For the United States, Asia today represents a sometimes confusing mix of risks and opportunities. The risks are often more evident - North Korea’s decision to test nuclear weapons, the growing tensions between Japan and China over both their past and their future, and threats to democracy and security in Southeast Asia. But there are also great opportunities for the United States in Asia: the powerful wave of economic growth fueled by market reforms in China and India, a reviving Japan, and the movement toward greater regional integration. Associate director for research at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center (APARC) Daniel Sneider will lead a conversation on these risks and opportunities with Shorenstein APARC scholars Michael Armacost, Gi-Wook Shin, and Don Emmerson.

About the Panelists:

Shorenstein distinguished fellow Michael Armacost has been at APARC since 2002. During his 24-year government career, Armacost served as undersecretary of state for political affairs, as ambassador to Japan and the Philippines, and in other capacities. From 1982 to 1984, he served as U.S. aAmbassador to the Philippines, and was a key force in helping the country undergo a nonviolent transition to democracy. In 1989, President George Bush tapped him to become ambassador to Japan, considered one of the most important and sensitive U.S. diplomatic posts abroad.

Donald K. Emmerson is director of the Southeast Asia Forum (SEAF) at Shorenstein APARC, a senior fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute, and an affiliated scholar with the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford. In 2005 and 2006, Emmerson was a member of two study groups focused on ASEAN and regionalism in Southeast Asia—a task force on East Asia community-building and U.S. Policy (Asia Foundation), and a strategic dialogue on new power dynamics in Southeast Asia (Stanley Foundation). He has a PhD in political science from Yale and a BA in international affairs from Princeton. The son of a U.S. foreign service officer, he was born in Japan and grew up outside the United States.

Gi-Wook Shin is the director of Shorenstein APARC, the founding director of the Korean Studies Program, senior fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute, and associate professor of sociology. Before coming to Stanford, he taught at the University of Iowa and the University of California, Los Angeles and has served as acting director of the UCLA Center for Korean Studies, as guest columnist for the Korea Central Daily and the Korea Times (U.S. edition), and on other councils and advisory boards in the United States and Korea. Shin received his B.A. from Yonsei University in Korea and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Daniel Sneider is the associate director for research at Shorenstein APARC and is the former foreign affairs columnist of the San Jose Mercury News. His twice-weekly column on foreign affairs, looking at international issues and national security from a West Coast perspective, was syndicated nationally on the Knight Ridder Tribune wire service, reaching about 400 newspapers in North America. He has appeared as a foreign affairs commentator on the Lehrer News Hour and on National Public Radio. Sneider is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, the West Coast affiliate of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Institute of Current World Affairs.

Opinions on the qualities of effective schools abound, but the best schools have some characteristics in common. In this talk, the dean of Stanford’s School of Education discusses research on great schools and suggests questions to ask and things to look for on a school visit. She will comment as well on how the “No Child Left Behind” Act is and is not helping us increase the quality of public schooling.

Faculty Speaker: Deborah J. Stipek is the James Quillen Dean and Professor of Education at Stanford. She earned her doctorate in developmental psychology from Yale University. Her scholarship concerns instructional effects on children’s achievement motivation, early childhood education, elementary education, and school reform. In addition to her scholarship, she served for five years on the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Academy of Sciences and chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Increasing High School Students’ Engagement & Motivation to Learn. Dr. Stipek served 10 of her 23 years at UCLA as director of the Corinne Seeds University Elementary School and the Urban Education Studies Center. She joined the Stanford School of Education in January 2001.

Three primary issues are driving current energy policy debates: the role of energy in global climate change, the security issues associated with the world-wide dependence on insecure sources of energy supply, and the high costs of oil and natural gas. Although there are no silver bullets to respond to these challenges, there are important actions that the United States and individual states can take. Among the most important are energy efficiency measures. Professor Sweeney will discuss the overall energy policy status, focusing on energy efficiency as the cleanest, cheapest, and fastest way to address some of the challenges.

Faculty Speaker: James L. Sweeney is director of the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency; professor of management science and engineering; senior fellow of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; senior fellow of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace; and senior fellow of the Stanford Institute for International Studies. His professional activities focus on economic policy and analysis, particularly in energy, natural resources, and the environment. At Stanford he has served as chairman of the department of engineering-economic systems, chairman of the department of engineering-economic systems and operations research, director of the energy modeling forum, chairman of the Institute for Energy Studies, and director of the Center for Economic Policy Research (now the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research). He holds a BS from MIT in electrical engineering and a PhD from Stanford in engineering-economic systems.

Influenza is a potentially serious respiratory infection that exists throughout the world. Annual vaccination is the primary means to prevent infection, and each year the vaccine must be modified to account for the genetic evolution of the virus. Every so often an entirely new strain of influenza emerges to which the population has no immunity; this can lead to a pandemic. Three pandemics occurred in the 20th century: the “swine” or “Spanish” flu in 1918, “Asian” flu in 1957, and “Hong Kong” flu in 1968. Approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Americans die each year from influenza infection. During pandemics, the death rate rises substantially above this. The pandemic of 1918 was responsible for 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide—500,000 deaths in the United States—and a tenfold increase in mortality. It predominantly affected young, healthy people in their twenties, thirties, and forties. The current bird flu strain, H5N1, has killed more than 250 people and could evolve into the next pandemic influenza strain by becoming more easily transmissible from person to person. This lecture will cover how the influenza virus evolves, the current concerns about the virulence of the next pandemic influenza strain, and what Stanford is doing to prepare for this eventuality. We will definitely have a flu pandemic; it’s only a matter of timing and genetics.

Faculty Speaker: Lucy Tompkins is the Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine in Infectious Diseases and chief of the division of infectious diseases and geographic medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also professor of microbiology and immunology, and pathology by courtesy. She received her MD from Dartmouth Medical School and her PhD from Georgetown University. Dr. Tompkins is the medical director of the Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control Program at Stanford Hospitals and Clinics and was formerly the medical director of the Clinical Microbiology/Virology Laboratory. She is a member of the emergency preparedness committee of the Society for Health Systems and the co-chair of the bioterrorism preparedness task force. She is a member of the Stanford University and the Stanford University Hospitals and Clinics pandemic influenza preparedness committees and is a co-author on a planning document prepared for the State of California.