November 17th, 2011

Thomas Fingar proposes some questions for the Republican presidential debate

GOP 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 1st, 2011

Stanford's Weinstein reflects on shaping Obama's foreign policy

After 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 »

August 26th, 2011

Examining the violence in Mexico

More than 40,000 people have died in drug-related homicides in Mexico since 2006, and the violence is causing concern throughout the hemisphere. In an attempt to understand and develop potential solutions to these problems, a group of researchers, policy-makers, and military experts from around the world will visit Stanford this October for a private, two-day conference. Read more »

March 14th, 2011

Scott D. Sagan: What the world thinks of Obama's nuclear policy

In a special issue of The Nonproliferation Review, edited by CISAC's Scott Sagan and Harvard's Jane Vaynman, 13 prominent researchers from around the world examined foreign governments’ policy responses to the president's 2010 Nuclear Posture Review, the landmark document published last April. Read more »

September 24th, 2010

Honors students explore challenges of policy implementation, assessment in Washington, D.C.

In September, honors students from FSI's two undergraduate honors programs - the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) - traveled to Washington, D.C., with their faculty advisors for senior-level policy briefings with U.S. government officials and major international organizations, NGOs, and think tanks. A highlight was a meeting at the National Security Council with two leading Stanford foreign policy experts serving in the current administration: Michael McFaul, President Obama's senior advisor on Russia; and Jeremy Weinstein, Director for Democracy on the National Security Council Staff. Read more »

May 27th, 2010

CISAC's Steve Stedman and Bruce Jones host Hillary Clinton for national security strategy discussion

Secretary of State Clinton spoke at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. May 27 on the administration's first National Security Strategy, a report submitted to Congress by each President to outline the intended U.S. response to major national security concerns. The Managing Global Insecurity project, led by CISAC's Stephen Stedman and Bruce Jones, helped organize the event. Read more »

October 26th, 2009

Using intelligence to shape the future

"We spend $45 billion annually to reduce uncertainty, to help us combat threats to our nation, our people, and our security," said Payne Distinguished Lecturer Thomas Fingar in his third Payne lecture, devoted to anticipating the future--"not for purposes of prediction but for purposes of shaping it." Noting that strategic intelligence treats the future neither as "inevitable or immutable," Fingar employed real-life examples from his career in national intelligence to explore concrete ways intelligence can be used to move developments in a more positive direction. Audio & Video transcripts available paper available
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