CISAC 25th Anniversary

Friday, May 29, 2009
3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
(Pacific)
CISAC Conference Room

More than 75 people connected to CISAC's past and present gathered in Encina Hall on Friday, May 29, to reminisce and look toward the center's next quarter century. The CISAC String Quartet led by Paul Stockton, who has just left CISAC to work as an assistant defense secretary, welcomed guests with concertos by Bach and Beethoven. Meanwhile, a slide show depicting CISAC's history through the decades brought back memories of potluck meals, receptions and group clean-up parties at Galvez House.

Co-Director Siegfried Hecker's opening and closing remarks acted as bookends to speeches highlighting the center's different eras. Law School Professor John Barton, a member of the center's executive committee, was a founder of CISAC's predecessor organization, the Center for International Security and Arms Control. He spoke about how turbulence on campus in the 1970s surrounding the Vietnam War led to courses focusing on international security matters under the Stanford Arms Control Program and, eventually, the center's establishment. Gloria Duffy, president of the Commonwealth Club of California, was a CISAC fellow from 1980-82, and spoke about the 1980s as "a time of alarm in our field." Acting Co-Director Lynn Eden, who was affiliated with the center as a fellow from 1987 to 1990, spoke about the 1990s, followed by Jessica McLaughlin, a 2005 graduate from CISAC's honor's program, who explained how she continues to apply the skills she learned in the program to her job as a management consultant. Former U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Perry, a former CISAC co-director, looked to the future and what the center must do to remain as effective and relevant to international security as it has been in the past. John Lewis, Scott Sagan, Michael May and David Holloway, who have all held leadership positions at CISAC, also made remarks about the center.


CISAC 25th Anniversary

Program

 

Background Music by the CISAC Quartet:

Beethoven Opus 59 #1

Bach Brandenburg Concerto #3, first movement

 

Introductory Remarks

Siegfried Hecker

Dr. Siegfried Hecker is a professor (research) in the Department of Management Science and Engineering, a senior fellow at FSI, and co-director of CISAC. He is also an emeritus director of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

 

Guest speakers (in order of appearance)

John Barton '68: CISAC in the 1970s

Professor John Barton is one of the founders of CISAC's predecessor organization (the Center for International Security and Arms Control), a professor at the Law School, and a member of CISAC's Executive Committee.

 

Gloria Duffy: CISAC in the 1980s

Dr. Gloria Duffy was a CISAC fellow from 1980 to 1982.  She served as a deputy assistant secretary of defense during the Clinton Administration.  Dr. Duffy is currently president of the Commonwealth Club of California.

 

Lynn Eden: CISAC in the 1990s

Dr. Lynn Eden is acting co-director and a senior research scholar at the Center. She was a CISAC fellow from 1987-88 and 1989-1990.

Jessica McLaughlin '05: CISAC in the New Millennium

Ms. Jessica McLaughlin graduated from Stanford in 2005, majoring in management science and engineering, with a certificate in Honors in International Security Studies through CISAC's undergraduate honors program.  Her thesis, "A Bayesian Updating Model for Intelligence Analysis," won CISAC's William J. Perry Prize for excellence in policy-relevant research in international security studies.  She is a management consultant at Oliver Wyman.

 

William J. Perry BS'49, MS '50: The Future of CISAC

Professor William J. Perry holds several positions at Stanford and was previously a co-director of CISAC. He was the 19th secretary of defense of the United States, serving from February 1994 to January 1997.

 

Closing Remarks

Siegfried Hecker

 

Special thanks to the CISAC Quartet:

Beverly Jean Harlan, Anne Prescott, Nancy Solomon, Paul N. Stockton