Seed Beds for New Programs & Research

The International Initiative Working Group Program allows Stanford faculty to actively shape the evolution and implementation of the Stanford International Initiative in the coming years as the Initiative moves to transform the way university scholars investigate, educate and provide solutions to world problems. Specifically, the Working Group Program brings together Stanford faculty from across campus to explore topics of common intellectual concern focused on global issues. These collaborative “salons” serve as incubators for the development of internationally focused research and teaching projects and programs. Each group explores ways to foster interdisciplinary study in a unique topic area most typically by

• Exploring an idea in its earliest stages to see if there is sufficient depth and support for a collaborative research project, or
• Developing proposals for new interdisciplinary programs that can be used to solicit funding

Working groups are led by one or more faculty conveners. Participation is open to all Stanford and visiting faculty and academic staff from all schools and institutes. Advanced graduate students are invited to contact the working group convener about participation. Multi-school representation on each working group is highly desirable. The groups meet regularly over the course of the academic year in informal sessions designed to promote the sharing of new ideas and research. To participate, contact the group convener or coordinator listed below. The International Initiative sponsors working groups that focus on issues related to one or more themes of the Initiative—peace & security, governance, and human well-being. Faculty are encouraged to apply for sponsorship by contacting Program Manager Nancy Easterbrook (neasterb@stanford.edu). For details on Working Group operations, please see Working Group Guidelines.

Working Groups for the 2007-2008 Academic Year

• Developing Resilience to Non-Traditional Security Threats
• International Influences on Domestic Governance
• Child Well-Being
• International University Collaboration Program
• Human Rights

Developing Resilience to Non-Traditional Security Threats

The working group on Developing Resilience to Non-Traditional Security Threats will explore the feasibility of establishing a program, through research and education, to usher in a new era in engineering analysis and design, risk assessment and management, and public policy development to find ways to significantly reduce the impact of potential catastrophes caused by natural and man-made hazards. The program’s will focus on the development of new technologies, and the integration of engineering, socio-economic factors and regulatory policy toward the formulation of a holistic approach to prepare for, respond to, and recover from catastrophic events.

Co-conveners:

Anne Kiremidjian
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
(650) 723-4164
ask@stanford.edu

Greg Deierlein
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
(650) 723-0453
ggd@stanford.edu

Group Coordinators

Racquel Hagen
Civil & Environmental Engineering Administrative Associate
(650) 723-4150
racquelh@stanford.edu

Kim Vonner
Civil & Environmental Engineering Administrative Associate
(650) 723-4121
kvonner@stanford.edu

International Influences on Domestic Governance

The mission of the working group is to begin an interdisciplinary exploration of the ways in which external factors can impact domestic institutions of governance. This exploration will incorporate issues of democracy promotion, that is, intentional efforts on the part of state and non-state actors to foster democratic change in other countries (whether via incremental political liberalization or more rapid democratization). It will also include intentional efforts on the part of authoritarian states to frustrate or block democratization (and democracy promotion efforts) and to buttress authoritarian regimes. It further includes the semi-intentional (and even unintentional and unpredictable) efforts to influence domestic governance institutions through economic flows of aid, trade, investment and the like. The group is also interested in cross-national social and cultural flows, as well as the impacts on domestic governance that come from processes of diffusion of norms and models that are not directed by specific actors. The long-term goal is to encourage this group or smaller individual groups of faculty to further investigate the ideas generated here with formal, more intensive research projects.

Co-conveners:

Larry Diamond Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and, by courtesy, at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Professor, by courtesy, of Sociology and Political Science (650) 725-3420 diamond@hoover.stanford.edu Michael McFaul Associate Professor of Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Senior Fellow and Deputy Director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (650) 724-6448 mcfaul@stanford.edu

Group Coordinator

TBD

Child Health

The Child Health Working Group is developing two arenas of activity: The Young Child Health and Governance project is directed at identifying governance and political influences on the provision of essential child health services in developing parts of the world. Of special interest are national political institutions, such as democratic electoral systems, as well as the legitimacy of local governments in facilitating or obstructing the dissemination of a selected set of young child health interventions. These interventions include growth monitoring, oral rehydration therapy for diarrheal diseases, breastfeeding, and immunizations, a cluster of interventions adopted by UNICEF as the “GOBI” strategy in the 1980’s.This project is a highly cross-disciplinary collaboration between faculty of the political science department and the CDDRL and Center for Health Policy units of FSI. In addition, a number of undergraduate, graduate, and medical students are participating in this project and a weekly seminar series dedicated to exploring the issues raised by this project. The second arena of activity for the Child Health Working Group is The Children’s Project at Stanford. The goal of this effort is to establish the first academic base dedicated to analytically explore and ultimately address the most urgent threats to the health and well being of children throughout the world. The effort would create an infrastructure of collaboration at Stanford that would bring together faculty and students from a variety of relevant disciplines, including from the medical, legal, social science and educational arenas to engage issues have not been well addressed by any single discipline alone. Issues of special interest would include children orphaned by AIDS, sex worker trafficking, child labor, young child survival, and even problems that confront children in the United States, such as inadequate health insurance. Although other universities have established specific projects designed to address one or more of these issues in isolation, there remains no academic program dedicated to confronting these threats as part of an integrated analytic strategy, one that explicitly seeks out the more fundamental considerations that transcend any one of these issues.The primary elements of the Children’s Project would be to support collaborative faculty and student research on major children’s issues, particularly in overseas field settings; a visiting scholar program that would bring to Stanford a small number of influential scholars or advocates from around the world who are dedicated to children’s issues; a series of speaker or other events at Stanford that would elevate children’s issues for faculty, students, and the local community.

Convener:

Paul H. Wise
Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society and Core Faculty Member, Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research
(650) 725-5645
pwise@stanford.edu

Group Coordinator

Pauline Brutlag
Manager, Program Development International Health
(650) 724-0614
pbrutlag@stanford.edu

International University Collaboration Program

The International University Collaboration Program Working Group intends to bring Stanford to the world through direct involvement with educational institutions in developing countries. The group hopes to promote involvement by the teaching of courses and research work through regular faculty visits. The institutional collaboration would initially focus on the physical sciences, biological sciences, and engineering – academic fields that would assist in economic development in many developing countries.The working group proposes quarter-long visits by Stanford faculty to selected universities along with graduate student research projects and short-term visits to Stanford by host university faculty who are collaborating with Stanford faculty on teaching and research.

Co-conveners

Khalid Aziz
Otto N. Miller Professor in the School of Earth Sciences
(650) 723-9116
aziz@stanford.edu

Amos Nur
Wayne Loel Professor of Earth Science
(650) 723-9526
Amos.Nur@stanford.edu

Group Coordinator

Girley Tegama
Administrative Associate
(650) 736-0733
gtegama@stanford.edu

Human Rights

The purpose of the Human Rights working group is to raise the profile of human rights by fostering and supporting an inter-disciplinary environment for research, teaching, policy, and service on both the idea and practice of rights. The group will hold faculty meetings and will have a clearing house on human rights.

Co-conveners:

Terry Lynn Karl
Gildred Professor in Latin American Studies and Senior Fellow, by courtesy, at FSI
(650) 724-4166
tkarl@stanford.edu

Helen Stacy
Senior Lecturer in Law
(650) 724-7496
hstacy@stanford.edu

Jenny Martinez
Associate Professor of Law
(650) 725-2749
jmartinez@law.stanford.edu

Group Coordinator

Laura Cosovanu
lauracos@stanford.edu