World Class

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The Baltics Are Back Feb 09, 2018

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Countries created after the Soviet Union dissolved provide a unique window into state development. The Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — have emerged as geopolitical and economic leaders in Eastern Europe. Former President of Estonia and FSI Affiliate Toomas Hendrik Ilves and FSI Director Michael McFaul discuss the reasons for these states’ unlikely success, delve into Estonian history, and discuss the ongoing challenges posed by Russia.

If you like what you hear, you can get additional content from scholars at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies by following us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube, and by subscribing to our newsletters and updates.

The Facts on Climate Change on "World Class with Michael McFaul" Feb 02, 2018

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Looking for a reliable source on climate change? Marshall Burke is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University and an FSE fellow. He has studied climate change extensively throughout his career. He tells FSI Director Michael McFaul how the world has already warmed one degree Celsius since pre-industrial times, causing more extreme weather events, a small rise in sea levels and a greater amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There is virtually no disagreement among scientists that the world is warming, he says, and the vast majority of scientists agree that humans are causing the change. Unless we reduce our emissions, the world will warm four to five degrees in the next century, making bad weather worse and gradually increasing average temperatures everywhere. If this happens, the world's GDP will decrease by about 20 percent, causing massive disruption to the world's economy.

America as a Defender of Democracy with Robert Kagan Jan 26, 2018

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The liberal world order that arose after World War II did not occur because of the intellectual superiority of liberal ideas, argues Dr. Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Instead, it was the military and geopolitical might of the United States that converted countries like Germany and Japan into Western-style democracies. However, in today's world, Kagan believes the United States is ceding this role as a worldwide protector of liberal values, enabling countries like Russia and China to become more authoritarian and threatening the world order. Going forward, only a realistic foreign policy that employs military strength to spread American democratic values can prevent a further decay of democracy, he says.

Are Protests in Iran Here to Stay? on "World Class with Michael McFaul" Jan 20, 2018

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With double-digit unemployment, widespread corruption and inequality, and a youth population ready for change, the recent protests in Iran are no surprise, says Abbas Milani, Stanford’s Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies. After arresting more than 3,700 protesters, the Iranian regime has quelled the demonstrations for now. Should we expect more, or will the government succeed in shutting them down? Milani tells FSI Director Michael McFaul that the recent demonstrations are more widespread than, for instance, the 2009 protests against a rigged presidential election. They are concentrated in small, religious towns with little history of anti-government action. Iran’s economic woes are not going away, and Milani expects protests will continue until they do.

The State of the Constitution on "World Class with Michael McFaul" Jan 12, 2018

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How has the United States Constitution been holding up during President Trump's first year in office? Pretty well, says constitutional law expert Gerhard Casper. The three branches of government are still operating independently, and President Trump has actually scaled back the power of his branch by overturning some of President Obama’s executive orders. The American people are politically engaged and have made energetic use of the first amendment. So why the political turmoil? It is our primary system that needs fixing, according to Casper.

After serving as dean of the University of Chicago Law School, Casper joined Stanford in 1992 as the university’s ninth president. He was also the director of FSI from 2012 to 2013.

Terrorism, Refugees and Pandemics Dec 22, 2017

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Civil wars are getting longer, and their consequences are starting to seep across borders to threaten other countries and, sometimes, the rest of the world. In this first episode of our series on civil wars, Karl Eikenberry and Stephen Krasner talk about how war is changing and why we need to address it.

In their project on confronting civil war threats, Eikenberry and Krasner gathered experts from around the world to talk about changing international policy to meet these new issues. Eight of the scholars are from FSI, and we will be speaking with all of them about how civil wars are changing, how they might affect the rest of the world, and what we can do about it.

To learn more about civil wars, check out the fall 2017 and winter 2018 issues of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the outreach projects Eikenberry and Krasner are embarking on around the world: https://www.amacad.org/content/Research/researchproject.aspx?d=22262.

Eikenberry spent 35 years in the U.S. Army before leaving his post as Lieutenant General to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan. Here at FSI, he is the Oksenberg-Rohlen Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Krasner is the Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations.

#CivilWarThreats

Karl Eikenberry: China's Arrival as a World Power on "World Class with Michael McFaul" Dec 15, 2017

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For years, people around the world have hailed China as a rising power. Those days are over: China has arrived. At the October 2017 Communist Party Congress, President Xi Jinping was the first Chinese leader to acknowledge China’s strength as a “great” power. What will this mean for the United States and other countries around the world? Former Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army and Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry speaks with FSI Director Michael McFaul about China's new role on the world stage and President Xi Jinping's plans for the country's growth.

Ambassador Anatoly Antonov: The U.S. and Russia Dec 08, 2017

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U.S.-Russian relations have reached their lowest point since the Cold War. Amidst accusations that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Russian frustration with NATO, dialogue between the two powers has become increasingly strained. Anatoly Antonov, Russian Ambassador to the United States, talks about what might be done to mend relations between the two countries and offers Russia’s perspective on global affairs.

Feeding Seven Billion: Ertharin Cousin, Former Director of the World Food Programme Dec 01, 2017

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Sustainable food systems may be the single most essential ingredient of human wellbeing. In this podcast, World Class producer Nicole Feldman interviews Ertharin Cousin, formerly the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and director of the World Food Programme, who is now the Payne Distinguished Lecturer at FSI's Center for Food Security and the Environment. Cousin discusses threats to food security at every stage of production, from bare ingredients to consumption, and delves into the key challenges that the world faces in securing nutritious food for this generation and the next. She delves particularly into the unique harms posed by ongoing security threats like the presence of ISIS and an increasingly mercurial climate, and outlines possible steps forward to create and stabilize sustainable food systems worldwide.

Solving the Migrant Crisis Nov 17, 2017

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Some Europeans worry about the migrants flooding their borders, but most would be willing to accept more asylum seekers if they felt the system was fair, says Jens Hainmueller. As co-director of the Stanford Immigration Policy Lab, he works with policymakers to create better policies for migrants. He speaks with World Class producer Nicole Feldman about how to improve immigration policy in Europe and the United States for both citizens and migrants.

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