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Trump and Abe are natural allies

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In an op-ed for The Diplomat, Stanford assistant professor Phillip Y. Lipscy says the Trump presidency offers Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe an opportunity to realize his vision of a more prominent Japan, yet the depth of the bilateral relationship and ability to deliver hinge on how much the two leaders can compromise on economic and security interests.

Read the piece here.

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U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe walk together at the White House on Feb. 10, 2017. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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President Trump's Asia Inbox

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Scholars at Stanford's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies assess the strategic situation in East Asia to be unsettled, unstable, and drifting in ways unfavorable for American interests. These developments are worrisome to countries in the region, most of which want the United States to reduce uncertainty about American intentions by taking early and effective steps to clarify and solidify U.S. engagement. In the absence of such steps, they will seek to reduce uncertainty and protect their own interests in ways that reduce U.S. influence and ability to shape regional institutions. This 23-page report entitled “President Trump’s Asia Inbox” suggests specific steps to achieve American economic and security interests.

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Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
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Gi-Wook Shin
Michael H. Armacost
Takeo Hoshi
Thomas Fingar
Kathleen Stephens
Donald K. Emmerson

The U.S.-Japan Relationship in the New Era

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The U.S.-Japan relationship has grown from strength to strength, benefitting both countries in terms of diplomacy, security and trade. Now, at a time when China is moving forward with its policy of expansionism in the East and South China Seas, and North Korea continues to threaten both the U and Japanese mainland, how can the two countries best work together to ensure regional stability? At this seminar, up-and-coming scholars from Japan and the United States will explore the potential opportunities and challenges for the U.S.-Japan relationship under the new Trump administration.

 

Panelists:

Phillip Lipscy
The Thomas Rohlen Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. His fields of research include international and comparative political economy, international security, and the politics of East Asia, particularly Japan.

Satoru Mori
Professor, Hosei University.  Former official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Dr. Mori holds a PhD in Law from the University of Tokyo. His research interests include contemporary American diplomacy, especially with Asian countries.  Previously he was a visiting researcher at Princeton University and George Washington University. He has delivered remarks at the U.S. Department of State, CSIS, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and other symposiums in the U.S.

Shino Watanabe
Associate Professor, Sophia University.  Dr. Watanabe obtained her PhD in International Relations from the University of Virginia, followed by a Master’s degree from Tufts University. She also studied at School of International Studies, Peking University in China.  Her main research interests are Chinese foreign policy and international relations of East Asia. She published a number of articles on China’s foreign economic policy and foreign relations.

Moderated by Daniel Sneider, Associate Director, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University

 

*Refreshments will be served*

Panel Discussions
Japan Colloquium Series

China's Involvement in Central Asia: Economic and Geopolitical Implications

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In the two decades since the countries of Central Asia declared independence, China has become one of their main partners, eclipsing many other actors. This has impacted the international relations of the new states, and structured their economic development. China's influence in the region has, however, raised many questions, ranging from issues of national integrity to economic stability and geopolitical policies.

In terms of economics, hydrocarbons and trade are at the forefront of Chinese activity in the region. Beijing has become a key positive element in the development of a service economy and new technologies, while China's geographical proximity has supported regional development and the insertion of Central Asian countries into world markets. However, Beijing also has played a negative role by using the local economies as mere sources for raw materials and by destroying, through dominating competition, the already very fragile post-Soviet industrial fabric.

On the geopolitical level, how does Central Asia handle its relations with a diverse array of international actors and thus competing interests in order to achieve a positive balance? Central Asian governments have been playing a careful balancing game between the two main actors, Beijing and Moscow. However, many Central Asians argue for countering what they see as an impasse in their countries' partnerships with Russia and China by developing relations with other actors, particularly Muslim countries (such as Turkey, Iran or the UAE) and Western countries. This presentation will address questions at both the economic and geopolitical levels, where Beijing has made it possible to act as a catalyst for political debates about the choices made by Central Asia governments. 

 

 

Peyrouse

Sebastien Peyrouse is the Research Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs of The George Washington University. He was a doctoral and postdoctoral Fellow at the French Institute for Central Asia Studies in Tashkent (1998-2000 and 2002-2005), a Research Fellow at the Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University in Sapporo (2006), and a Research Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington (2006-2007). In 2008-2012, he was a Senior Research Fellow with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program (SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C.) and with the Institute for Security and Development Policy (Stockholm). He is an Associated Scholar with the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS, Paris), and with the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE, Madrid) and a member of the Brussels-based EUCAM (Europe-Central Asia Monitoring). 

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Dr. Peyrouse is the author of Turkmenistan. Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development (M. E. Sharpe, 2011), and the co-author of The 'Chinese Question' in Central Asia. Domestic Order, Social Changes, and the Chinese Factor (Hurst, Columbia University Press, 2012) and of Globalizing Central Asia. Geopolitics and the Challenges of Economic Development (M.E. Sharpe, 2012). He has also co-edited China and India in Central Asia. A new "Great Game"? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), and Mapping Central Asia: Indian Perceptions and Strategies (Ashgate, 2011). His articles have appeared in Europe Asia Studies, Problems of Post-Communism, Nationalities Papers, China Perspectives, Religion, State & Society, Journal of Church and State. He has authored or co-authored seven books on Central Asia in French.

 

This event is co-sponsored by the Shorenstein APARC's China Program and The Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford (FACES).

This event is part of the winter colloquia series entitled "China: Going Global" sponsored by Shorenstein APARC's China Program.

China: Going Global

Beijing’s new Silk Road initiative links old trade corridors from Asia to Africa and Europe. Many perceive that President Xi Jinping’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative as well as China’s many other trade, investment and finance projects transcend their economic calculus and reflect Beijing’s geopolitical ambitions to reposition China’s standing on the global stage. The China Program brings leading experts to explore the drivers and motivators of China’s international initiatives, their reach and scope as well as the implications of China’s increasing activism on the world stage.

http://aparc.fsi.stanford.edu/research/china-going-global

Sebastien Peyrouse <i>Research Professor of International Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University</i>
Seminars
China: Going Global

Is Knowing Half the Battle? Behavioral Responses to Risk Information from the National Health Screening Program in Korea

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The benefits of screening depend on whether information changes individual behaviors. We study the National Health Screening Program in Korea which provides free general health screening to individuals aged over 40. We apply a regression discontinuity design to estimate behavioral responses to information about one’s risk classifications for diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol. We find evidence of weight loss around the high risk threshold for diabetes, where risk information is combined with prompting for a secondary examination and medical treatment. However, we find no differences around other risk classification thresholds, where risk information is not combined with such prompting.
 
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Hyuncheol Bryant Kim is an applied micro-economist with broad interests in  health economics, development economics, public economics, education economics, and labor economics. The main goal of Prof.Kim's research is to understand the impact and behavioral responses to the public intervention programs in both developed and developing countries. Prof.Kim has been investigating various public intervention programs such as cancer screening, general health screening, long-term care insurance, girls' education support program, HIV/AIDS prevention programs such as male circumcision and HIV testing, mother and child health program as well as job opportunity and internship program on employment.

 

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Hyuncheol Bryant Kim Lois and Mel Tukman Assistant Professor, Department of Policy Analysis and Management (PAM), Cornell University
Seminars

Aid as Transnational Social Capital: Korea's Official Development Assistance in Higher Education

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Rennie Moon explores a new framework for higher education official development assistance (ODA) with a focus on the transnational bridging benefits of social capital. She first explains why and how a transnational social capital approach can improve the current focus on human resources and local bridges in higher education development. She then illustrates its merits by examining, 1) the transnational bridging potential of social capital formed by foreign students currently studying in Korea; and 2) the actual transnational social capital contributions of foreign professionals who returned home after completing a Korean higher education ODA program. In doing so, she directs particular attention to the value of transnational social capital in promoting development cooperation and public diplomacy. She concludes by discussing how this approach has conceptual importance and practical implications for development cooperation in higher education.

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Moon is the 2016-17 Koret Fellow in the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, and an associate professor at the Underwood International College at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. With a background in international comparative education and sociology, her research has concentrated on globalization and education, brain/talent flows, diversity and social tolerance and official development assistance in higher education. Moon, a graduate of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, Ph.D. ‘09, has collaborated with Stanford professor Gi-Wook Shin on a multiyear research project that examines diversity in higher education in East Asia. She co-edited the book Internationalizing Higher Education in Korea: Challenges and Opportunities in Comparative Perspective published in 2016. Her articles have appeared in academic journals including Comparative Education Review, Comparative Education, Australian Journal of International Affairs, and Pacific Affairs. As a Korean-American scholar, Moon has written editorials and columns in both English and Korean on higher education in Korea and Asia for the Nikkei Asian Review, The Conversation, East Asia Forum, Australian Outlook, Dong-A Daily, MK News, and other media outlets. Moon holds her a doctorate and a master's degree in international comparative education from Stanford and a bachelor’s degree in French from Wellesley College.

Supported by the Koret Foundation, the Koret Fellowship brings professionals to Stanford to conduct research on contemporary Korean affairs. 

Rennie Moon

616 Serra StreetEncina Hall E301Stanford, CA94305-6055
(650) 723-9404 (650) 723-6530
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rennie_moon.jpg Ph.D.

Rennie J. Moon joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center as the 2016-17 Koret Fellow in the Korea Program.  Moon is an associate professor at the Underwood International College at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. Her research explores the interrelationships among globalization, migration and citizenship, and internationalization of higher education.

Moon, a graduate of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, Ph.D. ‘09, has collaborated with Stanford professor Gi-Wook Shin on a multiyear research project that examines diversity in higher education in East Asia. She co-edited the book Internationalizing Higher Education in Korea: Challenges and Opportunities in Comparative Perspective published earlier this year. Her articles have appeared in academic journals including Comparative Education Review, Comparative Education, Australian Journal of International Affairs, and Pacific Affairs.

As a Korean-American scholar, Moon has written editorials and columns in both English and Korean on higher education in Korea and Asia for the Nikkei Asian Review, The Conversation, East Asia Forum, Australian Outlook, Dong-A Daily, MK News, and other media outlets.

Supported by the Koret Foundation, the Koret Fellowship brings professionals to Stanford to conduct research on contemporary Korean affairs. In 2015, the fellowship expanded its focus to include social, cultural and educational issues in North and South Korea, and aims to identify emerging scholars working on those areas.

During her fellowship, Moon will also give public talks and be a lead organizer of the Koret Workshop, an international conference held annually at Stanford.

Moon holds a doctorate and master’s degree in international comparative education from Stanford and a bachelor’s degree in French from Wellesley College.

Visiting Associate Professor
2016-2017 Koret Fellow
Rennie Moon <i>2016-17 Koret Fellow</i>, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University
Seminars
Korean Studies Colloquium Series

Corporate Governance Reform in Japan

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Since Abenomics launched corporate governance reforms as the third arrow of its policies mix, a series of reform measures were introduced such as the Stewardship Code, Corporate Governance Code, and the organization of JPX 400 by the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In this presentation, I firstly summarize recent changes of governance arrangements in Japanese firms, focusing on the trend of listing and de-listing, ownership changes, rapid deleveraging, the rise and fall of activism, gradual increase of independent directors, and modest use of high-powered incentives. I characterize these changes as a hybridization of corporate governance. Then, I suggest an agenda for how to fine tune hybrid structures: the reestablishment of mega-banks and client firms, the role of block shareholders, a new long-term commitment scheme post cross shareholding, the choice of management or monitoring boards, and the use of pay for performance associated with long-term employment.

 

Hideaki Mi

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yajima is Director, Waseda Institute for Advanced Study(WIAS), Professor of Japanese Economy, Ph.D. in Commerce, Graduate School of Commerce, Waseda University. He teaches about the Japanese economy and corporate governance in Japan. He finished his Ph.D coursework at the University of Tokyo in economics, got a position as Research Associate at the University of Tokyo Institute of Social Sciences, and then moved to Waseda University. He stayed at Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University, as a visiting scholar from 1992-94 and 2004-05. He was asked to consult by several institutions such as the World Bank, Hawaii University, Hebrew University, and Korean Development Institute. He was also appointed at numerous positions: Faculty Fellow, Research Institute of Economy, Trade & Industry, a Special Research Fellow of Policy Research Institute (Ministry of Finance), Research Fellow of EHESS (Paris), and an Adjunct Professor of Chung-Ang University (Seoul). He has written several books and numerous papers including: The Ownership of Japanese Corporations in the 20th Century, Review of Financial Studies, 2014, Benchmarking Business Unit Governance in Turbulent Times: The Case of Japanese Firms, Benchmarking: An International Journal, 2012, The Global Financial Crisis and the Evolution of Corporate Governance in Japan, laviedesidees.fr, 2009, Corporate Governance in Japan, Oxford University Press, 2007 (co-edited), Changes and Continuity in Japan, Routledge Curzon Press, 2002 (co-edited), Policies for Competitiveness, Oxford University Press, 1999 (co-edited).

Corporate Governance Reform in Japan
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Hideaki Miyajima Director, Waseda Institute for Advanced Study and Professor, Waseda University
Seminars
Japan Colloquium Series

Duterte and Other Threats to Liberal Democracy in the Philippines

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Since assuming the presidency of the Philippines in June 2016 Rodrigo Duterte has been the focus of considerable international attention because of his brusque personality and two dramatically new policies: 1) a take-no-prisoners war on illegal drugs that has resulted in the deaths of over 6,000 alleged drug pushers and users; and 2) an abrupt distancing of relations with the United States coupled with an enthusiastic embrace of China. But considerably less attention is being paid to the Duterte government’s other policies or to the underlying political dynamics that will determine the efficacy of his government and, perhaps, the future of liberal democracy in the Philippines. The speaker will situate the Duterte government in the context of Philippine’s democratic experience, identify the political dynamics that are likely to determine its future, and assess the multiple threats to liberal democracy in the Philippines.

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David Timberman is a political analyst and development practitioner with 30 years of experience analyzing and addressing political, governance and conflict-related challenges, principally in Southeast and South Asia.  As a Visiting Scholar at Stanford/APARC he is working on a book on the contemporary Philippine political economy.  During 2015-2016 he was a Visiting Professor of Political Science at De La Salle University in Manila. He has lived and worked in the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore, including experiencing first-hand the democratic transitions in the Philippines (1986-1988) and Indonesia (1998-2001). He has written extensively on political and governance issues in the Philippines and has edited or co-edited multi-author volumes on the Philippines, Cambodia, and economic policy reform in Southeast Asia.

 

David G. Timberman 2016-2017 Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Fellow on Contemporary Southeast Asia
Seminars

Eight Threats to Freedom of Expression in India

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Due to venue capacity limits, we are no longer accepting RSVPs for this event.

 

India prides itself on being the "world's largest democracy". In some respects it is certifiably democratic; as in the regular conduct of free and fair elections. But in other respects there are deficits. One such area is freedom of expression. While Indian writers, artists and film-makers are certainly freer than their counterparts in totalitarian countries such as China, they are less free when compared to their colleagues in democracies such as Sweden or the United States. This lecture identifies eight distinct threats to freedom of expression in India, the most important of which are the presence of archaic colonial laws and the rise of identity politics.

 

 Guha is a historian and biographer based in Bangalore. He has taught at the universities of Yale and Stanford, held the Arné Naess Chair at the University of Oslo, and been the Indo-American Community Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In the academic year 2011-2012 he served as the Philippe Roman Professor of History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics.

Guha’s books include a pioneering environmental history, The Unquiet Woods (University of California Press, 1989), and an award-winning social history of cricket, A Corner of a Foreign Field (Picador, 2002). India after Gandhi (Macmillan/Ecco Press, 2007) was chosen as a book of the year by the Economist, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out, and Outlook, and as a book of the decade in the Times of India, the Times of London, and The Hindu. His most recent book is Gandhi Before India (Knopf, 2014), which was chosen as a notable book of the year by the New York Times.

Apart from his books, Guha also writes a syndicated column, that appears in six languages in newspapers with a combined readership of some twenty mllion. Guha’s books and essays have been translated into more than twenty languages. The New York Times has referred to him as ‘perhaps the best among India’s non fiction writers’; Time Magazine has called him ‘Indian democracy’s pre-eminent chronicler’.

Ramachandra Guha’s awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History, the Daily Telegraph/Cricket Society prize, the Malcolm Adideshiah Award for excellence in social science research, the Ramnath Goenka Prize for excellence in journalism, the Sahitya Akademi Award, and the R. K. Narayan Prize. In 2009, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the Republic of India’s third highest civilian honour. In 2008, and again in 2013, Prospect Magazine nominated Guha as one of the world’s most influential intellectuals. In 2014, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in the humanities by Yale University. In 2015, he was awarded the Fukuoka Prize for contributions to Asian studies.

 

About the colloquia:

In 2014, Indian voters gave Narendra Modi and the BJP a mandate to accelerate India’s economic reforms and revitalize its foreign relations, in particular with the United States and with partners in East Asia. But the pace and depth of reforms and economic transformation have not met the high expectations, despite strong GDP performance. Economic growth remains uneven, job creation sluggish, and massive infrastructural and administrative problems continue to trouble many sectors of the economy. After twenty-five years of economic reforms, India’s potential as a new global industrial hub has still not been realized and its vast resources of labor and talent remain underdeveloped.

During the 2017 winter and spring quarters Shorenstein APARC and the Center for South Asia will host a series of lectures and discussions that explore what makes India democratic and dynamic, and the obstacles that prevent the country from realizing its enormous potential.

Also, in 2017, the next Global Entrepreneur Summit will be in India, sequel to the 2016 Stanford-hosted Summit. This colloquium will help prepare for that event by reaching out to scholars, students, interested stakeholders, business leaders and others in the Bay Area.

This colloquia is co-sponsored with the Stanford Center for South Asia 

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Seminars
South Asia Colloquia

How India Works: Caste, Community and the Indian Economy

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Since its independence, India’s statesmen, policymakers and social scientists all firmly believed that the entrenched hierarchical caste order and the deep divisions between religious communities would become less salient, and perhaps wither away, as the country developed a modern economy and a new division of labor based on skill and merit rather than a ‘traditional’ inherited status. Today, after seven decades of democracy and steady economic growth, it is clear that both caste and religious community are as important as ever. Rather than disappearing, these cultural identities and social networks have evolved along with the economy. A closer look at how the Indian economy is organized reveals that caste and community fundamentally shape how labor is organized, how markets function, how urban development happens, and how industry is owned and organized. Two case studies, one of skilled labor in South India and another of the structure of industrial growth in a city in central India, will illustrate how India actually works.

Thomas Blom Hansen, Director, Center for South Asia; Reliance-Dhirubhai Ambani Professor in South Asian Studies; Professor in Anthropology, Stanford University

As the Director of Stanford’s Center for South Asian Studies, Hansen is charged with building a substantial new program. He has many and broad interests spanning South Asia and Southern Africa, several cities and multiple theoretical and disciplinary interests from political theory and continental philosophy to psychoanalysis, comparative religion and contemporary urbanism..

 

Aruna Ranganathan, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford University

Aruna Ranganathan studies questions of work and employment in the context of economic development. By applying novel methods that combine field-experimental and quantitative research designs with ethnography and interviews, Aruna's research investigates how low-income occupations in developing countries are governed, organized, seek meaning through their work and navigate the market. Through her research, Aruna strives to advance our theoretical understanding of work, while informing the design of labor-market institutions and policy for the developing world. In previous projects based in India, Aruna has studied the boom of IT and business process outsourcing, the professionalization of plumbing, price-setting behavior among handcraft artisans and the transition of women into formal employment in garment factories.

 

 

About the colloquia:

In 2014, Indian voters gave Narendra Modi and the BJP a mandate to accelerate India’s economic reforms and revitalize its foreign relations, in particular with the United States and with partners in East Asia. But the pace and depth of reforms and economic transformation have not met the high expectations, despite strong GDP performance. Economic growth remains uneven, job creation sluggish, and massive infrastructural and administrative problems continue to trouble many sectors of the economy. After twenty-five years of economic reforms, India’s potential as a new global industrial hub has still not been realized and its vast resources of labor and talent remain underdeveloped.

During the 2017 winter and spring quarters Shorenstein APARC and the Center for South Asia will host a series of lectures and discussions that explore what makes India democratic and dynamic, and the obstacles that prevent the country from realizing its enormous potential.

Also, in 2017, the next Global Entrepreneur Summit will be in India, sequel to the 2016 Stanford-hosted Summit. This colloquium will help prepare for that event by reaching out to scholars, students, interested stakeholders, business leaders and others in the Bay Area.

 

This colloquia is co-sponsored with the Stanford Center for South Asia 

csa logorust cropped

Seminars
South Asia Colloquia
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