FSI researchers strive to understand how countries relate to one another, and what policies are needed to achieve global stability and prosperity. International relations experts focus on the challenging U.S.-Russian relationship, the alliance between the U.S. and Japan and the limitations of America’s counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
Foreign aid is also examined by scholars trying to understand whether money earmarked for health improvements reaches those who need it most. And FSI’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center has published on the need for strong South Korean leadership in dealing with its northern neighbor.
FSI researchers also look at the citizens who drive international relations, studying the effects of migration and how borders shape people’s lives. Meanwhile FSI students are very much involved in this area, working with the United Nations in Ethiopia to rethink refugee communities.
Trade is also a key component of international relations, with FSI approaching the topic from a slew of angles and states. The economy of trade is rife for study, with an APARC event on the implications of more open trade policies in Japan, and FSI researchers making sense of who would benefit from a free trade zone between the European Union and the United States.
Taiwan's National Security and the Trans-Pacific Partnership: The International Law Dimension
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Abstract
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is widely regarded as the economic component of the US strategy of “rebalance” to Asia. As a major trading partner of many of the founding members, Taiwan has obvious economic and security interests at stake and is therefore seeking to join the TPP in the next round. But an overlooked aspect of the TPP for Taiwan is its potential impact on sovereignty. Trade agreements provide a revealing window into the evolving conceptions of modern sovereignty. The way Taiwan’s unique form of statehood and international status is defined in trade agreements could strengthen its position under international law and contribute to its national security. This talk will consider how Taiwan was defined as a sui generis legal entity in its application to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) and as a party to the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), with lessons for future negotiations to join the TPP.
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This event is hosted by the Taiwan Democracy Project.
TPP and Taiwan
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Joseph Yen-ching Chao
Visiting Fellow
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan)
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Graduating seniors recognized for outstanding theses on democratic development
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The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law proudly congratulates its graduating class of honors students for their outstanding original research conducted under the CDDRL Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Honors Program. Among those graduating includes Garima Sharma who was awarded the Firestone Medal for her thesis entitled "Factors Shaping Mothers' Aspirations for their Daughters in India: A Case Study of Forbesganj, Bihar." Sharma's project used both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore cultural, social and economic factors that shape female expectations in one of the poorest parts of India.
The Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research recognizes Stanford's top ten percent of honors theses in social science, science and engineering among the graduating senior class.
Initially struck by the high rates of early marriage upon her visit to northern India, Sharma conducted field interviews and surveys last summer, finding that exposure to educated and employed female role models produced an increase in mothers’ aspirations for their daughters.
Cara Reichard (left) and Garima Sharma (right) both received awards under CDDRL for their outstanding theses projects.
Sharma's research was conducted under the advisement of Associate Professor of Education and CDDRL Affiliated Faculty Member Christine Min Wotipka. In addition to the Firestone Award, Sharma received the 2015 Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo Prize in the Social Sciences under the Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Among other award winners, CDDRL honors student Cara Reichard received the CDDRL Best Thesis Award for her honors thesis "The Logic of International Courts: An Exploration of the East African Court of Justice," which analyzed the impact and legitimacy of rulings under the East African Court of Justice. Stefan Norgaard received a Firestone Medal under the Urban Studies program for his thesis entitled "Rainbow Junction: South Africa’s Born Free Generation and the Future of Democracy," which assessed democratic consolidation in South Africa via hyper-local civic interactions among the country's active youth.
"The CDDRL honors program has allowed us to write theses around issues that really matter," said Norgaard. "What sets the program apart is that it pushes us to pursue projects aimed at changing things and making an active contribution to scholarship around the world."
Norgaard, Sharma and Reichard are part of a cohort of ten graduating CDDRL honors students who have spent the past year working in consultation with CDDRL affiliated faculty members and attending honors research workshops to develop their theses projects. Many traveled abroad to collect data, conduct interviews, and spend time in the country they were researching. Collectively, their topics documented some of the most pressing issues impacting democracy today in South Africa, India, North Korea, Swaziland, Cuba and Uganda, among others.
Stefan Norgaard with CDDRL Director Larry Diamond (left) and FSI Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow Francis Fukuyama (right).
In the upcoming 2015-2016 academic year, the program will bring in the new leadership of CDDRL Deputy Director Stephen Stedman who will advise a cohort of 15 honors students, one of the program's largest and most diverse classes to date.
The CDDRL Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Honors Program trains students from any academic department at Stanford to prepare them to write a policy-relevant research thesis with global impact on a subject touching on democracy, development, and the rule of law. Honors students participate in research methods workshops; attend honors college in Washington, D.C.; connect to the CDDRL research community; and write their thesis in close consultation with a faculty advisor to graduate with a certificate of honors in democracy, development, and the rule of law.
A list of the 2015 graduating class of CDDRL honors students, their theses advisors, and a link to their theses can be found below:
| Name | Major | Thesis |
|---|---|---|
| Monica Dey | Human Biology | |
| Selamile Dlamini | Management Science & Engineering | “Political parties cause divisions”: Exploring Support for Democracy in Swaziland Advisors: Larry Diamond and Joel Samoff |
| Max Johnson | International Relations | |
| Hamin Kim | Human Biology | NGOs and Effective Aid Delivery in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Thesis not available for public.) Advisor: Gary Schoolnik |
| Stefan Norgaard | Public Policy | Rainbow Junction: South Africa’s Born Free Generation and the Future of Democracy Advisor: Larry Diamond |
| Cara Reichard | Political Science | The Logic of International Courts: An Exploration of the East African Court of Justice Advisor: Stephen Krasner |
| Ashley Semanskee | Human Biology | Community Engagement and Accountability in US Urban Public School Districts (Thesis not available.) Advisor: Martin Carnoy and Susanna Loeb |
Garima Sharma | Economics | Factors Shaping Mothers’ Aspirations for their Daughters in India: A Case Study of Forbesganj, Bihar Advisor: Christine Min Wotipka |
| Thuy Tran | Economics | Corporate Social Responsibility and Profits: A Tradeoff or a Balance? Advisor: Stephen Krasner |
| Shawn Tuteja | Mathematics | Why Groups Divide: Understanding the Mechanisms that Lead to Polarization in Deliberative Polling™ Advisor: James Fishkin and Alice Siu |
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The graduating class of 2014-2015 CDDRL senior honors students take a group photo with CDDRL Director Larry Diamond and FSI Oliver Nomellini Senior Fellow and CDDRL Honors Program Advisor Francis Fukuyama. From left to right: Didi Kuo (CDDRL honors program teaching assistant); Stefan Norgaard; Monica Dey; Hamin Kim; Garima Sharma; Larry Diamond; Ashley Semanskee; Selamile Dlamini; Max Johnson; Cara Reichard; Thuy Tran; Shawn Tuteja; and Francis Fukuyama.
Lauren Weitzman
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