Reports say the violence in Iraq is the lowest since March 2004. Security in Iraq is cited as fragile, but sources tell us that Maliki’s government is making great strides and gaining confidence both among themselves and the people. The news sounds hopeful. Still, we are reminded by historian and CIS research affiliate Juan Cole that the war’s toll on Iraqi lives remains grossly underreported, numbing us to the human side. Iraq: the Human Cost, a web site that the Center and Hyperstudio launched in 2007, is another chilling reminder of the devastation of war. The site is a resource on the Iraq war and its toll in deaths, displacement, poverty, and other effects. Featured on the site are eyewitness photos by AP photographer Anja Niedringhause.

Admiral William J. Fallon, the former commander of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Pacific Command, will join the Center as a Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow. He will make CIS his academic home for nine months, starting August 2008. As a Wilhelm Fellow, he will collaborate with the MIT community in research, seminars, conferences, and other intellectual projects. Admiral Fallon led U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), one of five geographic joint military commands of the U.S. armed forces, each headed by a senior four-star general or admiral, from March 2007 to March 2008. During his tenure as CENTCOM commander, he was responsible for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and directed all U.S. military activities in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa. Press Release

In the wake of the catastrophic earthquake in China’s Sichuan province and on the eve of the Olympics this August in Beijing, Discovery Channel Managing Editor Ted Koppel presents Koppel on Discovery: The People's Republic of Capitalism, a sweeping four-part series that examines modern China. An advance screening of the documentary, followed by a question-and-answer session with some of the programs’ producers, will be hosted by MIT’s Center for International Studies. The screening is open to the public and will be held on MIT campus on Wed, June 18, at 6:00p, at the Broad Institute auditorium.