Shorenstein APARC, 1997-2005

While Asia entered an uncertain period due to financial crisis and the United States was launched into a series of conflicts following the 9/11 attacks, these years represented a time of great growth for the Center, which in 2005 was renamed the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center in recognition of its greatest benefactor. The Center developed a depth of expertise in studies of China and Korea, but also broadened its interdisciplinary and comparative work on Asia’s political economy and development.

For the first time the Center occupied a single floor in the remodeled Encina Hall; core faculty expanded with the appointments of sociologist Andrew G. Walder and political economist Jean C. Oi, as well as Korean Studies Program founding director Gi-Wook Shin. The Center’s great loss during this period was beloved China scholar Michel Oksenberg, whose life was honored by the inaugural Oksenberg Lecture, presented by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. The Center also launched its annual Shorenstein Journalism Award in 2002, naming its first recipient as Stanley Karnow, a Pulitzer Prize–winning author and journalist.

Other significant hires were Donald Emmerson, director of the Southeast Asia Forum, and Rafiq Dossani, who led the newly established South Asia Initiative. The Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, co-directed by Henry S. Rowen and William F. Miller, released its book The Silicon Valley Edge to great acclaim.