This event is sponsored by the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREEES), and the Stanford Music Department.

Movie Screening: 7:30pm-8:35pm

FREE TO ROCK is a feature length documentary film telling the story of how western rock music contributed to ending the Cold War.  Prohibited by the Soviet and Eastern Bloc authorities as propaganda, the “soft power” of western rock music infected the youth behind the Iron Curtain, spreading like a virus.  This forbidden music was distributed and sold as “bone records” (etched on x-ray paper for 20 or fewer plays) and cassettes by Black market entrepreneurs and fledgling pop-culture capitalists.  In the eyes of the Soviet Ministry of Culture, western rock music combined the twin evils of spreading the English language - undermining a Russification initiative in the 15 Republics of the USSR extending from Kazakhstan to the Baltics - and encouraging illicit free enterprise.

The film, narrated by Kiefer Sutherland, features interviews with former President, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev (former Premier of the Soviet Union), Billy Joel, the Beach Boys, rock and roll pioneers from the Soviet Union, and is directed and produced by Jim Brown, four time Emmy Award winning director. 

Panel discussion, 8:35-9:30pm

Power of Music and Political Change

Moderator

Michael McFaul, Former Ambassador to Russia and Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Panelists

Mark Applebaum, Associate Professor of Music, Stanford University

Nick Binkley, Free to Rock, Producer

Jim Brown, Free to Rock, Director

Valery Saifudinov, founder of the first Soviet Rock n' Roll band, the Revengers

Joanna Stingray, first American producer of Soviet Rock n' Roll

Kathryn Stoner, Director of the Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies, Stanford University

This event has moved to the Philippines Conference Room

Professor Paine will explore China’s outlook on the territorial disputes in the South China Sea within the larger settings of Chinese geography and history, including the lessons Chinese leaders continue to draw from Russia’s experience, and how these contexts shape China’s views of its East Asian neighbors. Earlier paradigms of foreign policy offered by Confucianism before 1911 and by Communism thereafter have undergone serious critiques. Which elements in these partly tarnished legacies will China’s leaders decide to affirm, alter, reject, or ignore as they fashion a foreign policy for the 21^st century? The outcome will signally affect not only China, but most particularly its neighbors in Southeast and Northeast Asia.

Sarah Paine is a professor of strategy and policy at the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI. She is the author of two prize-winning books: The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949 (Cambridge, 2012) and Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier (M. E. Sharpe,1996). Among her other publications are The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 (2003); Modern China, 1644 to the Present (co-auth., 2010); Nation Building, State Building, and Economic Development (ed., 2010); and four co-edited naval books respectively on blockades, coalitions, expeditionary warfare, and commerce-raiding. She has degrees in in history (Columbia, PhD), Russian (Middlebury, MA), and Latin American studies (Harvard, BA).

Over the past 23 years, Mongolia’s democracy has advanced on many fronts. The initial transition to democracy was peaceful in both economic and political areas. Since embracing democracy in 1990, democratic development in Mongolia has been coupled with rapid economic growth, sustained by a neo-liberal economic policy. Regionally, Mongolia is often seen as a successful case of democratic transition and development. However, in recent years, the fragilities in Mongolian democracy have revealed themselves, especially domestically, in the booming economic climate that is unparalleled in the country's history.

Mongolia, located in north East Asia, locked between China and Russia, has a unique geopolitical situation, unlike any other country in the world. With these two large, powerful and politically changing neighbors, Mongolia pays constant and careful attention to maintaining diplomatic balance. Russia's historical, political, and cultural influence on Mongolia's 20th century cannot be underestimated. China, in complicated and important areas, represents vast economic opportunities. These economic opportunities, and the development that they drive, are viewed with increased suspicion domestically and regionally. However, Mongolia’s rapid economic development and democratic reforms may create additional opportunities and positive political developments in the region.