Learning about the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (the MISTI Program)—which, among other things, offers MIT students language and culture training in preparation for challenging internships and research positions in China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan and Mexico—has never been easier, or more fun.  From Tuesday, September 20 through Friday, September 23, "MISTI Week" will offer a range of activities in addition to orientations for each of MISTI's seven country programs. Pulitzer Prize-winning MIT historian John Dower will speak about Japan; a panel of students, corporate experts and faculty will discuss The Car of the Future; and other panels will look at Europe, the Free Software Movement, and Youth Culture in China.  MISTI, which since 1994 has trained more than 1,400 MIT students to become global professionals—and which is a cornerstone of international education at MIT—will also hold a day-long culture fair, with foreign foods and music.  (Not to mention the soccer tournament and Mexican movie night.)  Click here for the full MISTI Week schedule.

The MIT Security Studies Program's Wednesday seminar series starts again on September 14 with a talk by Professor David Edelstein of Georgetown University on military occupations, past, present and future.  Other topics this fall will include Europe and the Future of American Grand Strategy, Special Operations, and the Changing Nature of State Sponsorship of Terrorism.  

Each year, MIT-France, one of the Center's MISTI programs, awards seed funding to support collaborative projects between MIT and France. Grants, which typically range between $5,000 and $15,000 for one year, support workshops, visitors and student exchanges between a team at MIT and colleagues in universities and laboratories in France.  This year's deadline for proposals is September 15th.  Click here for additional information.

Although CIS is a research center and not a degree-granting entity, CIS faculty and affiliates offer a virtual smorgasborg of courses at MIT.  This fall, their course topics include globalization; science, technology and public policy; working in a global economy; U.S. foreign policy; Chinese foreign policy; Latin American studies; the causes of war; the U.S. military budget and force planning; the growth and special structure of cities; innovation in military organizations; and intelligence and national security. For details, check CIS faculty and affiliate Web pages via our Directory and consult the course lists provided by the Security Studies Program, the Political Science Department (undergraduate courses/ graduate courses) and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. (Political Science and DUSP are key departmental affiliates of CIS.)

Ending her MIT undergraduate experience on a high point—a summer internship in Germany—Chemical Engineering '05 graduate Hana Oh worked in the Ionic Liquids Department at Merck KgaA in Darmstadt.  "It's hard to tear myself away from this place," reported Hana, an intern in the MIT-Germany program, at the end of her stay. "I worked with new materials called ionic liquids and protein extraction during the week. But even more learning took place on weekends: on spontaneous trips to Copenhagen/Malmö, Zürich/Luzern, Paris, Vienna, and Luxembourg, I experienced how beautiful it is that a different language and culture is just a train ride away. I also visited (and admired) many German cities, ranging from the grandeur of Berlin to the little-town charm of Rothenburg o.d.T., and even Düsseldorf, where I lived as a child and hadn't visited in over 11 years." Hana, who is starting a PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania, anticipates returning to Germany soon, to study or work.

Two of the Center's Japan scholars are featured in the August 22 issue of Newsweek International. In an article on the current turmoil in Japan's LDP party and the upcoming Japanese election, CIS Director Richard Samuels (on sabbatical 2005-2006) is quoted saying that Prime Minister Koizumi "has something none of his predecessors have had—broad popular appeal and support." And in his article "Economics as Kabuki Theater", CIS Senior Fellow Robert Madsen asserts that Koizumi "made it fashionable to emphasize productivity and profitability"—even though, paradoxically, he has not managed to get much done in economic affairs.

"In the middle of my PhD program in EECS," writes Farinaz Edalat, "I decided to do an internship at Texas Instruments in Nice, France, to establish contacts, learn about TI's culture, and experience working in a company.  Also, to improve my French and my understanding of French life and culture." Farinaz's work abroad this summer, which was arranged by MIT-France, one of the seven internship programs organized by the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives program (MISTI), involved system analysis and simulation of the Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) in the next-generation GSM-EDGE transmitter. "I learned a great deal about the current challenges companies are facing," she reports. On the weekends, Farinaz was lucky enough to travel to Paris, the Auvergne, Monaco and the Cinque Terre, in Italy. (Check the MISTI website in September for details about MISTI Week, a celebration of MISTI and the opportunities it offers MIT students and faculty.)

Saying they were "awed by the range" of her scholarship, the American Sociological Association has awarded Professor Diane Davis the Political Sociology Best Book Prize, for Discipline and Development: Middle Classes and Prosperity in East Asia and Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Professor Davis, an expert on cities in conflict who teaches in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, is Director of the joint CIS-DUSP Jerusalem 2050 project and is Associate Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning.

Since June, Spencer Szczesny (MSME '05) has been in Aachen, Germany working at the Helmholtz Institute, a department of RWTH Aachen University, courtesy of a year-long research internship arranged by the MIT-Germany program, one of CIS's seven MISTI country programs. "Aachen is a great student town," he reports, "and also has an interesting history, as the ancient throne of Charlemagne."  Spencer, who in his off time has already visited Paris and gone sailing in the Netherlands, is trying to develop a mechatronic valve to drain excess cerebrospinal brain fluid in hydrocephalus patients.  "It's really exciting research.  Not only do I get to learn about clinical medicine, a field fresh and new for me, but I have the satisfaction that my work may significantly improve the quality of life of thousands of people."

The Center's ongoing series of essays on conventional wisdoms about U.S. foreign policy continues this month with compelling pieces about the military's recruiting problems, civilian casualties in Iraq, and what, exactly, constitutes a weapon of mass destruction. The authors are Cindy Williams, a principal research scientist at the MIT Security Studies Program (SSP); Dr. Les Roberts, an epidemiologist who lectures at Johns Hopkins; and Allison Macfarlane, an SSP research associate. Click here for PDFs of these and all other Audits of the Conventional Wisdom or contact Heidi Knuff (hknuff@mit.edu) for print copies.

Gary Troeller, a research fellow at the MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice during the 2004-2005 academic year, will remain at CIS during 2005-2006 as a research affiliate.  Dr. Troeller, a senior executive with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for almost 30 years, at postings in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America, is currently a consultant to the Global Commission on International Migration, which advises the UN Secretary General and others on migration issues.

At 7:00 p.m. on Monday, August 1, WBUR—Boston's NPR station (90.9 FM)—will re-broadcast a panel discussion about forced labor in the global economy that was taped at MIT's Kresge Auditorium on May 14, 2005. This CIS-organized event brought leading experts on modern-day slavery to MIT.  Discussions were taped by On Point, the NPR newsmagazine program hosted by Tom Ashbrook, as well as BBC Television's The World Debate. (Streaming video of both programs is available here.)

MIT-Mexico, the newest of the Center's seven MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) international education programs, celebrates its one-year anniversary on July 19 with a gala at a palace in Mexico City.  Founded at the urging of MIT undergraduates from Mexico, MIT-Mexico is the first MISTI program in a Spanish-speaking country and a "reflection of MIT's dual role as an international institution and national resource in an increasingly global economy," according to the program's faculty director, Professor Michael Piore.  Information about all of MISTI's offerings will be available during "MISTI Week," September 20-23. Check this space or the MISTI homepage in the fall for details. (More about MIT-Mexico or its anniversary.)

CIS has released the first five in an ongoing series of essays that will subject well-accepted notions about U.S. foreign policy to the kind of close scrutiny they rarely receive. The introductory "Audits of the Conventional Wisdom" look at a range of topics, from the political salience of Mexico and Canada to how much power the U.S. actually wields in Asia. CIS affiliates who would like to contribute to the series may contact Executive Director John Tirman (tirman@mit.edu). For hard copies or press inquiries, contact Amy Tarr (atarr@mit.edu).

Been to DSpace yet?  The MIT site, a digital depository, enables programs like CIS to store and distribute publications easily and inexpensively.  It also allows viewers from around the world to google the contents of CIS papers and access them via the net.  Viewers who "subscribe" to CIS publications via DSpace receive an e-mail notice whenever a new document is added to CIS's DSpace "home." The MIT Japan Program is the first CIS program to take the leap; it has posted 119 papers to date.  Those who would like their CIS program's publications to be posted on DSpace may contact Laurie Scheffler (lauries@mit.edu) or Amy Tarr (atarr@mit.edu) for additional information.

On June 23, 2005, Suzanne Berger, Raphael Dorman and Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science and Director of CIS's MISTI Program, will be awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Merite by Tierry Vankerk-Hoven, the Consul General of France in Boston. Professor Berger will be cited for her outstanding achievement in scholarship about France and its politics.

Two CIS scholars have appeared on the op-ed pages of the Boston Globe and the New York Times this week. In her June 4th piece in the Globe, Security Studies Program faculty member Allison Macfarlane argues that nuclear waste should not be stored on military bases.  In his June 7th article in the New York Times, Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry R. Posen contends that failures in intelligence gathering are bringing down U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq.

Room is still available in the summer courses offered by the Security Studies Program (SSP) via the MIT Professional Institute. Military Innovation: Technology, Strategy and the Security Future runs from June 13-15, 2005. Promoting Innovation: The Dynamics of Technology and Organizations runs from July 11-14, 2005.  And Combating Bioterrorism: Implementing Policies for Biosecurity will be held from July 25-27, 2005. For additional information or to register, contact Magdalena Rieb at mrieb@mit.edu.

In its summer issue, Parameters, the U.S. Army War College quarterly, offers a rave review of Filling the Ranks: Transforming the U.S. Military Personnel System, edited by Security Studies Program Principal Research Scientist Cindy Williams.  Calling the book "an excellent summary of the current personnel management system and the issues confronting it," Parameters applauds Dr. Williams and the book's other authors for providing constructive suggestions for change.  Filling the Ranks argues that the military must modernize its personnel system if the voluntary force is to continue to be successful. The review (scroll halfway down the page).

Congratulations to Marie Senat-Andre, the Center's Financial Assistant. On May 10, Marie was given a 2005 "Go-to Person Award" by MIT's School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences as part of its 2004 Infinite Mile Award Program.  Dean Philip Khoury called Marie CIS's "account knight in shining armor" and praised her skill in dealing with any and all accounting issues as well as her patience in training CIS employees. "Marie keeps her cool," Dean Khoury said, "teaches the required material, and makes herself available for follow-up instruction whenever needed.  And she still hasn't gotten up for lunch."

Catherine Elton, a freelance journalist based in Guatemala who reports on human rights, labor issues, and trade and migration, will become the Center's first resident Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow in the fall of 2005.  The Neuffer fellowship is named for Elizabeth Neuffer, a Boston Globe reporter who was killed on assignment in Iraq in 2003. During her fellowship year, Ms. Elton will participate in CIS events while working on writing and other projects.  CIS Director Richard Samuels was one of the organizers of the fellowship, in conjunction with the International Women's Media Foundation and the friends and family of Ms. Neuffer. (Press release.)

The Center for International Studies and the MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice will partner with the BBC and WBUR at MIT's Kresge Auditorium on Saturday, May 14, to draw attention to the problem of forced labor in the global economy—part of the ongoing debate on how to make globalization more fair and equitable. This event will occur shortly after the publication of a major report on forced labor by the International Labor Organization.

All are welcome to attend the taping of BBC (The World Debate) and WBUR (On Point) broadcasts.  Guests will include Columbia University economics professor Jagdish Bhagwati (In Defense of Globalization); Deputy U.S. Secretary of Labor Steven Law; Kevin Bales, Director of Free the Slaves; Roger Plant, chief author of the ILO; Regina Abrami of the Harvard Business School; Jean Robert Cadet, a former child slave in Haiti and an adjunct lecturer in French at the University of Cincinnati; Terry Collingsworth of the International Labor Rights Fund; and Thomas A. Kochan, the George M. Bunker Professor of Management at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

RSVPs to phrj@mit.edu or 617.253.8306 are appreciated. Refreshments will be served during the break.

Map of MIT's Kresge Auditorium: http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=W16
Free Parking at MIT's West Lot: http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=P31&Parking=go
Nearest T stop: Kendall Square (Red Line)

Flynt Leverett, recently senior director for Middle Eastern Affairs at the National Security Council and author of a new book on Syria, Inheriting Syria: Bashar's Trial by Fire, will speak at CIS on May 11 as part of the Security Studies Program's Wednesday seminar series. Leverett is Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

CIS Director Richard J. Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Now in its 225th year, the Academy honors distinguished scientists, scholars and leaders in public affairs, business, administration and the arts. Professor Samuels will miss the induction ceremony in October; he will be on sabbatical in Japan, working on a project on Japanese national security and grand strategy.  His most recent book, Machiavelli's Children: Leaders and Their Legacies in Italy and Japan, won the 2003 Marraro Prize and the 2004 Jervis-Schroeder Prize.

On April 14th, 2005, MIT President Dr. Susan Hockfield and Dr. Gianfelice Rocca, Chairman of Italy’s Techint Group, will sign an agreement formalizing a collaboration between MIT and the Milan Politecnico, Italy’s top engineering school. The collaboration—known as the Roberto Rocca Project—honors Dr. Rocca’s father, Dr. Roberto Rocca, an alumnus of the Politecnico and MIT. The project will significantly contribute to international education at the Institute by providing $250,000 in at least each of the next five years to support and promote exchanges for students and faculty between the two universities, primarily in the fields of material science, bio-engineering and mechanical engineering. The Rocca Project was brought to the Institute by MIT-Italy, one of CIS’s MISTI programs. For more information, contact MIT-Italy Co-Director Dr. Serenella Sferza, at ssferza@mit.edu. (Press release.)

  
Noah Feldman, Professor at New York University Law School, author of What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building and After Jihad, and senior advisor on constitutional law to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq; and Kanan Makiya, Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and author of The Republic of Fear, about Saddam Hussein's Iraq, will be the featured speakers at the fifth meeting of The Politics of Iraq Reconstruction colloqium series. The event is in 3-270 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 11. All are welcome and refreshments will be served.

  
Leading academics from American, European, Israeli, and Palestinian universities will convene at MIT on April 8th and 9th to consider what it would take to make Jerusalem/Al Quds a peaceful, democractic and prosperous city in the year 2050. This invitation-only conference will serve as the foundation for a juried international design competition. Participants in the event, which is so-sponsored by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and CIS, will include Sari Nusseibeh, President of Al-Quds University; Naomi Chazan, three-term Knesset member and former CIS Wilhelm Fellow; Mohammed Arkoun, Emeritus Professor of Religion at La Sorbonne; Meron Benvenisti, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem; Salim Tamari, Director of the Institute of Jerusalem Studies at Birzeit University; and Ariella Azoulay, filmmaker and writer at Bar-Ilan University. James Carroll of the Boston Globe will be among the discussion moderators. JERUSALEM 2050 has been organized by Diane Davis, Professor of Political Sociology at MIT. For more information, contact Amy Tarr (atarr@mit.edu).

  
CIS is launching a multi-year series of workshops, public forums, and publications to explore urgent issues of the Persian/Arabian Gulf region. The first series, this spring, will take up the "crisis of governance" in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. The renowned Saudi historian, Abdulaziz Al-Fahad, will begin the series with a talk at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6, in 66-110 on "Religion and Power in Saudi Arabia." The other public event this semester will be held on May 4, when Hadi Semati, Professor at Teheran University and currently a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, will take up the question of who rules Iran by looking at decisions about its nuclear technology development. (Read the press release on the Persian Gulf initiative.)

  
The Center for International Studies has launched a new series of Starr Forums focusing on the rise of China.  Organized by Associate Professor of Political Science Edward Steinfeld and Sloan School Associate Professor Yasheng Huang, the series examines such topics as China's quest for petroleum resources, the reform of China's electric power sector, and income inequality in China. All are welcome to attend these Friday afternoon events (March 11, March 18, April 29).

There are three opportunities in April-and one in May-to attend "The Politics of Reconstructing Iraq," the semester-long public colloquium series presented by CIS and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Speakers will include Noah Feldman, Kanan Makiya, Hafez Mirazi, and MIT Professors Stephen Van Evera and Balakrishnan Rajagopal. Information on the April 4, April 11,  April 25, and May 2 sessions is available at: http://mit.edu/cis/reconstructing_iraq.html.

On March 29, Bernard Avishai, Visiting Professor and Senior Fellow at Duke University and the author of numerous books about Middle East politics, will address the question "Can A Jewish State Be Democractic?" His talk is part of the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar series, which each year invites scholars, journalists, and other experts to present research findings on contemporary politics, society and culture, and economic and technological development in the Middle East.

    
Jeanne Guillemin, Senior Fellow at the MIT Security Studies Program, will deliver a Dibner Institute Special Lecture on "Biological Weapons: Science and the Invenation of the 20th Century Program" on Thursday, March 17. Guillemin was a member of the team that pinpointed the military cause of the 1979 anthrax outbreak in the closed Soviet city of Sverdklovsk, and is author of "Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak."

    
Tracy Dahlby—a former managing editor of Newsweek International and former Tokyo bureau chief for The Washington Post and Newsweek—will discuss his new book, "Allah's Torch: A Report from Behind the Scenes in Asia's War on Terror" at CIS on Tuesday, March 15.  Mr. Dahlby's narrative details his travels in Indonesia before and after 9/11.

This semester, CIS and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning offer a timely colloquium series, "The Politics of Reconstructing Iraq." The series features commentary from leading thinkers on this important and difficult topic, including Sami Zubaida, David Nash, John Dower, Kenneth Pollack, Noah Feldman, Hafez Mirazi and several MIT faculty members, including CIS Director Richard Samuels and DUSP Head Lawrence Vale. A full list of dates, times and locations is available at: http://mit.edu/cis/reconstructing_iraq.html

  
While Cambridge is abuzz with talk of women in science (thanks to remarks made by the president of Harvard), the MIT Security Studies Program continues to plan public events at CIS on the role of women in foreign and defense affairs. Last fall, SSP began a collaboration on this under-explored subject with Women in International Security (WIIS), a non-profit, non-partisan group. SSP Principal Research Scientist Cindy Williams welcomes suggestions for future topics and speakers.

 
President Bush recently identified as a top priority the securing of nuclear materials in Russia and the territories of the former Soviet Union. One of the country's leading experts on the subject, Matthew Bunn, an MIT-trained political scientist who is Senior Resarch Associate in the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard's Belfer Center, will speak in the CIS 6th floor conference room (E38-615) at 3:30 on Tuesday, March 1.  Bunn will focus on the 2002 report he co-authored, "Securing Nuclear Weapons and Materials: Seven Steps for Immediate Action."  This talk is being organized by the Disarmament Study Group, which meets regularly at CIS.

 
Naomi Chazan, former three-term member and Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, will speak twice more at MIT before completing her year as the Center's first Robert Wilhelm fellow.  Dr. Chazan, a professor of political science and African studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been involved for three decades in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.  All are welcome to attend her valedictory address, "Where Do We Go From Here? A New Chance for Israel-Palestine?," at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 16 in Bartos Auditorium.  And on Tuesday, February 22, Professor Chazan will chair a discussion on prospects for peace in the post-Arafat era, with guests Sari Nusseibeh, President of Al-Quds University (Jerusalem), and Henry Siegman, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

 
The Center for International Studies and Boston Review will co-sponsor a CIS Starr Forum at the Wong Auditorium on Thursday, February 10, from 4:00-5:30. In "Debating the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy," Harvard Professor Stephen Walt and CIS's Naomi Chazan (Robert Wilhem Fellow), John Tirman (Executive Director) and Robert Vickers, Jr. (Security Studies Program Fellow) will discuss the positions they take in the February/March issue of Boston Review. What will U.S. foreign policy look like in a second G.W. Bush administration? The panel will address that as well.

The Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship program has been organized by the International Women's Media Foundation and the friends and family of Elizabeth Neuffer, a Boston Globe reporter who was killed in May 2003 while covering the war in Iraq. The fellowship supports women journalists who report on human rights and social justice.  It combines research opportunities at CIS and elsewhere in the Boston area with professional opportunities at the New York Times and the Boston Globe.  Applications for the fellowship are due on February 25, 2005.  For more information, see http://iwmf.org/programs/neuffer/.

 
Doctoral students in international affairs may apply for summer support for dissertation research. The deadline for the Energy, Technology and International Affairs (ETIA) Fellowships is Friday, February 4, 2005. Research on international aspects of such issues as energy and the environment, and the relationship between energy and security, are especially welcome. However, research on a broad range of international issues will be considered. Support may be requested either for fieldwork and/or archival research, or for home-based research and write-up.

Center faculty, fellows and affiliates are offering an eclectic menu of short courses during January's Independent Activities Period (IAP)—everything from lessons in Japanese archery (kyudo) and Chinese calligraphy to discussions on the global war on terrorism, the car of the future, and the organization and capabilities of U.S. military forces. See all of CIS's IAP options at http://student.mit.edu/iap/nscis.html. IAP 2005 runs from January 3rd through January 28th. Registration for the spring term is on January 31st, and classes begin on the first of February.

 
Two undergraduates who recently participated in the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) program at CIS will do graduate work in the UK as a result of having been named Marshall Scholars. Virginia Corless, a minor in Applied International Studies who last summer had a research fellowship at the Observatorio Astronomico outside Rome courtesy of MISTI-Italy, will pursue doctoral research in astrophysics at Cambridge. Jessica Lee, who worked on chemical processes critical to ecosystems evolution during a MISTI-Germany internship at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, will study environmental conservation at Oxford. In addition to Germany and Italy, the MISTI program arranges internships for MIT students in China, France, India, Japan, Singapore and Mexico.

Find out about high-tech approaches to low-tech threats in a talk by Ekaterina Drozdova on understanding and countering terrorist technology strategies. The lecture, which is sponsored by The Security Studies Program's Technical Working Group, will be held from 1:00-3:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 9th in the Center's 6th-floor conference room (E38-615). Drozdova, who is finishing her studies at NYU, was a Science Fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security Cooperation (CISAC) and a member of the NSA-sponsored Consortium for Research on Information Security and Policy at Stanford.

 
Security Studies Program faculty members will offer an update on the war on terrorism on Wednesday, December 1. The discussion will take place in the Center's 6th floor conference room (E38-615) from noon to 1:30 p.m.

 
Join MIT Psychology Professor Stephan Corover from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences for a talk entitled "Our Brains, Ourselves, Our Common Future: Neuroscience and the Struggle for a More Just, Participatory and Sustainable Society." The event, which will be held in E25-111 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. on Monday, November 15th, is sponsored by CIS's Program in Human Rights and Justice.

 
Dr. Sara Roy of Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies will be the Nov. 9 speaker in the Bustani Middle East Seminar series. Her talk, "Palestinian Society: Decline or Disintegration" comes at a pivotal time for Palestine. Dr. Roy has worked in the Gaza Strip and West Bank since 1985 conducting research on the economic, social and political development of Gaza, and on U.S. foreign aid there. Her books include the forthcoming Political Islam in Palestine: From Extremism to Civism. Dr. Roy's talk will be held in E51-095 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

 
Calling all MIT graduate students, especially doctoral students in international studies! Do you know that the Center for International Studies will cover the travel costs of a doctoral student in international studies attending a conference to present a paper?  Are you aware that during the dissertation-writing period, CIS administers a competitive awards program that offers financial support to successful doctoral students whose dissertations have an international focus?  And do you know that each year CIS nominates seniors and graduate students for national fellowship competitions?  To learn more about these and other funding opportunities, join the Center's new Executive Director, John Tirman, for a discussion (and refreshments) from 1:00-2:00 p.m. on November 4, 2004, in E38-615. Questions ahead of time? Contact Dee Siddalls (deesid@mit.edu, 258-8552).

 
John Tirman, a political scientist who was formerly program director of the Washington, D.C. office of the Social Science Research Council, has become Executive Director of CIS.  Dr. Tirman succeeds Carolyn Makinson, who left the Center in August to become Executive Director of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children.  "We are delighted to welcome John to CIS and look forward to benefiting from his enormous energy and creativity," said Professor Richard Samuels, CIS Director.

Dr. Tirman, who has written extensively on foreign policy, politics and human rights—his books include The Fallacy of Star Wars (1984) and Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America's Arms Trade (1997)—is currently working on a volume on multilateralism.  A former Fulbright scholar in Cyprus, he has also produced an educational website devoted to the Cyprus conflict.

  
Competing interests will be in the forefront of a forum on the national security and human rights implications of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo that the Program in Human Rights and Justice will host at MIT on Monday, October 25.  Associate Professor of Political Science Kenneth Oye will moderate a conversation between Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Colin Jackson, a graduate student in the MIT Security Studies Program.

 
The Luce Scholars Program provides stipends and internships for 15 young Americans to live and work in Asia each year, the aim being to increase awareness of Asia among future leaders in American society. The program is geared specifically toward those with no prior experience in Asia. Nominees must be American citizens who will not yet be 30 years old on September 1, 2005. This year's nomination deadline is November 15th. Those seniors, graduate students, alumni from recent classes and junior faculty who are interested should consult the Luce Fellowships page on the CIS website. (Our website includes information on other funding opportunities, too, including a searchable database of fellowships.)

 
Security Studies Program Principal Research Scientist Cindy Williams weighs in on the draft in an October 5th Washington Post op-ed piece. In it, Dr. Williams describes how and why the United States has encouraged its NATO allies to get rid of their conscripts in favor of all-volunteer forces, and argues against a renewed draft in the U.S.  She is the editor of the recently published MIT Press book, Filling the Ranks: Transforming the U.S. Military System.

 
The Inter-University Committee on International Migration has been a focal point for migration and refugee studies at MIT, Tufts, Wellesley, BU and the Fletcher School since 1974. The Program celebrates its 30th anniversary at the Wong Auditorium on Tuesday, October 5, with a keynote talk by Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, Co-Chair of the UN Global Commission on International Migration. Dr. Ramphele, a well-known South African civil rights leader, was until recently a managing director of the World Bank.  A physician, she has also been active in public health and community development issues.

 
This is the seventh time that the international community has tried to put Haiti on the democratic track.  In a CIS Starr Forum at the Wong Auditorium on September 29th, Myrtho Bonhomme, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Haiti and Ambassador, Dean and Founder of The National Diplomatic Academy of Haiti, will discuss why past transitions have failed and why Haiti now has a chance to move forward.  The event which include commentary on U.S. interventions in Haiti and elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere by MIT Political Science Associate Professor Chappell Lawson.

 
The Program in Human Rights and Justice (PHRJ), a collaboration between CIS and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, welcomes Dr. Luise Druke as a 2004-2005 Fellow.  Dr. Druke has been a Visiting Lecturer at several universities, including Boston University and the New Bulgarian University.  As representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Bulgaria, she has frequently served as UN Resident Coordinator in that country.  Since 1979, Dr. Druke has also headed up UNHCR offices and missions in Europe, South East Asia, Central Asia, Latin America and Africa.  While at MIT, she will work on human rights, judicial protection and refugee policies, with an emphasis on post-communist countries in transition. (To check PHRJ events this semester, see http://web.mit.edu/phrj/speaker_series.html.)

 
The Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar series begins its 19th year on Tuesday, September 21 with a lecture by Professor Ali Banuazizi of Boston College on the democratization movement in Iran. The talk, in E51-095, will go from 4:30 until 6:30 p.m. Other lectures this fall will include a discussion by David Commins of Dickinson College of the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia on October 19, and a look by Sara Roy of Harvard University at Palestinian society on November 9.

 
MIT undergrads can now integrate the work they do on campus and abroad by declaring a minor in Applied International Studies. The new interdisciplinary minor—an outgrowth of the success of CIS's MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives, or MISTI Program—integrates international learning into MIT's curriculum through a six-subject course of study. The minor is organized around language and culture classes; courses on politics, history and international relations; and international experience. In addition, students will participate in a seminar on working in the global economy. For more information, contact Bernd Widdig, the Minor Advisor, at bwiddig@mit.edu or 617.253.3925, or see the spring '04 issue of Soundings.