Stanford University

Professor James S. Fishkin Awarded Friendship Medal of Mongolia

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Nora Sulots
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Please join us in congratulating Professor James S. Fishkin, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and Director of the Deliberative Democracy Lab at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), on receiving the Medal of Friendship, Mongolia’s highest state honor, in recognition of his pioneering contributions to deliberative democracy. The award was decreed by the President of Mongolia, Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, on October 7, 2024, and presented to Fishkin by former CDDRL Visiting Scholar (2014-16) Zandanshatar Gombojav, now Chief of Staff to the President, during the Constitutional Amendment and Deliberative Democracy academic conference in Ulaanbaatar in May 2025.

Professor Fishkin, the Janet M. Peck Professor of International Communication at Stanford University, was honored for his work in introducing Deliberative Polling to Mongolia. This methodology, which gathers randomly selected citizens to discuss important political issues, has twice played a key role in shaping constitutional amendments in the country. The process is now required by law before the Parliament (the State Great Hural) can consider a change to the constitution, which it can then approve by 2/3 vote.

The award ceremony was part of a celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Deliberative Polling in Mongolia, marked by an international symposium that brought together experts from South Korea, Japan, China, France, Ireland, the United States, and Australia. These scholars shared insights on deliberative practices and democratic innovations in their respective countries. Key Mongolian decision-makers involved in the constitutional amendment processes also participated in the panels, reflecting on the role of public engagement in shaping governance.

During the event, Fishkin participated in a panel titled "Deliberative Democracy: Citizen Engagement and Best Practices", moderated by Alice Siu, Associate Director of the Deliberative Democracy Lab. In his presentation, Fishkin discussed how Mongolia has achieved a novel solution to a challenge facing many countries: how to amend the constitution by combining the deliberations of the people with those of their representatives.

Professor Fishkin speaks at a conference in honor of the 10th Anniversary of Deliberative Polling in Mongolia.
Professor Fishkin speaks at a conference in honor of the 10th Anniversary of Deliberative Polling in Mongolia.

Other notable presentations included discussions on public deliberation practices in South Korea, deliberative mini-publics in France, deliberative participatory budgeting in China, and Mongolia’s experience with deliberative democracy in a global context. One of the panelists for the latter topic included Bulgantuya Khurelbaatar, Vice Chairwoman of the State Great Hural of Mongolia, an alumna of CDDRL’s 2022 Fisher Family Summer Fellows Program.

On the second day of the event, Mongolian representatives also presented Fishkin with a Mongolian translation of his forthcoming book, Can Deliberation Cure the Ills of Democracy? (Oxford University Press, July 2025).

Siu emphasized the significance of the recognition: "Awarding this honor to James Fishkin is a testament to the profound impact his work has had on the field of deliberative democracy, not only in Mongolia but across the globe. His innovative approach has inspired countless individuals to engage in meaningful dialogue and foster a more deliberative society."

Gombojav added, “The Law on Deliberative Polling engages social science to help make a better constitutional process. It adds the voice of the people in a representative and thoughtful way. Our collaboration with Professor Fishkin has made all of this possible.“

The Friendship Medal underscores Fishkin’s lasting impact on democratic innovation, both in Mongolia and globally, as Deliberative Polling continues to help shape more inclusive governance practices around the world.

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Professor James S. Fishkin was presented with the Medal of Friendship certificate by Zandanshatar Gombojav.
Professor James S. Fishkin was presented with the Medal of Friendship certificate by Zandanshatar Gombojav.
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The award, decreed by President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, is Mongolia’s highest state honor and recognizes Fishkin for his pioneering contributions to deliberative democracy.

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Sidney Suh

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Sidney Suh is currently studying Political Science and Economics at Stanford. Previously, she has been involved with the Stanford Human Rights in Trauma Mental Health Lab, advising international institutions such as the International Criminal Court and the United Nations, as well as a WINS Scholar with the Gordian Knot Center. Beyond research, her experience ranges from supporting U.S. Senate campaigns to serving as the Co-Director of Programming for Stanford Women in Politics. Her academic interests span geopolitical risk, trade, and Northeast Asia. She speaks Korean and French, and in her free time, she enjoys exploring the world through photography. 

Research Assistant, Fisher Family Summer Fellows Program, Summer 2024
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Sophie Richardson, Expert on Human Rights in China, Joins CDDRL as Visiting Scholar

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Nora Sulots
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The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University is proud to announce the appointment of Sophie Richardson as a Visiting Scholar. Dr. Richardson, a longtime activist and scholar of Chinese politics, human rights, and foreign policy, will be in residence with the Center through December 2024.

From 2006 to 2023, Dr. Richardson served as the China Director at Human Rights Watch, spearheading the organization's research and advocacy efforts. She has published extensively on human rights and testified to the Canadian Parliament, European Parliament, and the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Dr. Richardson is the author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (Columbia University Press, Dec. 2009), an in-depth examination of China's foreign policy since 1954's Geneva Conference, including rare interviews with Chinese policymakers.

Dr. Richardson speaks Chinese and earned her doctorate from the University of Virginia and her BA from Oberlin College. Her current research focuses on the global implications of democracies’ weak responses to increasingly repressive Chinese governments, and she is advising several China-focused human rights organizations.

During her tenure at Stanford, Dr. Richardson will embark on individual research endeavors while focusing on completing her forthcoming book project, titled "Great Changes Unseen in a Century: How to Save Democracy and Human Rights from Xi Jinping."

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Sophie Richardson, CDDRL Visiting Scholar, 2024
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During her tenure at Stanford, Dr. Richardson will embark on individual research endeavors while focusing on completing her forthcoming book project, titled "Great Changes Unseen in a Century: How to Save Democracy and Human Rights from Xi Jinping."

Chelsea Soriano

Encina Hall
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Chelsea is the Center Operations Coordinator at CDDRL. She graduated with a dual degree in Cognitive Science and Psychology with a quantitative emphasis from the University of California, Davis. Chelsea grew up in the Bay Area and its diversity has influenced the music, shows, and food she loves. 

Center Operations Coordinator
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Stephen Kotkin

Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall
Stanford,  CA  94305-6055

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Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
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Stephen Kotkin is a senior fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Within FSI, Kotkin is based at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) and is affiliated with the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and The Europe Center. He is also the Birkelund Professor in History and International Affairs emeritus at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School), where he taught for 33 years. He earned his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley and has been conducting research in the Hoover Library & Archives for more than three decades.

Kotkin’s research encompasses geopolitics and authoritarian regimes in history and in the present. His publications include Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 (Penguin, 2017) and Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 (Penguin, 2014), two parts of a planned three-volume history of Russian power in the world and of Stalin’s power in Russia. He has also written a history of the Stalin system’s rise from a street-level perspective, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (University of California 1995); and a trilogy analyzing Communism’s demise, of which two volumes have appeared thus far: Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse 1970–2000 (Oxford, 2001; rev. ed. 2008) and Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment, with a contribution by Jan T. Gross (Modern Library, 2009). The third volume will be on the Soviet Union in the third world and Afghanistan. Kotkin’s publications and public lectures also often focus on Communist China.

Kotkin has participated in numerous events of the National Intelligence Council, among other government bodies, and is a consultant in geopolitical risk to Conexus Financial and Mizuho Americas. He served as the lead book reviewer for the New York Times Sunday Business Section for a number of years and continues to write reviews and essays for Foreign Affairs, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Wall Street Journal, among other venues. He has been an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow.

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Sean Foster Michael

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2022-23
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Major: Economics
Minor: Political Science; Modern Languages (Spanish & German)
Hometown: Scarsdale, NY
Thesis Advisor: Chonira Aturupane

Tentative Thesis Title: Comparing the Effect of Chinese and American Aid on Corruption in Latin America

Future aspirations post-Stanford: After graduation, my plan is to work in public sector consulting, preferably at the state and local level. After that, I'd like to go to graduate school to best leverage my skills in development economics, likely in or adjacent to the public sector. 

A fun fact about yourself: My first quarter as a CDDRL Honors student will be spent in Santiago, Chile, where I’ll be doing primary source research into Chilean politics and history.

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Alexandra Popke

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2021-22
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Major: International Relations
Minor: Art History, Spanish
Hometown: Euless, TX   
Thesis Advisor: Kathryn Stoner

Tentative Thesis Title: On the Road to Authoritarianism: China’s Belt and Road Initiative as an Explanation for Eastern European Democratic Decline

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I plan to obtain a JD/MBA with the intent of working at the intersection of business and law in the private sector.

A fun fact about yourself: I studied under a portrait artist in high school and competed nationally with my art!

The Russia Challenge: Limited or Resurrected?

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*For fall quarter 2021, CISAC will be hosting hybrid events. Many events will offer limited-capacity in-person attendance for Stanford faculty, staff, fellows, visiting scholars, and students in accordance with Stanford’s health and safety guidelines, and be open to the public online via Zoom. All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

 

REGISTRATION

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(Open to all)

 

Seminar Recording

About the Event: As relations between the West and Russia plunge to a post-Cold War nadir, how strong a competitor will the Kremlin prove? Will constraints on Putin's autocracy hinder his ability to have Russia play a great power role, or has Russia alrealdy successfully resurrected itself and is now able to exercise significant influence on the global stage? On November 10, Timothy Frye (author of Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin's Russia) and Kathryn Stoner (author of Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order) will discuss the nature and depth of the Russian challenge to the West.

 

About the Speakers: 

Timothy Frye is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy at Columbia University. Professor Frye received a B.A. in Russian language and literature from Middlebury College, an M.A. from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia. His research and teaching interests are in comparative politics and political economy with a focus on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. His most recent book is Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia (Princeton University Press, 2021). He co-directs the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and edits Post-Soviet Affairs.

Kathryn Stoner is the Deputy Director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, and at the Center on International Security and Cooperation at FSI. She teaches in the Department of Political Science at Stanford, and in the Program on International Relations, as well as in the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy Program. Prior to coming to Stanford in 2004, she was on the faculty at Princeton University for nine years, jointly appointed to the Department of Politics and the Princeton School for International and Public Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School). At Princeton she received the Ralph O. Glendinning Preceptorship awarded to outstanding junior faculty. She also served as a Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at McGill University. She has held fellowships at Harvard University as well as the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. In addition to many articles and book chapters on contemporary Russia, she is the author or co-editor of six books: "Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective," written and edited with Michael A. McFaul (Johns Hopkins 2013); "Autocracy and Democracy in the Post-Communist World," co-edited with Valerie Bunce and Michael A. McFaul (Cambridge, 2010); "Resisting the State: Reform and Retrenchment in Post-Soviet Russia" (Cambridge, 2006); "After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transitions" (Cambridge, 2004), coedited with Michael McFaul; and "Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional" Governance (Princeton, 1997). Her most recent book is Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order" (Oxford University Press, 2021). She received a BA (1988) and MA (1989) in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in Government from Harvard University (1995). In 2016 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Iliad State University, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.

Virtual Only. This event will not be held in person.

Timothy Frye

Kathryn Stoner

FSI
Stanford University
Encina Hall C140
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 736-1820 (650) 724-2996
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Satre Family Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
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Kathryn Stoner is the Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), and a Senior Fellow at CDDRL and the Center on International Security and Cooperation at FSI. From 2017 to 2021, she served as FSI's Deputy Director. She is Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) at Stanford and she teaches in the Department of Political Science, and in the Program on International Relations, as well as in the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy Program. She is also a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at the Hoover Institution.

Prior to coming to Stanford in 2004, she was on the faculty at Princeton University for nine years, jointly appointed to the Department of Politics and the Princeton School for International and Public Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School). At Princeton she received the Ralph O. Glendinning Preceptorship awarded to outstanding junior faculty. She also served as a Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at McGill University. She has held fellowships at Harvard University as well as the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. 

In addition to many articles and book chapters on contemporary Russia, she is the author or co-editor of six books: "Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective," written and edited with Michael A. McFaul (Johns Hopkins 2013);  "Autocracy and Democracy in the Post-Communist World," co-edited with Valerie Bunce and Michael A. McFaul (Cambridge, 2010);  "Resisting the State: Reform and Retrenchment in Post-Soviet Russia" (Cambridge, 2006); "After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transitions" (Cambridge, 2004), coedited with Michael McFaul; and "Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional" Governance (Princeton, 1997); and "Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order" (Oxford University Press, 2021).

She received a BA (1988) and MA (1989) in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in Government from Harvard University (1995). In 2016 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Iliad State University, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.

Download full-resolution headshot; photo credit: Rod Searcey.

Mosbacher Director, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Professor of Political Science (by courtesy), Stanford University
Senior Fellow (by courtesy), Hoover Institution
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Seminars

Global Democracy Leaders Gather Virtually for the 2021 Draper Hills Summer Fellowship

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Nora Sulots
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This week we launched the long-awaited 17th year of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law's Draper Hills Summer Fellowship Program. Founded in 2005 with generous support from Bill and Phyllis Draper and Ingrid von Mangoldt Hills, Draper Hills is an executive training program for world leaders striving to promote democracy. For the next two weeks, Fellows will participate in workshops led by an interdisciplinary team of faculty to study new theories and approaches to democratic development.

Fellows in the class of 2021 were selected from among thousands of applicants for their ground-breaking work to defend democracy. These 34 leaders drawn from 30 countries around the world are pioneering new approaches and models to advance social and political change in some of the most challenging global contexts. Representing business, government, and the nonprofit sector, our fellows are working on the frontlines of democratic change to combat the global rise of authoritarianism and populism. In countries moving towards democracy, our fellows are working to institutionalize new systems and practices to support democratic transitions.

An Unconventional Year


Traditionally, Fellows would travel from their home countries to the U.S. and spend three weeks on campus at Stanford learning together. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the program is currently taking place virtually for the first time (for the same reasons, the program did not run in 2020). The shift to online programming posed a number of logistical obstacles – from what time to run virtual sessions when participants span over a dozen time zones to how to foster the sense of belonging and personal connections that occur more naturally in in-person settings.

To begin addressing the latter, Fellows were sent welcome packages to build excitement and foster community both within the program and at Stanford. Upon receiving hers, Aisha Yesufu of Nigeria shared, "I am so excited at the different people I'll be meeting from all over the world, and also learning from different people, lecturers, professors... It's going to be quite interesting, and, for me, that is what I am most looking forward to."

"One of the most important things I have ever been involved with."


Opening against the backdrop of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in Afghanistan, the importance of the Draper Hills program and the need to promote democratic change is now more evident than ever.

The inaugural session for the 2021 cohort began with Francis Fukuyama introducing the fellows to several of the esteemed faculty they will be learning from over the next two weeks, including Larry Diamond, Erik Jensen, and Michael McFaul. McFaul shared that not only did he found the program, but "it is one of the most important things I have ever been involved with." Jensen later added that "participating in this program is one of the great pleasures I have every year."

More to Come


Throughout the next two weeks, our Draper Hills Fellows will examine the political development, democratic transitions, and the relationship of law to economic development, public administration, administrative law, transitional justice, food security, and global health policy, among others. The group is eager to learn, and we look forward to seeing the many great things the training they receive here will enable them to do in their home countries and beyond.

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For the next two weeks, Fellows will participate in workshops led by an interdisciplinary team of faculty to study new theories and approaches to democratic development.

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Michael Bennon

Encina Hall
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Research Scholar
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Michael Bennon is a Research Scholar at CDDRL for the Global Infrastructure Policy Research Initiative. Michael's research interests include infrastructure policy, project finance, public-private partnerships and institutional design in the infrastructure sector. Michael also teaches Global Project Finance to graduate students at Stanford. Prior to Stanford, Michael served as a Captain in the US Army and US Army Corps of Engineers for five years, leading Engineer units, managing projects, and planning for infrastructure development in the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan and Thailand. 

Program Manager, Global Infrastructure Policy Research Initiative
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