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 »

September 15th, 2011

Stanford's Michael McFaul nominated as new ambassador to Russia

Michael McFaul, a Stanford political science professor, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Hoover Institution Bing Senior Fellow, has been nominated by President Obama to serve as the next ambassador to Russia. If confirmed, McFaul, who has also served as FSI's deputy director and director of its Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, will succeed John Beyrle. Read more »

September 6th, 2011

Sept. 11: Are we safer 10 years later?

Ten years after the terrorist attacks, five leading experts weigh in on the state of the jihadist movement, U.S. intelligence, and the cost of safety. Read more »

August 24th, 2011

As Tripoli falls, a political scientist says a difficult road lies ahead

As events unfold in Tripoli, the world is asking what to expect next. James Fearon, a political scientist whose research focuses on political violence, ethnic conflict, and the impact of democracy on foreign policy, says a post-Gaddafi Libya looks like a vacuum in terms of civil society and competent state institutions -- and such vacuums, he says, "are usually very dangerous." Read more »

April 25th, 2011

Stephen Stedman: Why honest elections really matter

Stanford's Stephen Stedman, a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and its Center for International Security and Cooperation, discusses democracy's surge and the growing need for elections with integrity. Stedman was recently named director of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy, and Security. Read more »

November 5th, 2010

Why the India-U.S. relationship is failing to live up to its potential

As President Obama travels to India this week, CISAC Visiting Scholar Anja Manuel explores in Foreign Policy why the economic relationship between the United States and India is failing to live up to its potential. "On the surface, all the elements are in place for an economic love affair between the United States and India," she writes. "India's economy is growing at a very healthy 8 percent clip, and its democratic political system and rule of law, not to mention its widespread English fluency, should make it relatively easy for U.S. companies to sell into India and to invest there." So why do the numbers tell a different story?

• » Foreign Policy.com: "Weak Ties"

November 3rd, 2010

John Lewis on keeping 'the genie in the bottle'

With a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and anticipation building in Beijing for a change in leadership in 2012, domestic politics in both countries are playing a major role in the bilateral relationship. On the eve of his own milestone, his 80th birthday, John Lewis, one of the world's foremost China scholars and the director of CISAC's Project on Peace and Cooperation in the Asian-Pacific Region, discussed the direction of the U.S.-China relationship, the importance of dialogue between the two powers, and the potentially rocky road ahead. Read more »