Stanford University

Security

FSI scholars produce research aimed at creating a safer world and examing the consequences of security policies on institutions and society. They look at longstanding issues including nuclear nonproliferation and the conflicts between countries like North and South Korea. But their research also examines new and emerging areas that transcend traditional borders – the drug war in Mexico and expanding terrorism networks. FSI researchers look at the changing methods of warfare with a focus on biosecurity and nuclear risk. They tackle cybersecurity with an eye toward privacy concerns and explore the implications of new actors like hackers.

Along with the changing face of conflict, terrorism and crime, FSI researchers study food security. They tackle the global problems of hunger, poverty and environmental degradation by generating knowledge and policy-relevant solutions. 

A New Wave of Democratic Revolutions

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On May 18 a roundtable organized jointly by CDDRL and CREEES and chaired by SIIS Senior Fellow Gail W. Lapidus brought together visiting scholars Temuri Yakobashvili from Georgia, Volodymyr Kulyk from Ukraine, Uladzimir Rouda from Belarus, and Wall Street Journal reporter Steve LeVine to examine the dramatic wave of democratic revolutions and protest movements which have transformed the geopolitics of the post-Soviet region over the past 2 years.

The participants argued that although the "Rose Revolution"in Georgia in October 2003, the Ukrainian "Orange Revolution" of November-December 2004, and the more recent regime change in Kyrgyzstan were all precipitated by popular protest against fraudulent elections, they expressed a deeper dissatisfaction with the widespread corruption and failures of the three governments, combined with the emergence of an increasingly mature and organized political opposition. While international organizations and actors played a supportive role in delegitimizing electoral fraud and nurturing civil society, domestic factors were the decisive ones in bringing about peaceful regime change.

The panelists also concurred that the "easy"revolts were now over. They predicted that future upheavals in the region were inevitable, but were far less likely to go smoothly. In Belarus, although popular hostility to a tyrannical political regime is growing, inspired by the successful example of neighboring Ukraine and the attraction of Europe, the absence of a united and organized opposition remains a major barrier. In Uzbekistan, the repressive regime of President Karimov has demonstrated its willingness to resort to violence to put down opposition, and to forestall international criticism by stigmatizing opponents as Islamist terrorists.

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Beyond Incrementalism: A New U.S. Strategy for Dealing with Iran

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In the coming years, few if any countries will more preoccupy the foreign policy attention of the United States than Iran. The United States has long lacked a viable and coherent policy toward Iran. Perhaps for the first time since the fall of the Shah's regime in 1979, the United States seems determined to try to forge one. The United States must move swiftly to chart a bold, new course that addresses all three of America's principal national interests with Iran. Our policy should seek to halt the development of an Iranian nuclear bomb, to end the regime's support of terrorist groups, and to help the democratic movement in Iran. Each of these goals is vital, but they are also intertwined. Compared to autocracies, democracies are more transparent about their foreign policy intentions and their military capabilities. Only when we have a government in Iran that is truly accountable to its people and to the rule of law will we be able to achieve a permanent and verifiable halt to that country's pursuit of nuclear weapons and its support of international terrorism.

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Publication Type
Journal Articles
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Hoover Institution Press
Authors
Michael A. McFaul
Larry Diamond
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Conference on Health, Demographics and Economic Development

The Conference on the Health, Demographics and Economic Development will take place on May 20-21, 2005 at the Center on Development, Democracy and the Rule of Law, Stanford Institute for International Studies. This conference is organized by Peter Lorentzen and Romain Wacziarg.

The conference is organized around three themes:

1. The Demographic Transition and the Industrial Revolution

2. Health, Fertility, and Human Capital

3. The Effects of Health on Income and Growth: Micro and Macro Evidence.

Participants include: Manuel Amador (Stanford University), Javier Birchenall (UC Santa Barbara), Hoyt Bleakley (UC San Diego), David Bloom (Harvard University), Michele Boldrin (University of Minnesota), David Canning (Harvard University), Shankha Chakraborty (University of Oregon), Matthias Doepke (UCLA), Miriam Golden (UCLA), Larry Jones (University of Minnesota), Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan (University of Houston), Pete Klenow (Stanford University), Peter Lorentzen (Stanford University), Aprajit Mahajan (Stanford University), John McMillan (Stanford University), Rodrigo Soares (University of Maryland), Uwe Sunde (IZA Bonn), Michele Tertilt (Stanford University), Romain Wacziarg (Stanford University), and David Weil (Brown University).

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Romain Wacziarg Speaker
Peter Lorentzen Speaker
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CDDRL Conferences

Beyond Common Knowledge: Empirical Approaches to the Rule of Law

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An intensive global search is on for the "rule of law," the holy grail of good governance, which has led to a dramatic increase in judicial reform activities in developing countries. Very little attention, however, has been paid to the widening gap between theory and practice, or to the ongoing disconnect between stated project goals and actual funded activities. Beyond Common Knowledge examines the standard methods of legal and judicial reform. Taking stock of international experience in legal and judicial reform in Latin America, Europe, India, and China, this volume answers key questions in the judicial reform debate: What are the common assumptions about the role of the courts in improving economic growth and democratic politics? Do we expect too much from the formal legal system? Is investing in judicial reform projects a good strategy for getting at the problems of governance that beset many developing countries? If not, what are we missing?

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Books
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Stanford University Press
Authors
Erik Jensen
Thomas C. Heller

Does the Anti-Secession Law Signify Greater Irrationality Towards Taiwan?

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The Anti-Secession Law recently passed by China's National People's Congress has generated a hostile response in Taiwan and sharp criticism by the U.S. government. It has been described by some as a war-authorization law. Does this signal that Beijing is on a path that reduces its scope for rational choices? Dr. Zhao's talk will analyze this development in light of the recent rise of Chinese nationalism.

A recipient of the 1999-2000 Campbell National Fellowship at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Dr. Zhao currently sits on the board of directors of the US Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (USCSCAP). He is the founder and editor of the Journal of Contemporary China, a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations, and a Research Associate at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research in Harvard University.

Zhao is the author and editor of six books. His most recent A Nation-State by Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism, was published by the Stanford University Press in 2004. He has also written articles for Political Science Quarterly, The China Quarterly, World Affairs, Asian Survey, Journal of Northeast Asian Studies, Journal of Democracy, and many others.

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Suisheng Zhao Executive Director, Center for China-US Cooperation and Associate Professor, Graduate School for International Studies University of Denver, Colorado
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Detainee Abuse: A Crisis in International Humanitarian Law

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Scott Horton is a leading authority on international law regarding torture. He led an American Bar Association investigation into standards of treatment for detainees which was published in April 2004. He was a consultant for those representing Guantanamo Bay detainees, advising them on the legal implications of officially sanctioned torture. He contributed to the recent book, "The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib."

An attorney and human rights defender, Scott represented Andrei Sakharov, Elena Bonner and other leaders of the human rights movement in the formerly communist world for more than twenty years. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an advisor to its Center on Preventive Action, the president of the International League for Human Rights, chair of the New York City Bar's Committee on International Law, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University Law School. He has appeared as a commentator on international law issues on BBC's Panorama, ABC's 20/20 and Nightline, the CBS Evening News, NBC Dateline, CNN's Paula Zahn Show, PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers and as a frequent guest on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

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Scott Horton Partner Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler.
Conferences

The 'Upstream' Problem in Constitutionalism

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Eugene Mazo is a post-doctoral fellow and research scholar at CDDRL, a John M. Olin fellow in law and economics at Stanford Law School, and a fellow of the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation (SCCN). Educated as both a lawyer and a political scientist, he specializes in the fields of law and democracy, law and development, and law and globalization. His work has appeared in scholarly journals and in popular media outlets such as the International Herald Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Washington Post.

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Eugene Mazo Post Doctoral Fellow CDDRL
Seminars

The Social Construction of Corruption

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Professor Mark Granovetter, Chair of the Department of Sociology at Stanford University will speak on his current research on corruption within the context of his project on the social construction of economic institutions, to be published by Harvard University Press.

Granovetter received his PhD in Sociology from Harvard University and his A.B from Princeton University. He joined the faculty at Stanford in 1995, after being a member of the faculty at Northwestern University. In 1996 he received a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa, from Stockholm University; he has been elected to the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars. He is a leading scholar in the area of economic sociology.

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Mark Granovetter Joan Butler Ford Professor and Dept. Chair, Dept. of Sociology Stanford University
Seminars

Political Reform in the Middle East: How Far Is It Going?

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Marina S. Ottaway specializes in democracy and post-conflict reconstruction issues. She is a Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy and Rule of Law Project, a research endeavor that analyzes the state of democracy around the world and the efforts by the United States and other countries to promote democracy. Her new book, Democracy Challenged, a comparative study of semiauthoritarian regimes in Africa, the Caucasus, Latin America, and the Middle East, was published in January 2003. Her current works focus on political transformation in the Middle East and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She is also a lecturer in African Studies at the Nitze School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Ottaway carried out research in Africa and in the Middle East and taught at the University of Addis Ababa, the University of Zambia, the American University in Cairo, and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

She received her undergraduate educatin at University of Pavia, Italy and her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Ottaway's selected Publications include, Democracy Challenged: The Rise of Semi-Authoritarianism (Carnegie, 2003); Funding Virtue: Civil Society Aid and Democracy Promotion, edited with Thomas Carothers (Carnegie, 2000); Africa's New Leaders: Democracy or State Reconstruction? (Carnegie, 1999)

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Marina Ottaway Senior Associate Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Seminars

Writing Iraq's Constitution a Chance to Change History

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Alex Thier
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In an op ed for the San Francisco Chronicle, CDDRL Fellow J Alexander Thier notes the important decisions that will have to be embodied in the new Iraqi constitution if it is to be more than just a worthless piece of paper. Thier argues that the constitution will need to take into account Iraq's unique multi-ethnic and diverse religious character as well as enshrine democratic principles and freedoms for Iraq to move forward.
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