September 22nd, 2008
Stemming the Democratic Recession
FSI Stanford, CDDRL Op-ed: Encina Columns Summer '08If the big global story of the 1980s and 1990s was the remarkable expansion of democracy, the bad news of this decade is that democracy is slipping into recession. In the two decades following the Portuguese revolution in 1974, the number of democracies tripled (from 40 to 120) and the percentage of the world's states that are at least electoral democracies more than doubled (to about 60 percent). Since the late 1990s however, there has been little if any net progress in democracy. Read more »
September 19th, 2008
PESD Affiliates review history and application of standard model for power sector reform
PESD In the News: Energy Policy on October 1, 2008University of Cape Town and PESD affiliates, Katharine Nawaal and Anton Eberhard, examine how and why the standard model for power sector reform failed to be widely adopted by developing countries. The authors use Tanzania as a case study. They conclude by characterizing the emergence of hybrid power markets.
September 18th, 2008
Without public investment, the food crisis will only get worse, Naylor, Falcon say in Boston Review
FSE Op-ed: Boston Review on October 1, 2008FSE director Rosamond Naylor and deputy director Walter Falcon discuss the food crisis in a lead article in the September/October 2008 issue of Boston Review. The food system is indeed global, Naylor and Falcon say, yet the principal actors are national governments, not international agencies. The latter can help with solutions, but fundamental improvements require more enlightened national policies. 
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September 17th, 2008
Wara reviews performance of the Clean Development Mechanism
PESD In the News: UCLA Law Review on August 1, 2008Michael Wara reviews the UN's Clean Development Mechanism's (CDM) performance, using empirical analysis, to illustrate its successes and failures in using a carbon credit market to reduce greenhouse gases. He concludes by suggesting possible reforms to the CDM in anticipation of the Kyoto Protocol's expiration in 2012.
September 16th, 2008
Lecture on health care policy at Stanford
CHP/PCOR NewsPeter Orszag, Director of the Congressional Budget Office, presented a federal perspective on health care policy and costs at the 10th Anniversary Conference and Celebration for the Center for Health Policy and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research on September 16, 2008. In his presentation and recent post, Orszag discusses how research on behavioral economics can inform efforts to improve efficiency in health care delivery.
September 15th, 2008
Gi-Wook Shin talks about possible scenarios for succession of power in North Korea
Shorenstein APARC, KSP In the News: New York Times on September 10, 2008Shorenstein APARC director Gi-Wook Shin offered his analysis of the possible scenarios for succession of power in North Korea in an interview with the New York Times. Shin told The Times that he thought the Kim dynasty would continue to play a role, even if symbolic in the structure, of power in North Korea. "My guess is like this: they will keep the Kim family as a social and political institution like the emperor system in Japan, offering symbolic and moral power for North Koreans, but are likely to establish a collective leadership system in which the military will play a key role. We may, then, witness some political instability in the North."
Russia Rising: The Georgian Crisis & U.S. Foreign Policy
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed: Commonweal Magazine on September 12, 2008David Holloway reports that the ongoing crisis in Georgia has catapulted relations with Russia to a top place on the foreign-policy agenda. It has presented the United States-and the West more generally with important policy decisions, and it has brought to a head a debate that has been taking place for many years about how to deal with Russia. Read more »
September 12th, 2008
McFaul testifies to Congress on future of US-Russian relations
CDDRL NewsRussia's invasion of Georgia last month seriously undermined peace and security in Europe for the first time in years, CDDRL Director Michael McFaul told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on September 9. Russia's military actions and subsequent decision to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, McFaul said, represent a fundamental challenge to the norms and rules that help to promote order in the international system. A full transcript of McFaul's testimony is available in PDF.
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September 11th, 2008
Decisive Gifts Enable Summer Fellows Program to Continue with Bold Vision
With more than a million dollars in committed new funding, CDDRL's Stanford Summer Fellows on Democracy and Development marches into its fifth year with a sustainable future and also a new name: the Draper Hills Summer Fellows on Democracy and Development. The program's new name recognizes the generous commitments of William Draper III and Ingrid von Mangoldt Hills to fund the program and enable it to continue its bold vision. Read more »
September 10th, 2008
David Victor reviews Thomas Friedman's 'Hot, Flat, and Crowded'
PESD In the News: New York Times on September 9, 2008Thomas Friedman's new book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" decries the perils of dependence on fossil fuels and calls for a Green Revolution to sweep American politics and stimulate the economy. Read more »
September 4th, 2008
North Korea suspends dismantling of nuclear facilities
Shorenstein APARC, KSP In the News: Kansas City Star on September 4, 2008Pyongyang suspends its dismantling plans. Is North Korea hoping to push the Bush administration into reconsidering its verification policies or "playing for time in hopes of winning a better deal from" the next administration? Shorenstein APARC's associate director for research, Daniel Sneider, suggests they could be doing both. 
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August 26th, 2008
Pavel Podvig: U.S.-Russian relations following Georgia conflict
CISAC Op-ed: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on August 25, 2008If there's a consensus about the confrontation between Russia and Georgia, writes CISAC's Pavel Podvig, it's that the conflict has seriously strained the relationship between Moscow and its Western counterparts--namely, the United States and NATO. Now that the worst of the conflict seems over, it appears that the harshest measures suggested in the first days of the conflict, i.e., expelling Russia from the G-8, won't materialize. Despite all of the disagreements and mistrust, each party seems to understand that severing ties between Russia and the West isn't realistic. Read more »
August 25th, 2008
Gail Lapidus discusses Georgia conflict
CDDRL, CISAC In the News: Stanford Report on August 22, 2008Even as Russia pulls back troops from Georgia after fighting erupted between the countries, tensions remain high in the region. Russia has stationed peacekeepers and checkpoints near the border of the separatist region of South Ossetia, and Western leaders say Russia is still failing to comply with the French-brokered cease-fire. Gail Lapidus, a senior fellow emerita at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, has been tracking the events leading to the conflict in Georgia. A specialist on Soviet society, politics and foreign policy, she has written and edited a number of books on Soviet and post-Soviet affairs, including The New Russia: Troubled Transformation. Read more »
August 21st, 2008
Armacost argues that Asia needs urgent attention from the next US administration
Shorenstein APARC NewsWhile the United States has been focused on the Middle East, dramatic changes have been taking place in Asia. The region is relatively peaceful and economic growth has been impressive. However, new powers have emerged, while some of our old friends have become more assertive within the region. Michael Armacost and J. Stapleton Roy, two of America's foremost Asia policy experts, offer advice to the incoming US administration.
August 20th, 2008
David Victor at Google: Examining the C in RE < C
PESD NewsGoogle's initiative RE < C seeks to develop sources of renewable energy that are cheaper than coal-fired power. David Victor speaks to an audience at Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters about the current status and future prospects for coal -- the right hand side of Google's equation. Read more »
August 18th, 2008
McFaul co-authors CNAS report on strategic leadership
CDDRL AnnouncementCDDRL Director Michael McFaul is co-author of a new Center for a New American Security (CNAS) report, Strategic Leadership: Framework for a 21st Century National Security Strategy. In the report McFaul and other top foreign policy experts chart a new direction for America's global role.
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August 12th, 2008
McFaul: Stop violence in Georgia rather than assign blame
CDDRL In the NewsCDDRL Director and Obama foreign policy advisor Michael McFaul discusses the conflict in Georgia with the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Time magazine, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and National Public Radio. "Would kicking Russia out of the G-8 have stopped this invasion?" McFaul says. "I don't see how those two are related. That is the test of leadership: are you proposing things that can advance American interests?"
- » Los Angeles Times: McCain and Obama condemn violence in Georgia
- » Time: Failing the Georgia test
- » Wall Street Journal: Georgia conflict tests candidates on foreign policy
- » Washington Post: Bush's Georgian betrayal
- » NPR: Why Georgia-Russia conflict is significant for US
- » New York Times: Taunting the bear
New paper on 'What Iranian leaders really say about doing away with Israel'
CDDRL AnnouncementIn "What Iranian leaders really say about doing away with Israel," CDDRL visiting associate professor Joshua Teitelbaum discusses Iranian leaders' statements calling for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people and presents a comprehensive analysis of what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually said. When Ahmadinejad punctuates his speech with "Death to Israel" m(arg bar Esraiil), Teitelbaum writes, this is no longer open to various interpretations.
August 8th, 2008
Working group takes environmental ethics in two directions
PGJ NewsThe Environmental Ethics Working Group has embarked on two distinct and experimental approaches to environmental ethical research. One approach explores the normative dimensions of quantitative environmental research. The other approach seeks either to integrate scientific data into normative arguments or to examine the real world quantitative implications of such arguments. Read more »
August 6th, 2008
Southeast Asian Studies at Stanford: A rising profile
Shorenstein APARC, SEAF NewsFive Southeast Asia scholars are slated for residence at Stanford for the upcoming academic year. Shorenstein APARC and the Southeast Asia Forum will host four of them: three were selected under the Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Initiative on Southeast Asia, and one is a recipient of a 2008-09 Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellowship. A fifth scholar will be on campus as a National Fellow of the Hoover Institution. Read more »
Draper Hills Summer Fellows program begins; one fellow prevented from leaving her home country
CDDRL NewsThe Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University is pleased to announce its new class of Draper Hills Summer Fellows on Democracy and Development. This year's fellows--26 outstanding civic, political, and economic leaders from 23 countries in transition--have been selected from more than 800 applications. They will be on the Stanford campus for three weeks, from July 28 to August 15, 2008. Read more »
August 4th, 2008
In the Case of Dokdo: A Lesson Learned
Shorenstein APARC, KSP Op-ed: Joong Ang Daily on August 4, 2008Shorenstein APARC director Gi-Wook Shin and Korean Studies associate director David Straub point out the importance of building long-term strategies by top foreign policy experts in the international community.
August 1st, 2008
Korea needs low-key, long-term approach to Dokdo/Takeshima controversy, says Straub
Shorenstein APARC, KSP Op-ed: The Nelson Report on July 31, 2008Korean Studies Program associate director David Straub argued in the Nelson Report, a top Washington, D.C. policy newsletter, that Korea needs to take a strategic approach toward the controversy with Japan over the Dokdo Islets ("Takeshima" in Japanese). Widely reported in Korea, Straub's message urged Korea to base its policy on the fact that it has effective control of the islets. Read more »
CISAC hosts homeland security forum
CISAC NewsPrivate sector leaders, senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, and academic experts convened at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) for a forum on a revolutionary development in disaster response: the rise and pervasiveness of social network communications, and the way these networks will reshape the flow of information when disasters strike. Read more »
Stanford undergraduates pose questions for Singapore in Singapore Journal
Shorenstein APARC, SEAF NewsThe inaugural (March 2008) issue of PRISM, an undergraduate journal published by the University Scholars Programme (USP) of the National University of Singapore (NUS), carries a dozen essays. Six were written by Stanford undergraduates for a Stanford Overseas Seminar taught in Singapore in September 2006, and six by NUS undergrads in the USP for an NUS course taught at Stanford in May 2007. Read more »
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