MIT Reports to the President 1994-95

Department of Political Science

In the 1994-95 academic year, the Department of Political Science continued its distinguished programs in undergraduate and graduate education and research.

NEW INITIATIVES

The Department's major new initiative was in the area of undergraduate education. The MIT Washington Internship Program was established to educate technologically sophisticated students about national public policy. Ten students were selected for the inaugural group in 1995 and were placed in government agencies, advocacy groups, and think tanks in Washington, DC. Each student enrolls in political science subjects designed to help him/her explore the intersection of science and engineering with national politics and policymaking. Associate Professor Charles H. Stewart, III is the Program Director.

RECRUITMENT

With the support of the Provost's office, Professor Richard A. Joseph was named the first Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor. He will join the Department for two years from The Carter Center and Emory University in Atlanta. Professor Joseph's teaching interests are African politics, comparative democratization, political theory, social and political thought, and politics and literature: Africa and the Caribbean. The Department was again successful in hiring new faculty. Assistant Professor David Woodruff was recruited from the University of California, Berkeley. His fields are comparative politics, comparative political economy, and comparative methods.

PUBLICATIONS

The faculty produced books and many articles. Here we can mention only a few. Assistant Professor Stephen Ansolabehere co-authored Going Negative: How Attack Advertising Polarizes and Alienates the American Public, The Free Press; he also wrote "The Effectiveness of Campaign Advertising: Its All in the Context," a chapter in Campaigns and Elections, Westview Press; and "The Science of Political Advertising," Political Persuasion and Attitude Change, University of Michigan Press. Professor Suzanne Berger wrote "The Coming Protectionism: Trade and Identity in France," a chapter in Remaking the Hexagon: The New France in the New Europe, Westview Press. Professor Nazli Choucri authored Population and Political Economy in Egypt: Dilemmas of Security, London: Routledge. She was guest editor, special issue of Business & the Contemporary World on "Global Environmental Accords: Implications for Technology, Industry and International Relations." Assistant Professor Zhiyuan Cui wrote "Universal. Particular and Infinite: Transcending Western Centrism and Cultural Relativism in the Third World," in Leo Marx and Bruce Mazlish, eds., Idea of Progress Revisited, University of Michigan Press. He has also written Institutional Innovation and the Second "Thought Liberation" Movement: Collective Essays (in Chinese), Oxford University Press, Hong Kong; and co-authored Sustainable Democracy, Cambridge University Press. Assistant Professor Daniel T. Kryder authored "The American State and the Management of Race Conflict in the Workplace and in the Army, 1941-1945," Polity. Professor Stephen M. Meyer wrote "The Economic Impact of Environmental Regulation," Environmental Law and Practice, and "Russia's Military," Current History. Associate Professor Kenneth A. Oye wrote the chapter "Explaining the End of the Cold War: Behavioral and Morphological Adaptations to the Nuclear Peace," End of the Cold War & International Relations Theory, Columbia University Press. Professor Barry R. Posen wrote several chapters; among them are "Military Lessons of the Gulf War--Implications for Middle East Arms Control," in Arms Control and the New Middle East Security Environment, Westview Press; "Nationalism, the Mass Army and Military Power," reprinted in Global Dangers: Changing Dimensions of International Security, and International Security Reader; and co-author of "Competing U.S. Grand Strategies," in Strategy & Force Planning, U.S. Naval War College Press. Professor George W. Rathjens wrote "Rethinking Nuclear Proliferation," The Washington Quarterly. Professor Charles F. Sabel authored "Bootstrapping Reform: Rebuilding Firms, the Welfare State and Unions," in Politics and Society. Professor Richard J. Samuels had published Japanese and Korean versions of his book, "Rich Nation, Strong Army": National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan, originally published by Cornell University Press. Professor Stewart authored "Let's Go Fly a Kite: Correlates of Involvement in the House Bank Scandal," Legislative Studies Quarterly. Professor Myron Weiner authored The Global Migration Crisis: Challenge to States and to Human Rights, Harper Collins; and was co-editor of The New Geopolitics of Central Asia and its Borderlands, London: I.B. Taurus, and Bloomington: Indiana University Press. His article, "Security, Stability and International Migration" appeared in Global Dangers: Changing Dimensions of International Security, MIT Press.

TEACHING

Professor Ansolabehere and Associate Professor James T. Snyder, Jr. organized the 1995 Summer Workshop in Mathematics and Computers for incoming and current graduate students in the Department, with support from the National Science Foundation. Professor Berger created a new subject, "Domestic Politics of Trade and Integration." She also organized and directs the new MIT International Science and Technology Initiative. Professor Choucri's new subject is Sustainable Development: Theory and Public Policy; Professor Kryder offered two new subjects: American Political Development, and The President. Professor Meyer organized and directed twelve undergraduate students in a new UROP project on Endangered Species, combining politics/survey research and field biology (habitat assessment). Assistant Professor Melissa Nobles' new subjects are Comparative Politics of Race and Ethnicity, Ethnicity and Race in World Politics, Race and Science, and Nationalism. Professor Harvey M. Sapolsky organized a joint Harvard-MIT seminar on the Future of War, a monthly seminar series open to faculty, students, and visitors. Assistant Professor Frederic C. Schaffer prepared four new subjects: Language and Politics, Categories and Concepts in Political Science, Political Culture, and Democracy in Comparative Perspective. Assistant Professor Stephen Van Evera has added a new subject, Causes of War: Theory and Method. Professor Weiner introduced a new freshman seminar, Migrants and Their Children.

Undergraduate enrollments went up from 738 in 1993-94 to 756 in 1994-95. Undergraduate majors also increased from 38 to 40, and minors increased from 24 to 29. The Department enrolled 14 new doctoral students and 3 masters students. One hundred twenty two students were registered in the Political Science graduate program.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Professor Weiner received the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Edgar Graham Book Prize for The Child and the State in India, Princeton University Press, 1991. This prize is awarded every two years for a work of original scholarship on agricultural and/or industrial development in Asia and/or Africa. Professor Berger was awarded the Raphael Dorman and Helen Starbuck Professorship, and received refunding for three years from the Sloan Foundation for the Industrial Performance Center. Professor Choucri received funding from the United Nations Population Fund; from the United Nations Environment Programme, Consortium on Technology, Environment, and Sustainable Development Professors Oye and Eugene B. Skolnikoff were funded by the Power Nuclear and Fuel Development Corporation of Japan for a research project on International Responses to Japanese Plutonium Policies. Professor Samuels received a grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research for his project on Japan's China Strategy as part of larger programatic support for the MIT Japan Program, which he directs. Professors Sapolsky, Posen, Meyer, etc (DACS) received a two-year renewal grant from the Carnegie Corporation for the Defense and Arms Control Studies (DACS) Program. Professor Schaffer received a Rozance Memorial Fellowship in Political Science, University of California, Berkeley; and a National Endowment for the Humanities Dissertation Fellowship.

OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES

Professor Berger is a board member, SSRC-ACLS Joint Committee International Programs; board member, German-American Academic Council; co-organizer, Conference on the Future of Industry in Advanced Societies. She is also on the editorial boards of Political Science Quarterly, Political Studies, and West European Politics. She is senior research associate, Center for European Studies, Harvard University. Professor Choucri served as special advisor to Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Professor Willard R. Johnson served on the Board of Directors of the Overseas Development Council, as well as on TransAfrica. Professor Kryder co-chaired a Harvard-based, Boston/Cambridge "Seminar in American Political Development," a bi-weekly forum for the presentation of work-in-progress by scholars of U.S. political history. Professor Meyer served on the editorial boards of International Security, and International Studies Quarterly. Professor Oye was a member of the editorial board for World Politics. Professor Posen was a member of the editorial boards of International Security, Security Studies, and Orbis; and academic associate of Atlantic Council. Professor Samuels is a member of the Abe Program Fellowship Committee of the Social Science Research Council; he served on the US Congressional Office of Technology Assessment Study Group on Multinational Firms and the U.S. Technology Base; the Advisory Commission, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, Defense Technology Base; and the U.S.-Japan Scientific and Technical Exchange Group, National Academy of Sciences. He is vice-chairman, Committee on Japan of the National Research Council. Professor Sapolsky is a member of the Energy Advisory Task Force on Alternative Futures for the Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboraties; and the dissertation award committee, National Academy of Social Insurance. He is the American Political Science Association representative to the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and a reviewer, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. Professor Skolnikoff serves on the Humphrey Award Committee of the American Political Science Association, and on several National Academy of Sciences panels and committees. He was keynote speaker for the 75th Anniversary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Professor Snyder served on the editorial board of Economics and Politics. Professor Stewart served on the editorial boards of Political Science Quarterly, and Congress and the Presidency. Professor Van Evera served on the editorial boards of International Security, Security Studies, and Orbis. Professor Weiner is Director, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, German-American Migration and Refugee Policies Project, funded by the German-American Academic Council, 1994-1996; and member, External Advisory Committee for The State of World's Refugees 1995, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva; International Interdisciplinary Scientific Council, UNESCO Chair, Refugees Studies Programme, University of Oxford; Board of Trustees, The Fund for Peace; and on the editorial boards of Asia Survey, Third World Quarterly, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, and Journal of commonwealth Studies.

INSTITUTE SERVICE

Professor Berger directs the Provost's new MIT International Science and Technology Initiative (MISTI), serves on the operating committee, MIT Industrial Performance Center, and is a member of the Industrial Linkages Committee. Professor Choucri is a member of the MIT Council on Global Environment, the MIT Committee for ETH-MIT-Tokyo University alliance, and the MIT Faculty Committee for the World Industry Congress. She is also chair, Policy Committee, Technology and Development Program; associate director, Technology and Development Program; and head of the Middle East Program. She chaired the Committee on MIT Faculty Seminar on Global Environment and Sustainable Development; and is director of the MIT-led Consortium on Global Environment and Sustainable Development. Professor Johnson supervised a summer UROP project on reforms in Uganda, and on African American organizational activity and consciousness regarding Africa. He served on the Provost's advisory committee on the Dean of the Graduate School search, and on the advisory board for the MIT-based Africa Technology Forum. Professor Oye is a member of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Committee on Regional Studies Minors; the MIT Council on Global Environment; and the Provost's Advisory Committee on the Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs. He is the director of the Center for International Studies; and co-organizer of the Harvard-MIT Joint Seminars on International Institutions and Political Economy. Professors Oye, Posen, and Weiner are co-directors of Seminar XXI, Foreign Politics and the National Interest. Professor Posen and Professor Rathjens are members of the Committee on ROTC. Professor Samuels is director of the MIT Japan Program. Professor Sapolsky is director of DACS. Professor Skolnikoff was chair, special committee for the Provost; and co-chair, MIT Seminar for Senior Congressional Staff. Professor Stewart served on the MacVicar Fellow selection advisory committee, and the Truman Scholarship selection committee. He was faculty advisor to Nightline, and Housemaster of McCormick Hall. He is on the supervisory committee of Boston/Cambridge Ministry in Higher Education which employs MIT's Protestant chaplain.

PLACEMENT

Our graduating doctoral students were positioned at leading universities and government. Among them are Smith College, Holy Cross, Columbia University, Regis College, the University of Rochester, Princeton University, Boston College, McGill University, and Sogang University in Seoul, Korea; and the Congressional Budget Office, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Institute of Peace.

RETIREMENTS AND DEPARTURES

Professor Hayward R. Alker retired from the faculty. Professor Charles F. Sabel joined the faculty at Columbia University, but remains in the Department as Visiting Professor. Other departures include Professors Uday Mehta, and Jonathan Fox.

MIT Reports to the President 1994-95