Join us in celebrating 40 years of CISAC as we reflect on our past achievements and look forward towards new knowledge for a safer world in the decades to come.

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

Media: please reach out to fsi-communications@stanford.edu or cisacevents@stanford.edu

About the Speaker: Condoleezza Rice is the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution and a Senior Fellow on Public Policy at Stanford University. She is the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In addition, she is a founding partner of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, an international strategic consulting firm.

From January 2005 to January 2009, Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States, the second woman and first black woman to hold the post. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor) from January 2001 to January 2005, the first woman to hold the position.

Rice served as Stanford University’s provost from 1993 to 1999, during which time she was the institution’s chief budget and academic officer. As Professor of Political Science, she has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the university’s highest teaching honors.

From February 1989 through March 1991, Rice served on President George H.W. Bush’s National Security Council staff. She served as Director, then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs, as well as Special Assistant to the President for National Security. In 1986, while an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Rice also served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

About the Event: 

The Strategic Posture Commission is a bipartisan group mandated by Congress in 2022 to examine the threat to the U.S. strategic posture in 2027-2035 and beyond. The group reported its unanimous findings and recommendations in October 2023, concluding that the United States is facing a strategic challenge requiring urgent action: a world where two nations, China and Russia, will possess nuclear arsenals on par with the United States. This outlook requires an urgent national focus and concerted actions not currently planned. Chair Madelyn Creedon and Vice Chair Jon Kyl will discuss this threat environment and present the findings and recommendations of the Commission. CISAC Director Scott Sagan will preside.

About the Speakers: 

CHAIR - Madelyn R. Creedon
The Honorable Madelyn R. Creedon had a long career in federal service; she served most recently as Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) within the Department of Energy, a position she held from 2014 to 2017. She also served in the Pentagon as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs from 2011 to 2014, overseeing policy development in the areas of missile defense, nuclear security, combatting WMD, cybersecurity, and space. Creedon served as counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services for many years, beginning in 1990; assignments and focus areas included the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces as well as threat reduction and nuclear nonproliferation.During that time, she also served as Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs at the NNSA, Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy, and General Counsel for the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. She started her career as a trial attorney at the Department of Energy. Following retirement from Federal Service in 2017, Creedon established Green Marble Group, LLC, a consulting company, and currently serves on several advisory and other boards related to national security. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and a research professor at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. She holds a J.D. from St. Louis University School of Law, and a B.A. from the University of Evansville.

COMMISSIONER - Gloria Duffy
Dr. Gloria Duffy has been president and CEO of The Commonwealth Club since 1996. She oversees the organizational strategy, programming, publications, outreach, membership and fundraising for the nation’s largest and oldest public affairs forum. Prior to becoming president and CEO of the Club, Duffy was U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and Special Coordinator for Cooperative Threat Reduction, where she led Nunn-Lugar program negotiations and oversaw U.S. assistance for the dismantling of nuclear warheads and delivery systems in the former Soviet countries, as well as the disposal of chemical weapons and reemployment of WMD scientists on civilian research.

COMMISSIONER - Rose Gottemoeller
Professor Rose Gottemoeller is a Lecturer at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Research Fellow at the Hoover Institute. Before joining Stanford Gottemoeller was the Deputy Secretary General of NATO from 2016 to 2019, where she helped to drive forward NATO’s adaptation to new security challenges in Europe and in the fight against terrorism.  Prior to NATO, she served for nearly five years as the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the U.S. Department of State, advising the Secretary of State on arms control, nonproliferation and political-military affairs. While Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance in 2009 and 2010, she was the chief U.S. negotiator of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the Russian Federation. Prior to her government service, she was a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, with joint appointments to the Nonproliferation and Russia programs. She served as the Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center from 2006 to 2008, and is currently a nonresident fellow in Carnegie's Nuclear Policy Program. At Stanford, Gottemoeller teaches and mentors students in the Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy program and the CISAC Honors program; contributes to policy research and outreach activities; and convenes workshops, seminars and other events relating to her areas of expertise, including nuclear security, Russian relations, the NATO alliance, EU cooperation and non-proliferation. 

VICE CHAIR - Jon L. Kyl
Senator Jon L. Kyl served 18 years in the U.S. Senate, and before that, eight years in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected unanimously by his colleagues in 2008 to serve as Republican Whip, a position he held until his retirement in 2013. Kyl served on the Intelligence, Judiciary, Finance and Armed Services committees among others. He was active in the Senate consideration of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, New START, and other arms limitation proposals, as well as strategic deterrence issues in numerous National Defense Authorization Acts. After retiring from the Senate, Kyl served as a member of the Board of Directors of Sandia Laboratory for three years. In 2018, he was a member of the National Defense Strategy Commission. On September 5, 2018, Kyl was appointed by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to fill the seat of the late Senator John McCain through the end of 2018. 

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

About the Speaker: Or (Ori) Rabinowitz, (PhD), a Chevening scholar, is an associate professor at the International Relations Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. During the academic year of 2022-2023 she will hold the post of visiting associate professor at Stanford’s CISAC. Her research interests include nuclear proliferation, intelligence studies, and Israeli American relations. Her book, Bargaining on Nuclear Tests was published in April 2014 by Oxford University Press. Her studies were published leading academic journals, including International Security, Journal of Strategic Studies, and International History Review, as well as op-eds and blog posts in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy and Ha’aretz. She holds a PhD degree awarded by the War Studies Department of King’s College London, an MA degree in Security Studies and an LLB degree in Law, both from Tel-Aviv University. She was awarded numerous awards and grants, including two personal research grants by the Israeli Science Foundation and in 2020 was a member of the Young Academic forum of the Israeli Academy for Sciences and Humanities.  

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

About the Event: The primary objective of this seminar series is to illuminate how local governments can collaborate to deliver joint services, exhibit greater adaptability in the face of technological and organizational shifts, and introduce innovative services in line with prominent industry trends, such as predictive analytics, autonomous vehicles, and artificial intelligence. The seminar series will explore how governments can effectively cater to the current and future service delivery needs of their citizens, with a keen focus on digital government ecosystems and the technologies that underpin digital transformation, innovation, and implementation. By drawing upon real Estonian case studies, we aim to uncover parallels that may exist at the local level in the Bay Area, shedding light on the scalability of digital solutions.

Part 2:  Seamless Public Services & Extending the “Smart City” Concept to Small-to-Medium Sized Municipalities

The success of service digitalization hinges on trust in public institutions, robust public-private partnerships, and a commitment to continuous experimentation and learning. We will explore how these factors transform government processes, identify the primary enablers, and unravel the concept of proactive services. Additionally, implementation of the AI among government processes will be discussed.
 
We will also focus on how to make innovative solutions available for the very small, small and medium-size municipalities. We will also describe the process of identifying urban challenges and then piloting them in European cities. 

REGISTER HERE

This event is cosponsored with Stanford University Libraries

About the Event: Professor Sanford will discuss the weaponization of the Guatemalan judicial system, gender violence and migration in a conversation about her new book Textures of Terror that investigates the unsolved murder of a female law student and the pervasive violence against Guatemalan women that drives migration. Through a father’s determined struggle and other stories of justice denied, Textures of Terror offers a deeper understanding of US Policies in Latin America and their ripple effect on migration. Professor Sanford offers an up-close appraisal of the inner workings of the Guatemalan criminal justice system and how it maintains inequality, patriarchy and impunity. Presenting the stories of other women who have suffered at the hands of strangers, intimate partners and the security forces, she reveals the deeply gendered nature of power and violence in Guatemala.

About the Speaker: A public scholar, anthropologist and internationally recognized expert on the Guatemalan Genocide, Victoria Sanford is a writer, human rights advocate and Lehman Professor of Excellence at Lehman College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the author of seven books including Textures of Terror: The Murder of Claudina Isabel & Her Father’s Quest for Justice and Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala. She served as an invited expert in the Spanish National Court’s genocide case against the Guatemalan generals and in an indigenous land rights case in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. A John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and Bunting Peace Fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, she has also held fellowships at the US Institute for Peace, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and Fulbright Scholar awards at the Universidad Libre and Javeriana University in Bogota, Colombia, among others. To learn more about Victoria Sanford’s work, visit: https://www.victoriasanford.info/

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

About the Event: The primary objective of this seminar series is to illuminate how local governments can collaborate to deliver joint services, exhibit greater adaptability in the face of technological and organizational shifts, and introduce innovative services in line with prominent industry trends, such as predictive analytics, autonomous vehicles, and artificial intelligence. The seminar series will explore how governments can effectively cater to the current and future service delivery needs of their citizens, with a keen focus on digital government ecosystems and the technologies that underpin digital transformation, innovation, and implementation. By drawing upon real Estonian case studies, we aim to uncover parallels that may exist at the local level in the Bay Area, shedding light on the scalability of digital solutions.

Part 1: Prerequisites for Digital Governments & Smart Cities 

We will delve into essential starting points, such as establishing identity and legal frameworks, ensuring interoperability and cross-organizational workflows, promoting unified data exchange, and employing digital signatures in documents related to decision-making processes.

We will also discuss the emergence of global smart city movement that will be uniquely extended to smart regions. Furthermore, specific focus will be given for novel technologies applied in cities and regions and their complex interaction with democracy and the rule of law.

REGISTER HERE

This event is cosponsored with Stanford University Libraries

On Saturday October 7, 2023, two Iranian-backed terrorist organizations based in the Gaza Strip — Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) — inflicted the most lethal attack suffered by the State of Israel since its founding in May 1948. 

Over 1200 Israelis, overwhelmingly civilians, were murdered, 3000 wounded, and approximately 150 kidnapped into Gaza, to be used as human shields and bargaining chips. The attacks also involved unspeakable acts of sexual violence and infanticide. Retaliatory Israeli air strikes have killed over 800 Gazans so far. 

The conflict risks escalating to an all-out regional confrontation, involving several other Iranian proxies (most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon) and even a direct Iran-Israel war. This could have devastating and transformative implications for the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy, and the entire international system. What led to the events of October 7? How was Israel caught so completely off guard? Did Iran order the attack? What are the possible scenarios for the conflict? And what can the Biden Administration do?

SPEAKERS

MODERATOR

About the Speaker: Colin Kahl is the Steven C. Házy Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), an interdisciplinary research hub in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is also the faculty director of CISAC’s Program on Geopolitics, Technology, and Governance, and a professor of political science (by courtesy).

Current research projects include: an examination of the role of emerging technologies (including cyber, space, and artificial intelligence and autonomy) in “integrated deterrence” vis-à-vis the People’s Republic of China (PRC); an assessment of the role of U.S.-Russia nuclear deterrence and Russian nuclear coercion in the Ukraine war; and an analysis of the utility of the concept of the “Free World” for U.S. foreign policy.

From April 2021-July 2023, Dr. Kahl served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the U.S. Department of Defense. In that role, he was the principal adviser to the Secretary of Defense for all matters related to national security and defense policy and represented the Department as a standing member of the National Security Council Deputies’ Committee. He oversaw the writing of the 2022 National Defense Strategy, which focused the Pentagon’s efforts on the “pacing challenge” posed by the PRC, and he led the Department’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and numerous other international crises. He also led several other major defense diplomacy initiatives, including: an unprecedented strengthening of the NATO alliance; the negotiation of the AUKUS agreement with Australia and the United Kingdom; historic defense force posture enhancements in Australia, Japan, and the Philippines; and deepening defense and strategic ties with India. In June 2023, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III awarded Dr. Kahl the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian award presented by the Secretary of Defense.

During the Obama Administration, Dr. Kahl served as Deputy Assistant to President Obama and National Security Advisor to the Vice President Biden from October 2014 to January 2017. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East from February 2009 to December 2011, for which he received the Outstanding Public Service Medal in July 2011.

Dr. Kahl is the co-author (along with Thomas Wright) of Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2021) and the author States, Scarcity, and Civil Strife in the Developing World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006). He has also published numerous article on U.S. national security and defense policy in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Security, the Los Angeles Times, Middle East Policy, the National Interest, the New Republic, the New York Times, Politico, the Washington Post, and the Washington Quarterly, as well as several reports for the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a non-partisan think tank in Washington, DC.

Dr. Kahl previously taught at Georgetown University and the University of Minnesota, and he has held fellowship positions at Harvard University, the Council on Foreign Relations, CNAS, and the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and International Engagement.

He received his B.A. in political science from the University of Michigan (1993) and his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University (2000).

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

About the Event: Scholars are debating whether China’s rise will transform the current unipolar distribution of power. Although China clearly has the aggregate size to match (indeed, overtake) the United States, observers debate whether China can catch up technologically. Skeptics typically make two arguments: that 1) a large gap exists between the technological capabilities of China and the United States, and 2) that China will be unable to bridge this gap because its authoritarian institutions inhibit its innovative potential.

Jennifer Lind argues against both of these points. First, she shows empirically that China is defying pessimistic expectations by emerging as a global technological leader. China has already caught up to (and in some cases overtaken) other cutting-edge economies such as France, Israel, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, China and the United States are engaged in a rivalry with respect to the emerging technologies of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Second, institutions arguments fail to explain the Chinese case because they neglect significant heterogeneity among authoritarian regimes: namely that while some fail to foster growth and innovation, “smart authoritarians” provide public goods, constrain leaders, allow limited civil society, and pursue other policies that encourage growth. These findings have profound implications for the future balance of power (suggesting a shift to bipolarity), and add to an authoritarian politics literature that has demonstrated the increasing adaptability and resilience of authoritarian regimes. 

About the Speaker: Professor Lind holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; a Master’s from the School of Global Policy & Strategy from the University of California, San Diego; and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Professor Lind is the author of Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics, a book that examines the effect of war memory on international reconciliation (Cornell University Press, 2008). She has  authored scholarly articles in International Security and International Studies Quarterly, and writes for wider audiences in outlets such as Foreign Affairs and National Interest. She has been quoted and interviewed by PBS Newshour, National Public Radio, the Washington Post, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Professor Lind is affiliated with the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard, as well as Chatham House, London. In recent years she has been a visiting scholar at Waseda University, Japan, and at the School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Lind has worked as a consultant for RAND and for the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Defense. She has recently authored a book (under review) about China’s rise to great power, adaptation by authoritarian regimes, and the future of great-power politics.

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.