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- Beth Duff-Brown, Public Affairs Manager
December 7th, 2011
Undraa Agvaanluvsan: The nuclear industry in Mongolia after Fukushima
CISAC, FSI Stanford NewsAt a TEDx event in Ulaanbaatar, CISAC affiliate Undraa Agvaanluvsan discusses the nuclear industry in Mongolia after Fukushima. 
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December 6th, 2011
Charles Perrow discusses the "inevitability of accidents"
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-edWriting in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, sociologist Charles Perrow argues that "some complex systems with catastrophic potential are just too dangerous to exist because they cannot be made safe, regardless of human effort." Perrow, a visiting professor at CISAC, is the author of the landmark 1984 book Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies.
November 29th, 2011
Richard Rhodes chronicles the life of scientist and star Hedy Lamarr
CISAC, FSI Stanford AnnouncementIn his new book, Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author explores the life and times of the Hollywood celebrity whose inventions helped make GPS, Wi-Fi, and radio-guided torpedoes a reality. Rhodes, the author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb and more than 20 other books, is a CISAC affiliate. Read more »
November 28th, 2011
Scott Sagan: Can we have nuclear power without nuclear weapons?
CISAC, FSI Stanford NewsAt a Stanford reunion weekend lecture, the political scientist looked at the current and projected use of nuclear energy around the world, and examined what it means for the future of nuclear weapons proliferation.
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November 22nd, 2011
Researchers explore potential solutions to Mexican crime and violence
CISAC, FSI Stanford, CDDRL, Program on Poverty and Governance AnnouncementScholars and policymakers from around the world gathered at Stanford in October for a two-day conference that examined, from a comparative perspective, issues in violence, crime, and governance in Mexico. An executive summary of the program and a series of papers presented there highlight the causes of these challenges and explore some potential solutions. 
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November 21st, 2011
CISAC Honors graduate awarded a Rhodes Scholarship
CISAC, FSI Stanford AnnouncementCongratulations to Anand Habib, selected this weekend for a Rhodes Scholarship. Habib, a biology major, was a Class of 2011 CISAC honors graduate. His thesis focused on health governance, and he is currently working at a medical clinic about 100 miles outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Read more »
November 18th, 2011
CISAC Honors graduate wins George J. Mitchell Scholarship
CISAC, FSI Stanford AnnouncementCongratulations to Philippe de Koning, recipient of the George J. Mitchell Scholarship. De Koning, 22, of Paris, France, earned a bachelor's degree in international relations at Stanford in 2010, and was a Class of 2010 graduate of the CISAC honors program. Read more »
November 17th, 2011
Thomas Fingar proposes some questions for the Republican presidential debate
CISAC, FSI Stanford, Shorenstein APARC AnnouncementGOP presidential hopefuls will discuss foreign policy and national security at a debate in Washington, D.C., Nov. 22. Here are five questions China scholar Thomas Fingar would like them to answer. Read more »
November 15th, 2011
Scientists examine the standards for safe nuclear waste disposal
CISAC, FSI Stanford in the newsAs policymakers consider the alternative to Yucca Mountain as a repository for nuclear waste, Edward Blandford, Rodney C. Ewing, and Robert Budnitz explore in Nuclear News new standards for waste disposal. Among the key questions: should regulations require safety for a 1-million-year period? The article is based on a June workshop on the subject hosted by CISAC. Read more »
November 8th, 2011
Tino Cuéllar: A discussion with U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra
CISAC, FSI Stanford in the news: The Stanford Lawyer on October 28, 2011In a Q&A for Stanford Lawyer magazine, CISAC Co-Director Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar discusses with U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) immigration, national security, and how the Congressional panel on deficit reduction -- the "Super Committee" -- will address the country's long-term fiscal challenges. Read more »
November 1st, 2011
Stanford's Weinstein reflects on shaping Obama's foreign policy
CDDRL, FSI Stanford, CISAC in the newsAfter two years as President Barack Obama’s director for development and democracy at the National Security Council, Jeremy Weinstein is back at Stanford as an associate professor of political science. Read more »
October 31st, 2011
On Stanford Radio, Scott Sagan selects the music of ethics and war
CISAC, FSI Stanford in the newsOn Stanford Radio, KZSU-FM, guest disc jockey and CISAC Senior Fellow Scott Sagan plays the songs of ethics and war, including Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers," Nena's "99 Red Balloons," and Randy Newman's "Political Science." CISAC is a sponsor of the university's year-long Ethics & War series.
October 28th, 2011
Rose Gottemoeller: "Arms Control in the Information Age"
CISAC, FSI Stanford AnnouncementThe technological revolution since the dawn of the nuclear age has had profound implications for national security. On Oct. 27, Rose Gottemoeller, the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, discussed the challenges and opportunities posed by this transformation — and how it will drive the arms control agenda over the next century. Read more »
October 23rd, 2011
Charles Perrow: How technology can nudge climate change politics
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed: Bloomberg View on October 23, 2011Writing in Bloomberg View, Charles Perrow says U.S. investment in carbon capture and storage technology could "induce China and Europe to follow suit." This "would allow the world time for renewable-energy technologies to mature -- to the point where we could do away with coal burning altogether." Read more »
October 14th, 2011
Richard Rhodes: "Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State"
CISAC, FSI Stanford in the newsIn the Washington Post, Richard Rhodes reviews "Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State."
October 13th, 2011
How Mexico's criminal networks affect regional security
in the newsAs if the alleged Iranian plan to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. wasn’t strange and sinister enough, it offered an outlandish twist: American officials say the Iranian plotters wanted to hire a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the murder. As events unfold, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and Beatriz Magaloni discuss the nature of the cartel threat. Read more »
October 12th, 2011
A newly released film tells the story of U.S. nuclear policy
FSI Stanford, CISAC AnnouncementThe National Security Archive recently released a history of U.S. nuclear policy featuring CISAC's Lynn Eden, David Holloway, and Scott Sagan. The 2005 film, produced by Sandia National Laboratories, covers the years 1945 to 2004. Read more »
October 11th, 2011
Co-Director honored for his contributions to reducing nuclear dangers
CISAC, FSI Stanford Press ReleaseCongratulations to CISAC Co-Director Siegfried Hecker for winning the 2012 Leo Szilard Lectureship Award from the American Physical Society. The selection committee cited "his leadership in developing international science and technology cooperation in areas critical to global security resulting in real reductions in the dangers of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism."
October 10th, 2011
Sheena Chestnut Greitens: What Steve Jobs taught me about failure
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-edWriting in Newsweek, 2005 CISAC honors program graduate Sheena Chestnut Greitens reflects on Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement address and the hidden virtues of failure. Read more »
October 6th, 2011
Erica Chenoweth: A new book explains why non-violent resistance works
CISAC, FSI Stanford AnnouncementIn their new book, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, Visiting Scholar Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan argue that compared to violent insurgency, nonviolent resistance builds longer-lasting and more peaceful democracies. Read more »
October 4th, 2011
A new study looks at the economics of counterinsurgency
CISAC, FSI Stanford AnnouncementA new study finds that the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, which focuses on working with local populations on small, community-based projects like digging wells or paving rural roads, has reduced violence. Researchers found no evidence, however, that larger projects had the same effect. Read more »
October 1st, 2011
A former CISAC fellow explores why regime change seldom works
CISAC, FSI Stanford in the news: Boston Review on October 1, 2011"Despite what interveners hope, regime change implemented by outsiders is not a force for stability," writes Alexander Downes in the Boston Review. In a companion piece, James Fearon says U.S. leaders know regime change is problematic "but they do it anyway." Read more »
September 29th, 2011
Reflections on Charles Perrow's 1984 classic
CISAC, FSI Stanford in the news: Nature on September 21, 2011As Japan attempts to move on from the Fukushima nuclear crisis, a scholar of risk and risk perception reflects on Charles Perrow's classic book about why complex technologies fail, and raises the key question that Scott Sagan asked in his 1993 book, The Limits of Safety: "Are normal accidents inevitable?" Read more »
September 26th, 2011
Matthew Rojansky: For now, Putin's return is mostly good for U.S.-Russia relations
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed: New York Times on September 26, 2011Former CISAC visiting scholar Matthew Rojansky argues in the New York Times that Vladimir Putin's return to the Russian presidency will not require a reset of the U.S. reset policy.
September 21st, 2011
Lessons learned after 10 years of war in Afghanistan
CISAC, FSI Stanford NewsKarl Eikenberry has a unique perspective on the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The former ambassador to Kabul, his 35-year career in the army includes an 18-month tour as commander of the U.S.-led coalition forces in the country. As the conflict hit the 10-year mark, Eikenberry discussed President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy, the challenge of working with Pakistan, and the problem of overpromising. Read more »