Although China's software industry has grown substantially over the past decade, it could have grown even more had it not been for several obstacles, the most important being rampant violations of the copyrights of software developers. In response to this situation, software companies and associations, domestic and foreign, have lobbied the Chinese government to adopt policies to help the industry. While they have had some lobbying success, in part thanks to both companies and relatively vibrant associations, the industry still faces large hurdles, and a basic dilemma: if it is to fully grow, the industry needs the government to adopt (and implement) more favorable policies, but the government for the moment is likely to be more influenced to adopt policies favored by competing interests that are economically and politically more powerful than the software industry. Scott Kennedy is an assistant professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University. He received his Ph.D in political science from George Washington University in 2002. His dissertation, "In the Company of Markets: The Transformation of China's Political Economy", examines the growth in business influence on the policy making process in China. He recently finished editing a book, "China Cross Talk: The American Debate over China Policy since Normalization, A Reader" which is an anthology of op-eds, congressional testimony, speeches and editorial cartoons that present the most memorable scenes from the debate of the past quarter century. Kennedy has published articles in numerous popular and academic periodicals, including The China Quarterly, Problems of Post-Communism, Asian Wall Street Journal, and the China Business Review. From 1993 to 1997, Kennedy was a research assistant at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. He received his M.A. in international relations from Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in 1992 and his B.A. in foreign affairs from University of Virginia in 1989. He has lived in China off and on for four years since the late 1980s, and has traveled throughout East Asia.

Discussing Intellectual Property Reform in China: Li, Yahong, Hong Kong SAR, Fellow, Stanford Program in International Legal Studies

Discussing Capital Markets in China: Wang, Dequan, China, Fellow, Stanford Program in International Legal Studies.

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.

Ian Buruma was born in the Netherlands, where he studied Chinese at Leyden University. From 1975 to 1978 he was a research fellow in Japanese cinema at Nihon University College of Arts. He lived in Tokyo until 1980, and worked as a translator, actor, photographer, documentary filmmaker and journalist.

From 1982 to 1986, he was cultural editor for the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong. During that time he traveled to most parts of Asia. He moved to London in 1990, where he worked for one year as foreign editor for the Spectator. In 1991, he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. In 1990 he spent a year in Washington, D.C. at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, and in 1991 he was the Alistair Horne Fellow at St. Anthony's College, Oxford.

Buruma is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, and other publications in the United States and Europe. He writes a weekly column for The Guardian in London.

Buruma's book The Wages of Guilt analyzes the collective memory of Germany and Japan in the post-war years. Delving into their emotions, thoughts and anger, Buruma tries to uncover how people in both countries dealt with, and are still dealing with, the stigma of being the war aggressors in very different ways.

Join us for a panel discussion of the issues raised in Buruma's book. The panel discussants are Professor's Daniel Okimoto, Shorenstein APARC and Political Science and James Sheehan, History. Professor Thomas Rohlen of Shorenstein APARC will be the moderator.

Drell Lecture Recording: NA

Drell Lecture Transcript: NA

Speaker's Biography: Sally K. Ride, the first American woman in space, has advocated elevating the position of space on the national security agenda throughout her career. She is President and CEO of Imaginary Lines and the Ingrid and Joseph Hibben Professor of Space Science at the University of California, San Diego.