Monday Memo #83: What’s Next After the Capitol Riot? Stanford Terrorism Expert Weighs In
By Noah Howard and Jackson Vachal
Start your week off right, with a round-up of Stanford-related news from Stanford Politics.
What’s Next After the Capitol Riot?
Following the deadly storming of the United States Capitol on January 6th, many people around the world were in disbelief. However, renowned terrorism expert and Senior Fellow Emerita at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute, Martha Crenshaw questioned how those partisans and their organizations that participated in the attack would evolve. First, Crenshaw theorizes that the Capitol riot caused many of these groups to shed their more moderate members who condemned such actions. Naturally, this results in increasing radicalization within these groups as only “true believers” stay and new recruits that espouse this hardline rhetoric join. Moreover, many individuals within these groups will become increasingly separated from reality as they continue to be fed misinformation. Yet, it is combating this misinformation that offers America its best chance at stymieing and rolling back increasing partisan radicalization. According to Renée DiResta, disinformation researcher at Stanford Internet Observatory, one of the best ways to do this would be to create a federal task force with the explicit job of identifying and countering disinformation on a national scale. This task force should similarly engage with technology platforms to assist them in engineering their websites to help lessen content pertaining to extremism and misinformation. Crenshaw concludes with the observation that such acts of violence will only conclusively end when groups responsible are identified and ousted by the very communities they claim to represent.
A More Aggressive Approach Regarding Taiwan
On February 18th, Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute Oriana Skylar Mastro testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on “Deterring PRC Aggression Toward Taiwan.” In her testimony, Dr. Mastro pointed to a marked change in U.S.-Chinese relations regarding Taiwan, namely that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, will seek to reintegrate Taiwan by force once he believes China has the capacity to resist an American intervention. Dr. Mastro draws on numerous conversations she has had with leaders in the Chinese military that claim that they believe China could be ready for just such an operation in less than a year. Moreover, Dr. Mastro highlights recent war games conducted by the RAND Corporation and the Pentagon that show China completing a military takeover of Taiwan in “a matter of days.” This, Dr. Mastro argues, would allow China to secure a fait accompli by which Taiwan will be firmly under Beijing’s control before the United States can gather an effective intervention force. These findings have led Dr. Mastro to conclude that the United States needs to change its capabilities in the Pacific to actively counter a Chinese push to take Taiwan. In addition, Dr. Mastro adds that the U.S. must assist Taiwan in establishing links with other countries in the region and around the world, including international institutions. This should be done to ensure Taiwan has as many allies on the international stage as possible to protest any threat to the island and its people.
Visiting Stanford Medical School Researcher Accused of Concealing Ties to Chinese Military
Prosecutors have filed an indictment of Song Chen, a Chinese citizen who has worked as a visiting researcher at Stanford Medical School since 2019. Song is accused of destroying photographs and emails that reveal connections to the Chinese military. She is one of four Chinese scholars who were charged in July with making false statements on their visa applications to hide their military employment. According to her visa application, Song served in the Chinese military from 2000 to 2011 but worked at a civilian hospital at the time of the application. Prosecutors claim that she in fact worked at a military hospital, which would have required a diplomatic or official visa. After entering the U.S. in December 2018, Song worked in an unnamed Stanford professor’s laboratory studying myasthenia gravis. She is currently free on a bond of $250,000 and set to face trial starting April 12. Alan Kohler, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, stated that, “time and again, the Chinese government prioritizes stealing U.S. research and taking advantage of our universities over obeying international norms.” At the time of the indictment, it was not publicly known what criminal activity, if any at all, Song may have committed in her capacity as a Stanford visiting researcher.
And in case you missed it…
Stanford reopening is reasonable, epidemiologists say (Hsieh | The Stanford Daily)
President Biden on the World Stage (World Class Podcast)
Mortality During Early Stages of Pandemic Highest Amongst Black Individuals, Stanford Study Finds (Nesamoney | The Stanford Daily)
The Long-Term Economic Costs of Lost Schooling (Hilsenrath | The Wall Street Journal)
About the Authors
Noah Howard ’22 is pursuing majors in Economics and International Relations with a minor in Iranian Studies. Living in Washington D.C., he is currently writing a thesis about the role of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Iranian Politics.
Jackson Vachal ’22 is pursuing majors in Political Science and Philosophy, with a focus on democratic theory. A San Francisco native, he is interested in social entrepreneurship and nonprofit advocacy work.
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