaya Kendra (GK) or "The People's Health Center." GK has trained more than 7,000 barefoot doctors, and serves 1,000 villages in 14 Bangladeshi districts. A pharmaceutical factory was established by GK in 1981 which produces medicines on the World Health Organization's essential medicines list; employs 1,500 people and has an $11 million annual budget. One-half of its profits are reinvested and the other half go to GK's other projects. In 1985, Dr. Chowdhury and GK were awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award (sometimes called the Asian Nobel Peace Prize) and in 1992, the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the alternative Nobel Prize). Dr. Chowdhury was instrumental in convincing the Bangladesh government to adopt a National Drug Policy in 1982. This controversial policy promotes essential medicines and discourages the use of drugs with little therapeutic value. GK hosted the People's Health Assembly in December 2000, which challenged global health organizations to improve public health care for the poor. Dr. Chowdhury is this year's International Honoree of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health Heroes.

On May 20th, East Timor will celebrate its full independence and become the world's newest democracy when the United Nations turns over the reins of the country to the recently established government. Since passage of the UN-sponsored referendum for independence in 1999, East Timor has been in the process of rebuilding following 25 years of Indonesian military occupation and steadily progressing toward self-government. What will this new era bring? For almost a quarter century, Jos? Ramos Horta has been one of the central figures in East Timor's struggle for independence. Exiled from his country for 24 years, Dr. Ramos Horta was the international spokesman for human rights and the self-determination of his homeland. In 1996 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, with Bishop Carlos Belo, the religious leader of East Timor, "to honor their sustained and self-sacrificing contributions for a small but oppressed people." He returned to East Timor in 1999 to help rebuild a new, liberated homeland following years of devastating turmoil. Today he serves as Minister of Foreign Affairs under the interim United Nations Administration, and continues in his role as the international voice of East Timor.