U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged Stanford students to become global citizens, working together beyond borders for peace, security and a common prosperity.
"You may come from the United States or Korea, Japan or elsewhere, Arab countries, but you're now part of a global family," Ban said to a crowded auditorium during his campus visit. "Therefore, it's very important to raise your capacity as global citizens. Only then, I think we can say, we're living in a very harmoniously prosperous world."
Despite a troubling tally of crises around the world, Ban was hopeful about the future, and said he gains inspiration from the younger generation.
"Everything my life has taught me points to the power of international solidarity to overcome any obstacle," he said.
Ban's speech, sponsored by Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, kicked off a series of events celebrating the 30th anniversary of the center.
Ban was introduced by former Secretary of Defense William Perry, an FSI senior fellow, who lauded Ban for his work on women's rights, climate change, nuclear disarmament and gay rights.
Ban told the audience that the world was undergoing massive changes and outlined three ways to navigate the transition: sustainable development, empowering young people and women, and pursuing dignity and democracy.
"The level and degree of global change that we face today is far more profound than at any other period in my adult lifetime," he said.
"We have no time to lose," he added later.
California, he said, has led on clean air legislation, creating a cap-and-trade law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"I am convinced national and state action can spur progress in global negotiations, creating a virtuous cycle," he said.
Sustainable development, Ban said, goes hand in hand with creating peace. Noting the problems in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria, he said a country cannot be developed if there is no peace and security.
"Syria is in a death spiral," he said. He cited the toll the conflict has taken on Syria's citizens and surrounding countries since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. More than 60,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed. Hundreds of thousands more have been displaced.
Ban spoke at Stanford as a hostage crisis also unfolded in the region.
In retaliation for military action by France in the West African nation of Mali, Islamist extremists in Algeria took several hostages at an international gas field Thursday. News organizations reported that the kidnappers and some hostages were killed in a raid by the Algerian government.
Ban spoke of the efforts by the United Nations to counter terrorism in Mali, where Islamist rebels last year took control in the north in the chaos following a military coup that ousted the elected government of President Amadou Toumani Touré.
"We must continue to work for peace," Ban said. "Our hard work cannot be reversed, especially for women and young people."
With half the world's population under the age of 25, Ban said the international community must support and empower that group.
Ban also said that fighting for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities was important in advancing peace and prosperity around the world.
"I have learned to speak out for one essential reason," he said. "Lives and fundamental values are at stake."
Ban told the students to harness a spirit of hope as they confront the challenges of the world.
For him, he said, that spirit was sparked by a visit to California decades ago. He reflected on an eight-day visit to the state in 1962, when he stayed with a family, the Pattersons, in Novato on a trip sponsored by the Red Cross.
"In many ways, I still carry the same energy and enthusiasm and sense of wonder that I did when I first landed on Miss Patterson's doorstep half a century ago," he said.
"I came back knowing what I wanted to do with my life and for my country," he said.
Ban said he still keeps in touch with his host, his "American mom," 95-year-old Libba Patterson, who was in the audience and stood to applause.
"It was here in California," he reflected to the students, "that I first felt I could grab the stars from the sky."
Why do government policymakers and peace activists often come to radically different conclusions on issues pertaining to peace and security? Drawing on insights from the literature on contentious politics and international relations theory, I argue that the politics of peace extend from different views regarding the nature of existing power relations and the legitimacy and moral purpose of the state. To test my argument, I examine the conflict between state and civil societal actors over the construction of a South Korean naval base and use discourse and content analysis to assess different interpretations regarding peace and security in relation to the naval base. Although the hope is to see David defeat Goliath, my findings are less sanguine: activists are not only physically overpowered by the state, but at the ideological level, their frames and discourse are frequently drowned out by a powerful discursive structure embedded in the logic of realism. This research has implications not only for national security policy in South Korea, but for international relations in Northeast Asia more broadly as middle powers position themselves between Beijing’s rise and Washington’s strategic rebalance to Asia.
Professor Andrew Yeo’s broad research interests lie at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics. His first book, Activists, Alliances, and Anti-U.S. Base Protests (Cambridge University Press, 2011) explores the politics of overseas military bases, focusing on the impact of security alliances on social movements and state response to domestic anti-base pressure. His other works have appeared in Comparative Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Journal of East Asian Studies. His research and teaching interests include international relations theory, international security, overseas U.S. military presence, social movements and transnational politics, East Asia, and North Korea. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2008.
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This paper examines how diversely organized capitalist societies evolve by analyzing the transformation of Japan’s financial system since the 1990s. The banking, securities and insurance, as well as the postal financial institutions changed significantly, but are hardly converging to Anglo-American or ‘liberal market’ models. The authors contend that Japan’s new financial system is best characterized as syncretic, with new, traditional and hybrid forms of practices, organizations and norms coexisting. Syncretism in industry was driven by a distinctive pattern of interest group politics we call syncretization. Strong political leadership, facing serious electoral threats, shifted the policy logic from gradual incremental reforms following traditional interest group dynamics, to rapid reforms that excluded the traditionally powerful interest groups most affected by these reforms. We support the notion that diverse industry outcomes can be complementary to broader political economic reforms that take Japan away from its traditional model, part of a broader ‘convergence towards diversity.’
The Ninth Korea-U.S. West Coast Strategic Forum was held at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul on November 13, 2012, hosted by the Sejong Institute. The Ninth Forum’s three sessions focused on the implications of major leadership changes in the United States, South and North Korea, and China. Established in 2006 by Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) and now convening semi-annually alternating between Stanford and Seoul, the Forum brings together distinguished South Korean (Republic of Korea, or ROK) and American scholars, experts, and former military and civilian officials to discuss North Korea, the U.S.-ROK alliance, and regional dynamics in Northeast Asia. Operating as a closed workshop under the Chatham House Rule of individual confidentiality, the Forum allows participants to engage in candid, in-depth discussion of current issues of vital national interest to both countries.
The eighth session of the Korea-U.S. West Coast Strategic Forum was held at Stanford University on June 1, 2012. Established in 2006 and now convening semiannually alternately in Stanford and Seoul, the Forum brings together a distinguished group of South Korean (Republic of Korea, or ROK) and American scholars, experts, and former military and
government officials to discuss North Korea, the U.S.-ROK alliance, and regional dynamics in Northeast Asia. Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center is co-organizer of the Forum in association with its partner, the Sejong Institute of Korea. The Forum operates as a closed workshop under the Chatham House Rule of individual confidentiality, allowing participants to engage in frank, in-depth discussion of current and emerging issues of importance and interest to both countries.
The Sejong Institute of Korea hosted the seventh session of the Korea-U.S. West Coast Strategic Forum at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul on December 13, 2011. Established in 2006 by Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC), the Forum brings together distinguished South Korean (Republic of Korea, or ROK) and American scholars, experts, and former military and civilian officials to discuss North Korea, the U.S.-ROK alliance, and regional dynamics in Northeast Asia.
Since the third session, the Sejong Institute has been Shorenstein APARC’s Korean counterpart in organizing and hosting the Forum. Meetings are held semi-annually, alternating between Stanford University and Seoul. Operating as a closed workshop under the Chatham House Rule of individual confidentiality, the Forum allows participants to engage in candid, in-depth discussion of current issues of vital national interest to both countries.
This book explores why different patterns of economic development and growth have been observed across different regions and over time. Drawing on the contributions of outstanding scholars in comparative and historical institutional analysis, this volume presents the roles of political institutions, social organizations and norms, culture, and policy in economic development and societal evolution. The contributors include, besides the editors, G. Austin, A. Greif, D. Ma, T. Khanna, J.L. Rosenthal, C.H. Shiue, J. Svenjinar, P. Temmin, R.B. Wong, and others. The volume provides a valuable resource for general readers, academics, and policymakers with an interest in the future of the evolving world economy.
This volume explores how complex economic transactions can be treated in economics, as well as how societies bring order to complex economic and social transactions through various institutional devices. Bringing together eminent scholars from the fields of game theory, complexity, econometrics and law, it explores theoretically and empirically how markets, social norms, and corporate organization and governance evolve, and how these institutions affect economic behavior. The contributors include, besides the editors, S. Cincotti, M. Gallegatti, M. Kandori, K. Pistor, B. Skyrms, R. Sugden, and others.
