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FSI scholars produce research aimed at creating a safer world and examing the consequences of security policies on institutions and society. They look at longstanding issues including nuclear nonproliferation and the conflicts between countries like North and South Korea. But their research also examines new and emerging areas that transcend traditional borders – the drug war in Mexico and expanding terrorism networks. FSI researchers look at the changing methods of warfare with a focus on biosecurity and nuclear risk. They tackle cybersecurity with an eye toward privacy concerns and explore the implications of new actors like hackers.

Along with the changing face of conflict, terrorism and crime, FSI researchers study food security. They tackle the global problems of hunger, poverty and environmental degradation by generating knowledge and policy-relevant solutions. 

Examining the Past, Present, and Future of Silicon Valley’s Relationship with the Government

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The story of Silicon Valley is one of perpetual reinvention and innovation. During the Cold War, farmlands that had grown produce transformed into research facilities where major breakthroughs in aerospace, defense, and data processing were made. With support from  the U.S. government, technologies like GPS, Google, Siri, would grow.

This ecosystem of innovation continues to evolve today. While public sector programs continue to lead in areas such as nuclear weapons research and classified defense technologies, private companies and startups are increasingly outpacing government labs in critical technology areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, energy systems, and space launch. 

With so much economic, defense, and societal potential built into these technologies, creating effective partnerships between private companies and government is more important than ever.

In “Silicon Valley & The U.S. Government,” Stanford students, and now the public, have a front row seat to hear how these collaborations took root. First launched by Ernestine Fu Mak in 2016 as small, closed-door sessions, the series has expanded into a class where students and the public alike can hear directly from technology experts, business executives, and public service leaders about the past, present, and future of how their industries overlap.

“When national missions generated in Washington meet the ingenuity and drive resident in our nation’s premier hub of innovation, world changing technological breakthroughs follow,” says Joe Felter, a lecturer and director of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, which is based at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. “The Silicon Valley & The U.S. Government series exposes students in real time to how this partnership and collaboration continues to help us meet national security and other critical emerging challenges.”

The course is offered through the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department and Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy program, and co-led by Mak, Steve Blank, Joe Felter, and Eric Volmar, with ongoing support from Steve Bowsher. All of the seminars are available via the playlist below, with more being released throughout fall quarter.

Mak, who is co-director of Stanford Frontier Technology Lab and an investor in national security startups at Brave Capital, explains the importance of fostering these kinds of connections and bringing students into the conversation.

“The future of national security depends on collaboration, and this seminar is our effort to help forge those connections,” she says. “It’s been exciting to watch it evolve—and continue to grow—into a platform that bridges communities that rarely share the same room: students, technologists, policymakers, investors, and public-sector innovators.”

In its early years, the series featured government leaders like former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry, founders of pioneering companies in satellite imagery and robotics, and leaders from organizations such as the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E. More recently, CEOs like Hidden Level's Jeff Cole, whose company develops stealth and radar technology, and Baiju Bhatt of Aetherflux, a space solar power venture, have joined the discussion series.

Strengthening this flow of expertise between government and innovation hubs like Silicon Valley is key to the future and success of both sectors, and the students of today will be the leaders and policymakers of tomorrow driving those ventures, observes Eric Volmar, the teaching lead at the Gordian Knot Center.

"In modern entrepreneurship, every founder needs to be thinking about the policy aspects of their technologies. In modern government, every leader needs to be thinking about how emerging technologies affect national priorities,” says Volmer. “Tech and policy are fusing together, and our whole purpose is to prepare students for this new era.”

By giving students the opportunity to hear the personal accounts of innovators who have paved the way in addressing national issues and societal challenges through entrepreneurship, the co-leaders of “Silicon Valley & The U.S. Government” hope to encourage students to do the same.

“Students are looking to be inspired—to be mission-driven. Service to the country is one of those missions. Hearing how others have answered the call is what these seminars are all about," says Steve Blank, a lecturer and founding member of the Gordian Knot Center.

“Silicon Valley & The U.S. Government” meets once per week each fall and spring quarter. It can be found in the Stanford Courses catalogue as CEE 252, and is cross-listed for students in the Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy program as INTLPOL 300V. Recent sessions of the course are posted online every two weeks.

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Ernestine Fu Mak (far left) and Steve Bowsher (far right) speaking with panelists during a session of the "Silicon Valley & The U.S. Government" speaker series.
Session leaders Ernestine Fu Mak (far left) and Steve Bowsher (far right) speaking with panelists during the "Silicon Valley & The U.S. Government" speaker series.
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Recordings of the course “Silicon Valley & The U.S. Government,” co-led by instructors from FSI’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation and the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department, are available online for free.

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Joseph Felter

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Joe Felter is the Director of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. He is an educator, researcher and entrepreneur with over 30 years of organizational leadership and management experience including 15 years working at the nexus of Stanford University and Silicon Valley.  He maintains teaching and research appointments at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, the Hoover Institution and Stanford Technology Ventures Program.  From 2017-2019 Joe served as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia. Joe is co-creator of “Hacking for Defense,” a defense innovation focused academic curriculum he helped develop and pilot at Stanford in 2016. A retired US Army Ranger and Special Forces officer, Joe served in a variety of special operations assignments with combat deployments to Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan. He received a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point, MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, Graduate Certificate in Management from the University of West Australia, and Ph.D. from Stanford University.

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