Stanford University

The role of the US in global tobacco control

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Less than 5% of the world's smokers live in the USA; nevertheless America plays a vital role in reducing the global tobacco epidemic. This is particularly important because the US, along with the United Kingdom, Japan and now China, is home to the global tobacco industry. Also, as markets have declined in the west, these transnational companies have looked towards developing countries for their future expansion and profits, with tactics including denial of the health evidence, pervasive promotion, and political and commercial pressures on governments in developing countries.

 

Along with other western countries, American governmental and non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and foundations, have offered assistance and expertise on a global scale, for example, the establishment of a science base, training, serving on international committees, funding world and regional conferences, and grants. The US-based international media have played an important role. The US has offered leadership in areas such as tobacco economics; some aspects of legislation like smoke-free areas in restaurants and bars; litigation; smoke-free movies; and publicising tobacco industry documents exposing information on industry tactics around the globe.

However, and importantly, the USA has not yet ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), now ratified by 149 countries.

Worldwide, systems are slowly being put into place that will eventually reduce the tobacco epidemic -- data are being collected, legislation and price policies implemented, and health education and cessation programmes introduced. Examples will be given of countries which have now implemented stronger tobacco control policies and programmes than those found in the USA.

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Anthropology
Building 50, Room 51A
(Inner Quad, next to the Memorial Church)

Judith Mackay Professor Speaker FRCP (Edin), FRCP (Lon)
Lectures

Weitseng Chen

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CDDRL Hewlett Fellow 2007-2008
weitseng_web.jpg J.S.D.

Weitseng Chen, a Fulbright scholar, will receive his JSD from Yale Law School in October 2007. His recent research focuses on China's foreign direct investment and property rights transition, the economic behaviors of ethnic foreign investors in China, and a China-Taiwan comparison on their rule of law transition. Prior to his Yale education, Chen practiced law in Taiwan in diverse fields such as Internet and information technology industry, the private sector and public interest affairs, governmental reforms, and international NGO affairs.

Weitseng Chen's recent publications include "East Asian Model and Rule of Law (with Randall Peerenboom, a to be published book chapter)", "WTO: Time's Up for Chinese Banks - China's Banking Reform and Non-Performing Loans Disposal" (Chicago Journal of International Law), "State, Market, and the Law: Law and Development in Taiwan" (Chinese) (Journal of the Humanities & Social Science), and a book titled "Law and Economic Miracle: Interaction between Taiwan's Economic Development and Economic & Trade Laws after WWII." (Chinese).

Feng Luo

CDDRL
Stanford University
Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Visiting Researcher 2007-2008
feng_webpage.jpg MA

Feng Luo is a visiting pre-doctoral fellow from Peking University, pursuing his study in the United States on a scholarship awarded by the China Scholarship Council of the Ministry of Education. Feng entered the doctoral program at Peking University in the Fall of 2006. His dissertation will focus on US democracy promotion policy. Before this, Luo Feng conducted research as Research Assistant at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and he took participation in several research programs and issued some papers in the field of international relations. Luo Feng earned his BA degree at Henan University and his MA degree at Peking University.

Ph.D. Candidate at Peking University's School of International Studies

What is 'Putin's Plan'?

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Andrew Kuchins is a senior fellow and director of the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program. From 2000 to 2006, he was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he was director of its Russian and Eurasian Program in Washington, D.C., from 2000 to 2003 and again in 2006, and director of the Carnegie Moscow Center in Russia from 2003 to 2005. Kuchins conducts research and writes widely on Russian foreign and security policy. He is working on a book titled China and Russia: Strategic Partners, Allies, or Competitors, and coedited, with Dmitri Trenin, Russia: The Next Ten Years (Carnegie, 2004).

Kuchins has taught at Georgetown University and Stanford University. From 1997 to 2000, he was associate director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. He also served as a senior program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 1993 to 1997, where he developed and managed a grant-making program to support scientists and researchers in the former Soviet Union. From 1989 to 1993, he was executive director of the Berkeley-Stanford Program on Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies.

He is a member of the editorial boards of Pro et Contra and Demokratizatsia and was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1995 to 2000. He holds a B.A. from Amherst College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University.

CISAC Conference Room

Andrew Kuchins Director and Senior Fellow Speaker Russia and Eurasia Program
Seminars

Explaining Democratic Survival Globally (1946-2002) - Institutional and Non-institutional Causes

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This research aims at explaining the apparently higher breakdown rate of presidential democracies over parliamentary ones. It shows that the alleged greater negative effect of presidential regimes on democratic breakdown than parliamentary democracies would disappear, not just when military legacy is considered, but also when the effectiveness or power of legislatures is taken into account.

Speaker Bio

Ming Sing is Associate Professor at the Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong. He is a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego (2006-07).

His current research interests are comparing political culture in Asia and institutional engineering in the world. He joined the Asiabarometer Survey Team in 2006 exploring political culture of all Asian societies in relation to democracy He has been doing research on institutional and non-institutional factors shaping global democratic breakdown longitudinally.

He has published on various aspects of democratization in Hong Kong and is the author and editor of three books: Hong Kong's Tortuous Democratization: a Comparative Analysis (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), and Hong Kong Government & Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). His third book (University of Hong Kong, 2007) focuses on the institutional engineering and governance problems in Hong Kong. He has also published articles in Government & Opposition, Democratization, East Asia, China Information, Chinese Law & Government, Journal of Contemporary Asia, International Journal of Public Administration and elsewhere.

Encina Ground Floor Conference Room

Ming Sing Associate Professor, City University of Hong Kong; Visiting Fulbright Scholar, UCSD Speaker
Seminars

Cross-strait Balancing Act Chen's First Priority

Authors
Larry Diamond
News Type
Commentary
Date
Paragraphs

Chen Shui-bian may not have much time to enjoy his historic presidential election victory. Very soon, he must begin pondering the very acute challenges of governance that await him. The president-elect has shown remarkable restraint and magnanimity on the cross-strait issue during the campaign and in the wake of his victory. All of those in Taiwan and internationally who have urged Chen to respect the status quo in cross-strait relations and the symbols of sovereignty have reason to be encouraged. Indeed, his repeated election-night reference to himself as the "tenth president of the Republic of China" shrewdly emphasized his determination to maintain continuity and avoid provocative words or acts.

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Taiwan's China Policy and Cross-Strait Relations

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This is a CDDRL's Special Event within our Democracy in Taiwan Program.

Dr. Chen-yuan Tung is vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, Republic of China (Taiwan) and associate professor at the Sun Yat-Sen Graduate Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, National Chengchi University (Taiwan). He received his Ph.D. in international affairs from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. His expertise focuses on economic relations between Taiwan and China, Chinese economic development, Taiwan-U.S.-China trilateral relations, and international economics.

Dr. Tung published book and book chapters including Challenges in the Era of Hu Jingtao (2002, in Chinese), The Globalization of the Chinese Economy (2002), Cross-Strait Economic Relations in the Era of Globalization (2003, in Chinese), Future China: Degenerative Totalitarianism (2004, in Chinese), Renminbi Exchange Rate: Economic and Strategic Analysis (2004, in Chinese), China Today (2005), and China as the World Factory (2006).

Philippines Conference Room

Chen-yuan Tung Vice Chairman Speaker Mainland Affairs Council, ROC (Taiwan)
Seminars
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