Stanford University

Joseph L. C. Cheng

Walter H. Shorenstein
Asia-Pacific Research Center
616 Serra St., Encina Hall C302-23
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 723-3368 (650) 723-6530
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Visiting Professor
ChengJosephWEB.jpg PhD

Research Interests

Asia-Pacific and global competitiveness; national innovation and technology policies; foreign R&D investment; strategy and organization design for transnational firms.

Professional Biography

Joseph L. C. Cheng joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) in 2012 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he is currently professor of international business and director of the CIC Center for Advanced Study in International Competitiveness. CIC (Committee on Institutional Cooperation) is the nation’s primer consortium of top-tier research universities in the Midwest, including the Big Ten Conference members and the University of Chicago. 

During his time at Shorenstein APARC, Cheng will conduct research on the international competitiveness of multinational firms from the Asia-Pacific, with a focus on the JACKS countries (Japan, Australia, China, Korea, and Singapore). The project has two main objectives:  (1) to identify the key competitive advantages of the JACKS countries both individually and collectively as a cluster of economies; and (2) to investigate how indigenous firms from the JACKS countries internationalize and leverage home-based advantages to enhance their competitiveness overseas. The research findings will be reported in a forthcoming book that Cheng is currently writing: Asia-Pacific and the JACKS Multinationals: Economics, Culture, and International Competitiveness.

Cheng is a consulting editor for the Journal of International Business Studies and senior editorial consultant to the European Journal of International Management. He is also a guest editor for an upcoming special issue of Long Range Planning on “China Business and International Competitiveness: Economics, Politics, and Technology.” Additionally, he currently serves or has served on the editorial boards of several other journals, including Management International Review, Journal of World Business, Organizational Dynamics, and Journal of Engineering and Technology Management.

Cheng holds a PhD in business administration from the University of Michigan and a BS (with honors) in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Emerging Infectious Disease Surveillance in Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Naval Area Medical Research Unit 2

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Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) pose international security threats because of their potential to inflict harm upon humans, crops, livestock, health infrastructure, and economies. The following questions stimulated the research described in this paper: What infrastructure is necessary to enable EID surveillance in developing countries? What cultural, political, and economic challenges stand in the way of setting up such infrastructure? And are there general principles that might guide engagement with developing countries and support EID surveillance infrastructure?

Using the U.S. Naval Area Medical Research Unit No. 2 as a common denominator, this paper compares barriers to EID surveillance in Cambodia and Indonesia and presents key factors—uncovered through extensive interviews—that constrain disease surveillance systems. In Cambodia, the key factors that emerged were low salaries; poor staff and human resources management; the effect of patronage networks; a culture of donor dependence; contrasting priorities between the government and international donors; and a lack of compensation for animal culling. The Cambodian military has also played a part. The government ceased a merit-based salary supplement scheme for civil servants after the military is alleged to have demanded similar pay incentives that donors had no interest in funding.

In Indonesia the key issues emerging as barriers to effective surveillance include poor host-donor relationships, including differing host-donor priorities and a misunderstanding of NAMRU-2 by Indonesian authorities; low salaries; a decline in the qualifications of personnel in the Ministry of Health; poor compensation for animal culling; and difficulties incentivizing local-level reporting in an era of decentralization.

As the interviews with in-country practitioners revealed, low levels of development in general are the main impediments to building EID surveillance infrastructure and are perhaps beyond the scope of health and scientific agencies at this point. Nevertheless, promoting greater understanding of these issues is a critical first step in mitigating negative outcomes.

Published: Ear, Sophal. "Emerging Infectious Disease Surveillance in Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, and the US Naval Area Medical Research Unit 2." Asian Security 8.2 (2012): 164-187.

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Asia Health Policy Program working paper #27
Authors

Heeyoung Kwon

Walter H. Shorenstein
Asia-Pacific Research Center
616 Serra St., Encina Hall E301
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 725-2507 (650) 723-6530
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Visiting Scholar
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Heeyoung Kwon is a visiting scholar with the Korean Studies Program, and she is also currently a program officer in the Public Diplomacy Department at the Korea Foundation. She has been responsible for organizing bilateral forums such as the Seoul-Washington Forum and the Korea-Japan Forum, as well as KF Global Seminars at the Korea Foundation.

Her recent interests are South Korea-U.S. foreign policy toward North Korea and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, including the possible resumption of the Six Party Talks.  

Kwon received a BA in history from Hanyang University in Seoul, and an MA in Korean studies from the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University. The topic of her MA thesis was about the South Korea-U.S. relationship, focusing on the dispatch of Korean soldiers to the Vietnam War.

James Ockey

Walter H. Shorenstein
Asia-Pacific Research Center
616 Serra St., Encina Hall E310
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 725-9623 (650) 723-6530
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Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Distinguished Fellow on Southeast Asia
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James Ockey is the Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Distinguished Fellow on Contemporary Southeast Asia, and will be at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) from January through March in 2012. 

He is currently the coordinator of political science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he is an associate professor (reader). 

Ockey’s research interests cover many aspects of Thai politics, including democratization, civil-military relations, electoral politics, and political conflict. While at Shorenstein APARC he will be working on the manuscript for a book project, tentatively titled Trakun Kanmuang: Family Politics in Thailand. The book will analyze patterns of family relationships in the Thai parliament, outline the role of provincial political families in promoting or inhibiting the democratization process at local and national levels, and explore the place of political families in the social structures of provincial Thailand. 

Ockey earned an MA and PhD in government at Cornell University, and a BA in political science from Brigham Young University.

James Ockey in residence as 2012 Lee Kong Chian Fellow

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What can the strong tradition of political families in Thailand's parliament tell us about the country's contemporary political system? James Ockey, a 2012 Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Distinguished Fellow, continued his research and writing on this timely topic during his winter quarter residence at Stanford. Ockey, who specializes in the politics of Thailand, is a political science professor at Canterbury University in New Zealand.
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Stanford expert: Asia's year in review

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The past year unfolded with Japan’s unprecedented triple disaster and closed with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s historic trip to Myanmar. Moving into 2012, Europe’s economy creaks along uncertainly and China gears up for a major leadership change. In an interview with the Ukranian magazine Glavred, political science professor Phillip Lipscy discusses landmark Asian economic and political events of 2011, and what they could mean in the coming year.

What was the most significant event in terms of Asia’s economy in 2011?

The March 11 Great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami: Besides the tragic loss of life and property, the disaster disrupted global supply chains and plunged the Japanese economy into a recession. The nuclear meltdown in Fukushima also led many countries to question the future of nuclear energy—this will have long-lasting consequences for global energy markets and efforts to deal with climate change.

What was the most significant political event?

Signs of political opening in Burma/Myanmar could have profound consequences not only for that country but for the rest of Asia as well. Hillary Clinton became the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit the country in 50 years. Aung San Suu Kyi has been released from detention and the National League for Democracy has re-registered as a political party. If this leads to democratization, it will be remembered as an important turning point.

What new policy and economic trends appeared in 2011? Which of them will continue into the coming year?

There seems to be a subtle shift in views towards China's economy. Chinese government officials are deeply concerned about the "middle income trap." China has reached a level of development where many countries saw their economic growth slow down sharply. Rising incomes are eroding China's advantage in low-cost manufacturing. There is much talk of multinational companies relocating their operations to even cheaper countries, such as Vietnam. This is an important transition for China, and it will remain an important issue in coming years.

In terms of people, who do you feel was the most notable, and who was
the most disappointing this past year?

The people of Japan, who responded with remarkable perseverance, order, and discipline to such a tragic natural disaster.  

The most disappointing were the political leaders of Japan, who could not set aside
their differences and come together for the sake of their country.

Will China continue to spread its influence in 2012, and might any countries oppose this process?

China is now the second largest economy in the world and an important military power. It is inevitable that China will rise in international stature and influence. However, Chinese leaders also face some important challenges—rising inequality, an overheated housing market, and bad loans in its financial system. The focus of international attention should be on integrating China into the world order as a peaceful, responsible stakeholder—not on confrontation.

What impact could the economic crisis in Europe have on the economics and international policy of the Asia-Pacific region?

If the financial crisis in Europe is mismanaged, nobody will escape the consequences. Europe is a crucial export market for Asian countries, and European financial institutions are major lenders to emerging economies in the region. Equally as important, repeated financial crises and political mismanagement in the United States, Japan, and Europe could begin to undermine perceptions of democratic government and capitalism.

What will be most important event in Asia next year?

China's leadership transition, particularly given the many immediate challenges the country faces.

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Aung San Suu Kyi at her house in Rangoon, Myanmar, Dec. 2011.
Flickr/U.S. State Department
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Identity Politics in a Muslim-Majority Democracy: Explaining Communal Appeals in Indonesian Election Campaigns, 2009-2011

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Despite the many benefits of democracy, some scholars believe that introducing elections in ethnically divided states can lead to the politicization of identity and to ethnic conflict. Yet few scholars have explored what compels politicians to mobilize around identity in the first place. In search of an answer, Jeremy Menchik and George Washington University doctoral student Colm Fox compiled the only known dataset of campaign advertisements—over 5,000 political banners, posters, and stickers—across hundreds of electoral districts in the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy, Indonesia. They coded these advertisements for the use of religious, ethnic, nationalist, party, and regional symbols in order to then explain their variation. Their findings shed light on how “politics works” in a new Muslim democracy and suggest that parties, including Islamists, are strategic about their use of identity appeals. Menchik will illustrate this and other findings with ample recourse to visual images.

Dr. Jeremy Menchik is a 2011–12 Shorenstein Fellow. His PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison drew on two years of field research to explain variations in religious and political tolerance in Indonesia during the twentieth century. He has been a Luce Scholar at Columbia University and a visiting fellow at the State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta. He is working on a book manuscript based on his dissertation: Tolerance Without Liberalism: Islamic Institutions in Twentieth Century Indonesia.

Co-sponsored with the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Stanford University.

Philippines Conference Room

Jeremy Menchik

Walter H. Shorenstein
Asia-Pacific Research Center
616 Serra St C331
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 724-5656 (650) 723-9741
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Shorenstein Fellow (2011-2012)
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Jeremy Menchik joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) from the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research is in the area of comparative politics and international relations with a focus on religion and politics in the Muslim world, especially Indonesia. At Shorenstein APARC, he is preparing his dissertation for publication as a book titled, Tolerance Without Liberalism: Islamic Institutions in Twentieth Century Indonesia, and developing related projects on the origins of intolerance, the relationship between religion and nationalism, and political symbolism in democratic elections.

Menchik holds an MA and a PhD in political science from UW-Madison and a BA, also in political science, from the University of Michigan. He will be an assistant professor in international relations at Boston University beginning in 2013.

Jeremy Menchik 2011-2012 Shorenstein Fellow, Shorenstein APARC Speaker Stanford University
Seminars

Korea and Vietnam: The Bilateral Relationship

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Ambassador Joon-woo Park, the 2011–12 Koret Fellow and a former senior diplomat from Korea, will give a historical review of Korea-Vietnam bilateral relations, including the effects of Korea's participation in the Vietnam War; bilateral relations today including diplomatic, economic and cultural exchanges; and prospects for future developments and cooperation for East Asian integration.

As a career diplomat, Ambassador Park served in numerous key posts, including those of Ambassador to the European Union and to Singapore and Presidential Advisor on Foreign Affairs. Park worked closely for over 20 years with Ban Ki-moon, the former Korean diplomat who is now the United Nations Secretary-General.

This event is made possible by the generous support from the Koret Foundation.

Oksenberg Conference Room

Joon-woo Park

Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall C324
616 Serra Street
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 724-6404 (650) 723-6530
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2011-2012 Koret Fellow
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Joon-woo Park, a former senior diplomat from Korea, is the 2011–12 Koret Fellow with the Korean Studies Program (KSP).

Park brings over 30 years of foreign policy experience to Stanford, including a deep understanding of the U.S.-Korea relationship, bilateral relations, and major Northeast Asian regional issues. In view of Korea’s increasingly important presence as a global economic and political leader, Park will explore foreign policy strategies for furthering this presence. In addition, he will consider possibilities for increased U.S.-Korea collaboration in their relations with China, as well as prospects for East Asian regional integration based on the European Union (EU) model. He will also teach a course during the winter quarter, entitled Korea's Foreign Policy in Transition.

In 2010, while serving as ambassador to the EU, Park signed the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Brussels. That same year he also completed the Framework Agreement, strengthening EU-South Korea collaboration on significant global issues, such as human rights, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and climate change. Park’s experience with such major bilateral agreements comes as the proposed Korea-U.S. FTA is nearing ratification.

Park holds a BA and an MA in law from Seoul National University.

The Koret Fellowship was established in 2008 through the generosity of the Koret Foundation to promote intellectual diversity and breadth in KSP, bringing leading professionals in Asia and the United States to Stanford to study U.S.-Korea relations. The fellows conduct their own research on the bilateral relationship, with an emphasis on contemporary relations, with the broad aim of fostering greater understanding and closer ties between the two countries.

Joon-woo Park 2011-2012 Koret Fellow in Korean Studies Program, Shorenstein APARC Speaker
Seminars
Koret Workshop
Korean Studies Colloquium Series
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