World Class

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 secur...

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...

"It feels like cyber is everywhere and yet at the same time insignificant," says Amy Zegart, co-director of FSI's Center for International Security and Cooperation. As cyber talk turns from how technology makes life easier to how it will doom us all, understanding its many perils becomes increasingly difficult. In her discussion with FSI Director Michael McFaul, Amy Zegart breaks down th...

What causes civil wars and what can we do about it? Michael McFaul introduces a panel of some of FSI’s most distinguished scholars, who tackle this complex topic in a special two-volume issue of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Karl Eikenberry, the former US ambassador to Afghanistan, and Stephen Krasner, former State Dept. director of policy planning, are co-edi...

On the ground in Mosul, FSI senior fellow Paul Wise joined a small team to evaluate the World Health Organization (WHO)'s efforts to treat civilian casualties of war. What he found was a city destroyed but also a remarkable resilience as Iraqis begin to rebuild. The fighting in Mosul is only one example of how war is changing, and humanitarian organizations are working to alter their tactics. Wise...

Democracy is in jeopardy. Dictatorships are on the rise. What can we do to change the political landscape? In Stanford Reunion's "Classes without Quizzes" series, FSI scholars explain why populism is on the rise in the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world and how it relates to the decline of democracies. FSI Director Michael McFaul moderates the panel which includes Francis F...

As the President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves witnessed firsthand a devastating cyberattack — a series of 2007 attacks that comprise one of the largest instances of state-sponsored cyberwarfare in the modern era. Now a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, he talks here with Herbert Lin, a senior research scholar for cyber policy and security at the Center for International...

Not many people can say they've held North Korea's plutonium in their hands, but Siegfried Hecker has toured North Korea's nuclear facilities four times. He was the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and has advised several U.S. presidents on nuclear security. Hecker tells us about North Korea's weapons capabilities and whether we're heading toward the world's first nuclear war. He is...

The Political History of American Food Aid: An Uneasy Benevolence is the first book to tell the history of U.S. food aid. From early discussions with James Madison to large-scale programs in the Cold War, author Barry Riley, a visiting scholar at FSI's Center on Food Security and the Environment, explores how food aid programs developed in America and what we can expect in the coming years. Learn...

Hoi Trinh was born in South Vietnam. After the war ended, his family was forced to flee to Australia. Trinh rose from refugee to hot shot lawyer, but he wasn't satisfied. He wanted to understand where he came from and to help the people who were left behind. He returned to Vietnam to work with refugees but was again cast out. In 2005, he co-founded VOICE, the Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Con...

New York Times editor Philip Taubman met General Michael Hayden while investigating NSA eavesdropping operations that began after 9/11. As the director of both the NSA and the CIA, Hayden experienced every facet of cybersecurity. Here, he and Taubman discuss responses to events like Russian hacking during the last U.S. election and leaked NSA tools shared by the Shadow Brokers. Stanford University...

The term "radicalization" has become linked to Islamic terrorism, but what does it really mean? Are all terrorists radicalized? How do people become terrorists, and how has terrorism changed since the Cold War? Terrorism expert Martha Crenshaw, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and Professor of Political Science, answers these questions and mor...

In 1972, President Nixon famously visited China, moving away from a bilateral relationship with the Soviet Union and toward a more inclusive global conversation. Could the United States enhance its negotiating position with Russia today by improving relations with China? Experts from the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) convened at the Nixon Foundation to discuss relations...

Welcome to the first episode of World Class with Michael McFaul. In this series, we bring you conversations between FSI Director and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and top researchers at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). In the American psyche, Russia has moved from a remnant of the Cold War to the top of headlines around the world. How did we get here?...

Fifty years after the cultural revolution made religious belief illegitimate in China, it's making a comeback. What are the religious experiences of the Chinese people today? Award-winning journalist Ian Johnson spoke at FSI's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center about his new book, The Souls of China. If you like what you hear, you can get additional content from scholars at the Freeman Spogl...

After going in for a routine procedure, a man ends up with a punctured lung and a medical emergency. A woman's surgery goes well until her stomach is stitched up with a sponge inside. Most of us feel safe going to the doctor, but the road to high-quality care was not straightforward. Stanford Health Policy's Kathryn McDonald tells us how the safe, high-quality care we expect got where it is today...

Dictators use cyberwarfare to hit democracies where it hurts - the ballot box. Former Estonian president Toomas Ilves, a visiting fellow at FSI in 2016-17, explains. 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 newslet...

What can the U.K. and France's recent elections tell us about Europe's political climate? The Scholars' Circle brings together three top scholars to find out. The Europe Center's Patrick Chamorel, a senior resident scholar at the Stanford University Center in Washington DC, joins Jeroen Dewulf, an associate professor in the Department of German at UC Berkeley and Mark Amsler, an associate professo...

North Korea's nuclear capabilities are growing. What's the rest of the world to do? APARC's Gi-Wook Shin and Kathleen Stephens, also the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, are joined by the Wilson Center's James Person and CISAC visiting fellow Katharina Zellweger. If you like what you hear, you can get additional content from scholars at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies...

The greatest dangers to your organization may come from the inside. Security expert Matthew Bunn joins CISAC's Amy Zegart and Scott Sagan to explain. 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...

President Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, visits FSI to talk about his tenure in the White House and his thoughts on its current occupants. He's interviewed by Stanford in Government chair Libby Scholz, '17. 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 , Instagra...

National security scholar Graham Allison speaks with the Hoover Institution's Niall Ferguson at FSI. Allison's new book is called "Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?" 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 Y...

What does the president's "America First" foreign policy mean for our relationship with the rest of the world? Former US ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder visits Stanford to discuss. 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 su...

FSI's William J. Perry Fellow Matthew Spence interviews Jake Sullivan, former Deputy Assistant to President Obama and National Security Advisor to Vice President Biden. 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 news...

Former Mexican president Vicente Fox visits Stanford University to talk about the future of US-Mexico relations. 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 .