Jenny Manrique, a Colombian freelance journalist, joins CIS as its 2008-09 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow. Manrique writes for Comunicaciones Aliadas, a non-governmental online magazine based in Peru that focuses on Latin American news, particularly human rights. A reporter for seven years, Manrique has covered subjects such as kidnapping, drug trafficking and refugees. Most recently, she covered the release of hostages held by the Colombian guerrilla group FARC in January. In the course of her journalistic work, Manrique has received multiple death threats and was forced into exile in Peru for eight months. She will use her time as a Neuffer Fellow to improve coverage on social justice issues.

Barry Posen, director of the Center’s Security Studies Program and Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT, was one of several experts invited to speak at a congressional hearing on a new grand strategy for the United States. The July 15 hearing marks the first of several debates planned by the U.S. House of Representatives House Armed Services Committee in an effort to help the “next president determine a strategy for today’s rapidly changing world,” said the committee chairman, Ike Skelton, in a speech earlier this month. Skelton also stated that "Congress should be involved in the process, and to ensure that a new strategy is one that the American people can support, the general outline of the debate should be shared with and involve the American people."

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