Richard Samuels, director of CIS and Ford International Professor of Political Science, participated in a June 2009 academic exchange program in Israel. The week-long project was sponsored by the Yitzhak Rabin Center and involved a group of American professors of political science. "…this is the first group of political science professors to arrive here from America," said Dalia Rabin, daughter of the late prime minister and director of the Rabin Center. "The goal, which I think we accomplished, was to show them the complexities of the issues facing Israel, and the Middle East, and develop a better understanding of the core issues facing all sides." Samuels shares some thoughts on his experience in the Jerusalem Post. Read article»

Fotini Christia, member of the Center’s Security Studies Program and assistant professor of political science at MIT, co-authored an essay on Afghanistan in the July/August 2009 issue of Foreign Affairs. The authors write, “Although sending more troops is necessary to tip the balance of power against the insurgents, the move will have a lasting impact only if it is accompanied by a political ‘surge,’ a committed effort to persuade large groups of Taliban fighters to put down their arms and give up the fight.” Read the full essay: “Flipping the Taliban: How to Win in Afghanistan.” Related is a Starr Forum event on Afghanistan featuring a discussion between Fotini and Admiral William Fallon, USN (RET). Watch the video»

Four students affiliated with the Center have received 2009-10 Fulbright Fellowships: Nathan Cisneros, Greg Distelhorst, Erica Dobbs, and Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner. The students—all doctoral candidates in the political science department—are among 13 from MIT that received the scholarship. Cisneros will travel to Japan to examine the persisting dualism between workers with job protection and good wages with those without such security. Distelhorst will visit two southern Chinese manufacturing centers to investigate how local government and private firms have responded to new laws that improve labor conditions and expand worker rights while raising operational costs for employers. Dobbs will examine the role labor unions play in integrating recent immigrants into their communities in Ireland and Spain. And Kruks-Wisner will travel to India to complete her dissertation research on local governance institutions in rural India. Related news story»