Ambassador Barbara Bodine, a Wilhelm fellow at CIS, participated in a week-long National Security Seminar sponsored by the U.S. Army War College. The principal purpose of the seminar is to permit the War College student body to hear a "civilian viewpoint" on defense matters. It also gives participants an opportunity to meet and exchange views with the nation's future military leaders.

The Center's Program on Human Rights and Justice is currently accepting applications for several research fellowship positions. These fellowships are aimed at professionals, academics and activists who are working at the intersection of human rights and other topics, and who wish to conduct in-depth research into social and natural sciences and engineering as they relate to human rights and justice issues. To learn more, click here.

The UN secretary-general has appointed Francis Deng of Sudan as his new special adviser for the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities, succeeding Juan Mendez of Argentina. Deng is currently a Wilhelm fellow at CIS and director of the Sudan Peace Support Project, which is based at the United States Institute of Peace. He served as the secretary-general's representative on internally displaced persons from 1992 to 2004. Deng will work full time to strengthen the UN's role in preventing genocide, according to a UN spokeswoman.

Turkey is experiencing a rash of demonstrations comprised mostly of urban people voicing concerns of the potential outcome of the country's national elections in July. Dogu Ergil, a professor of political science at Ankara University, looks at whether these fears are rational or, rather, sociological in a recent "Audit of the Conventional Wisdom" essay. Ergil is a frequent commentator on Turkish affairs and is most recently coauthor of Terror, Insurgency and the State (Penn Press). To download a PDF of Ergil's Audit on: Turkey: Misperceptions and the Healing Touch of Democracy, click here.

Stephen Van Evera, associate director of CIS and professor of political science, published "Iraq: Canary in a Coal Mine" in the inaugural issue of MIT International Review, the university's first interdisciplinary journal of international affairs. In his article, Van Evera argues that the failures of the Bush administration in Iraq are like "a dead canary in a coal mine, a warning of wider failures against our most dangerous enemy, the al-Qa'ida network." PDF available here.

Francis Deng, a longtime Sudanese diplomat and a Robert Wilhelm Fellow at CIS, looks at internally displaced populations in a recent "Audit of the Conventional Wisdom" essay. Internally displaced populations "remain within the borders of a country at war with itself, and even when they move to safer areas, they are viewed as strangers, discriminated against, and often harassed," says Deng. He explores the accountability and responsibility of the international community, as well as the governments of the affected countries, through his experience as the UN secretary-general's representative for internally displaced persons (1992-2004). To download a PDF of Deng's Internally Displaced Populations: the Paradox of National Responsibility, click here. The Center's "Audit of the Conventional Wisdom" publication series tours the horizon of conventional wisdoms that define U. S. foreign policy, and puts them to the test of data and history. To view all Audit essays, visit the Audit subsite.

MIT-Spain and the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce are delighted to announce the launch of a joint program to encourage collaboration between the MIT community and companies, universities, and research laboratories in Spain. The seed fund 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 Spain. This year's deadline for proposals is September 15. Click here for additional information.

The Program on Human Rights and Justice awarded summer internships to eight MIT students this year. The internships involve significant work on issues concerning human rights, justice and sustainable development. This summer's interns--Ali Alhassani, Isabelle Anguelovski, Anna Livia Brand, Ronilda Rosario Co, Rodrigo Diaz, Uyen-Bao Tran, Cheryl Yip and Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner--will work in Switzerland, Ecuador, United States, Philippines, Mexico, India and China. To learn more about PHRJ summer internships and its interns, click here.

Service to Country: Personnel Policy and the Transformation of Western Militaries, a book edited by Cindy Williams (Security Studies Program) and Curtis Gilroy (Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense) is now available through MIT Press. Service to Country looks at ongoing changes in military personnel policies--including recruitment, pay and benefits, retirement systems, family programs, and preparation for non-military careers--in the U.S. and Europe. It also looks at the transitions to all-volunteer forces going on in many European countries today. Contributors to Service to Country include experts from the militaries, governments, universities, and think tanks of 12 countries. Click here for the press release.

On Tuesday, May 15, Rebiya Kadeer will be speaking at MIT on the rhetoric and repression of Uyghur muslims in Western China. Uyghur muslims are victims to what Human Rights Watch has identified as a "wholesale assault" on their faith and cultural identity by the Chinese state. Kadeer has been called the spiritual mother of the Uyghur people. A brilliant businesswoman, she rose from poverty to become China's millionaire poster child. She quickly fell out of the government's favor when she began to demand a change in its policies and was arrested in 1999, spending the next two years in solitary confinement. Kadeer was released to the United States in 2005. The event is jointly sponsored by the Program on Human Rights and Justice, MIT Model United Nations, Forum on American Progress, MIT Public Service Center, and Amnesty International. The talk commences at 7:30 p.m. in MIT bldg. 66-110. Click here for more details.

The Center's "Audits of the Conventional Wisdom" publication series continues with recent essays by Security Studies program scholars Jeanne Guillemin, senior advisor, and Cindy Williams, principal research scientist; and a Harvard University visiting scholar, Liselotte Odgaard. Guilleman discusses whether scientific codes of conduct are effective in discouraging biological weapons; Williams looks at the allocation of money in the Department of Homeland Security budgets; and Odgaard argues that China's so-called rise to great power status is premature. Download PDFs here: Can Scientific Codes of Conduct Deter Biological Weapons?, Paying for Homeland Security: Show Me the Money, and China's Premature Rise to Great Power Status.

MISTI hosted its spring gala dinner, which was attended by almost 200 faculty and interns about to leave for their time abroad in June and September. Suzanne Berger, director of MISTI, gave opening remarks and Patricia Gercik, MISTI associate director, awarded Sun fellowships to twelve students who will be interning at companies around the globe. Provost Rafael Reif, the keynote speaker, spoke about MIT's commitment to international education and his belief in MISTI; concluding remarks were given by Bernd Widdig, MISTI associate director.

This year the Center awarded summer study grants to sixteen doctoral students. Each student will receive up to $5,000 to support dissertation research on such issues as energy and the environment, and the relationship between energy and security, as well as a broad range of other international issues. To learn more about CIS Summer Study Grants, click here.

CIS Director Richard Samuels is featured in the April 12 issue of Beijing Review. Samuels shares his thoughts on China-Japan relations and how disputes over historical issues have affected bilateral ties and may continue to do so. The article, “Handling History,” is available here. Samuels is a Ford International Professor of Political Science and the founding director of the MIT Japan program.  His forthcoming book, Securing Japan, will be available August 2007 through Cornell University Press.

On Wednesday, May 2, the Center's Starr Forum series presents a special screening of "No End in Sight," a film by MIT alum Charles Ferguson and winner of a special jury prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The film has been cited as a "surgical" and "comprehensive" analysis of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war. The screening and a conversation with Ferguson will take place at the Broad Institute auditorium (MIT Bldg. NE30; 7 Cambridge Center at the corner of Ames and Main Streets).

Barry Posen outlines the risks of staying vs. leaving Iraq in an April 19 Boston Globe op-ed. He discusses the so-called major disasters that are predicted by proponents of the war should U.S. forces disengage. Posen is a Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the Security Studies program. The Globe article, available here, also appeared in The International Herald Tribune and the Pentagon Current.

A team meeting of 14 American and Iranian scholars and practitioners convened this week in Italy to initiate and plan a three-year project on U.S.-Iran relations. The project, done in collaboration with MIT's HyperStudio, will explore the period of Mohammed Khatemi's presidency in Iran and ask why improvements in bilateral relations did not occur. "We are undertaking research that can lead to a deeper and more productive understanding between the two countries," says John Tirman, CIS executive director and an organizer of the project. "Innovative engagement with Iran, rather than posing it as an object of hostility or attack, is not only normatively preferable but vastly more interesting as an intellectual endeavor." The project is co-organized with Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies and George Washington University's National Security Archive, and is funded by a generous contribution by an MIT alumni family.

Urs Ziswiler, ambassador of Switzerland to the United States, will discuss Switzerland's search for new and innovative ways to address migration. The talk will take place at MIT on Thursday, April 26, at 5 pm (rm. 66-110), followed by a Swiss style reception. Click here for more details on the event, which is co-sponsored by the program on Human Rights and Justice and the Consulate of Switzerland Boston.

"Can Petraeus lead U.S. to victory?" is the title of an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 15. In it, Barry Posen, and other experts, offers sober commentary on whether the general will be able to bring about change in Iraq this late in the game. Posen is a Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the Security Studies program. Petraeus was a student of Posen's in the 1980s at Princeton. Click here to read the article.

The MIT Security Studies Program will offer two professional summer courses this year. For more information on "Promoting Innovation: The Dynamics of Technology and Organizations" (July 9-12) and "Combating Bioterrorism/Pandemics: Implementing Policies for Biosecurity" (July 23-25), click here or contact Magdalena Rieb at mrieb@mit.edu.

MISTI's Mexico program is hosting a talk by Chappell Lawson on the current political situation in Mexico, just a few months after President Felipe Calderon took office. Chappell Lawson, an associate professor of political science at MIT, has major interests in Latin American politics, Mexican politics, democratization, political communication, political behavior, and U.S. foreign policy. Lawson's lecture, "Mexico...Not a Revolution After All?" will take place on Tuesday, April 17, at 7:30 pm (MIT 2-105).

On Tuesday, April 17, Francis Deng will be speaking on the conditions in Darfur within the context of Sudan's history of crises. Ambassador Deng, a Wilhelm fellow at CIS, served from 1992-2004 as the representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons. He also served as Sudan's ambassador to Canada, the Scandinavian countries and the United States, and was Sudan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. He resigned from the foreign service in 1983 to protest Sudan's growing orientation toward Islamic fundamentalism and now serves as the director of the Sudan Peace Project. The event, which is co-sponsored by the Center's Program on Human Rights and Justice and Amnesty International, will be held at MIT building 66-110 and begins at 5:00 pm.

The Jerusalem 2050 program is now accepting entries from around the globe for its "Just Jerusalem" competition. The goal is to solicit entries that envision Jerusalem, real and symbolic, as a just, peaceful, and sustainable city by the year 2050. Entries are not limited to architects and urbanists, but will also be elicited from artists, historians, poets, political scientists, philosophers, economists, engineers, and all others who have ideas for the future of this city. Winning entries will receive fellowships at MIT. Visit the competition web site to learn more.

John Mueller, professor and chair of National Security Studies at the Mershon Center at Ohio State University, will be speaking at MIT on Thursday, April 5. Mueller will be discussing his recent book Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them. The event commences at 5 pm in the Bartos Theater (E15).

"There is tendency in the outside world to see the tragedy in the Darfur region of the Sudan in isolation from the regional conflicts that have been proliferating in the country for a half-century," writes Francis Deng in a recent Audit of the Conventional Wisdom essay entitled "Sudan at the Crossroads." Deng, a longtime Sudanese diplomat and a Robert Wilhelm Fellow at CIS, reveals "a nation in painful search of itself, striving to be free from historical discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, and culture" in his insightful and comprehensive survey of a country divided. To download a PDF of Deng's "Sudan at the Crossroads," click here. The Center's Audit of the Conventional Wisdom publication series tours the horizon of conventional wisdoms that define U. S. foreign policy, and puts them to the test of data and history. To view all Audit essays, click here.

The Center's Persian Gulf Initiative convened a workshop March 21-22 addressing the new challenges of regional security. "The United States, India, and the Gulf: Convergence or Divergence in a Post-Iraq Environment," organized by Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Robert Wilhelm Fellow at CIS, brought together leading analysts of the Gulf and India to discuss India's and the Gulf states' growing, mutual interests and the implications for energy security. Among the distinguished participants were Bruce Riedel, former National Security Council adviser; Aftab Kamal Pasha, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Jamal Khasouggi, advisor to HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal, Saudi Arabia; and Sumit Ganguly, Indiana University. Conference papers will be posted on the PGI subsite.

Huda Ahmed, an Iraqi journalist and the Center's Elizabeth Neuffer fellow, will be speaking on "Women and Islam: Understanding and Reporting" at this year's Elizabeth Neuffer Forum on Human Rights and Journalism. A reporter for Knight Ridder in Baghdad since 2004, Ahmed has written about the issues of women and children at risk in a war zone, the struggles of women in politics in a Muslim society, and human rights abuses by police and occupying forces. Ahmed joined the Center for International Studies as a Neuffer fellow in fall 2006. The fellowship is named for Elizabeth Neuffer, a Boston Globe reporter who was killed on assignment in Iraq in 2003. The forum is open to the public and will take place on Thursday, March 29 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. RSVP is required by March 20 to neuffer@iwmf.org. For event details, click here.

"The radicalization of Muslims in Europe," presented by Mia Bloom (assistant professor at University of Georgia, Athens), will be held on March 21 as part of the MIT Security Studies Program Wednesday seminar series. Upcoming seminars offered in this series include: Dwight Williams (U.S. Department of Defense) on "Detecting nuclear and radiological weapons"; Timothy Crawford (Boston College) on "Wedge strategies in balance of power politics"; and Peter Liberman (CUNY) on "Why the empire struck back: just deserts and the Iraq war." All are welcome to these talks, which are held in E38-615 from noon to 1:30 p.m. To view the SSP Wednesday Seminar Series calendar, click here.

Kenneth Pollack, director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution will speak on Tuesday, March 20 at the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar. The talk on "Iran: War or Peace?" is from 4:30 to 6:30 in E51-345.

Angela Kilby, a senior in MIT's political science department, was chosen as one of only 15 successful candidates nationwide to participate in this year's Luce Scholars program. Kilby will receive a ten-month stipend and internship to live and work in Asia, starting August 2007. Sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Luce Scholars program aims to increase awareness of Asia among future leaders in American society. Candidates are nominated from more than sixty colleges and universities in the United States. For more information on the Luce Scholars program and additional fellowship opportunities affiliated with the Center for International Studies, visit our fellowships and grants web site.

On Wednesday, March 14, the CIS Starr Forum is sponsoring a special screening of the classic film The Battle of Algiers. Through the lives of ordinary people, Gillo Pontecorvo's 1965 masterpiece depicts with striking realism the turning point of the Algerian war of independence against French occupation. The political thriller has made a recent comeback and has been cited as a useful illustration of the challenges in Iraq. Introducing the film and leading us in a spirited discussion on the haunting parallels of today's war in Iraq will be Mériam Belli (history department, MIT), an expert in social and cultural history of the Arab Middle East. For details on the event, click here.

On Friday, March 2, MIT hosted an inaugural event announcing the launch of the Just Jerusalem competition. The international competition aims to generate new approaches to, and potential solutions for, the many complex, seemingly intractable problems that the residents of Jerusalem face on a daily basis. Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University, the keynote speaker, spoke about the importance of thinking critically about the relationships between cities, nations, and identity conflicts; and the role that universities play in sponsoring experimental projects that help create new dialogue and debate.

Just Jerusalem is the culmination of Jerusalem 2050, a unique project that brings together Palestinian and Israeli scholars, activists, business leaders, youth, and others to discuss unconventional approaches toward solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Jerusalem 2050 project is jointly sponsored by the Center for International Studies and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Participants worldwide are invited to submit urban plans and other creative works to the Just Jerusalem competition. An international panel of diplomats, researchers and professionals will jury the competition. The winning participants will be awarded fellowships at MIT, a prize equivalent to $50,000 each. For more information about the competition, click here.

In the past 20 years, Europe has lost political and economic ground, and unless it takes action soon, its further decline is almost inevitable, economists Alberto Alesina (Harvard University) and Francesco Giavazzi (Bocconi University and MIT) argue in their book The Future of Europe, Reform or Decline.

On Thursday, March 7 at MIT (E51-376), 5:30 p.m., Alesina and Giavazzi will present their diagnosis and outline some of the controversial measures from their published work. Olivier Blanchard (MIT) will introduce and moderate the discussion. The talk is the third lecture in the MISTI "What Europe?" series.

Each academic year, CIS sponsors an array of interdisciplinary working groups that tackle research issues not confined to a single department or discipline. The groups are open to both faculty members and students, and are structured to generate meaningful scholarly work on a host of academic and policy issues. Global justice, identity politics, insurgency, and the political economy of defense are the topics of four working groups that are now open to interested participants. To learn more about these groups and how to join, click here.

The MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice (PHRJ) is offering fully funded summer internships for undergraduate and graduate students at MIT. This educational experience aims to enhance the cross-cultural understanding of MIT students and to prepare them to design a better world within ethical and normative frameworks. There are no geographical restrictions, but students are strongly encouraged to explore overseas opportunities. Applications are due March 31. Click here for more details.

Gilbert Burnham, lead author on The Lancet survey of war deaths in Iraq, is speaking at MIT on Tuesday, February 27, at 4:30 pm (E51-345). Burhnam, who is co-director of the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response at Johns Hopkins, will shed light on the alarming number of civilian deaths in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003 including how so many fatalities are possible, the long-term consequences, policy implications, and more. To download full text of the study, click here.

This event is a Bustani Middle East Seminar and is cosponsored by the Center for International Studies (CIS) and Technology and Culture Forum at MIT. To view additional CIS events, visit our calendar.

Ahmed Ibrahim Diraige, former Governor of the Darfur region of Sudan, visited CIS to discuss the conflict in Darfur within the context of the proliferating regional conflicts in the Sudan. War first broke out in the southern part of the country in the 1950s and since the 1980s began to spread to regions in the north, the latest being the devastating conflict in Darfur which erupted in 2003, generating what is widely recognized as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Diraige was introduced by a fellow native of Sudan, Professor Francis Deng, Research Professor of International Politics, Law and Society and Director of the Center for Displacement Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and the 2006-2007 Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at CIS. Deng previously served as Sudan's Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The Center expressed regret and disappointment at the actions of Iranian authorities who barred two prominent Iranian intellectuals from traveling to a conference at MIT. Hashem Aghajari and Abdollah Momeni were stopped from boarding an airplane in Tehran on Sunday, even though they had obtained all required documents. Read more.

Former CIS affiliate and MIT alum Charles Ferguson makes an impressive foray into filmmaking by garnering a special jury prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Ferguson's documentary, "No End in Sight," has been cited as a "surgical" and "comprehensive" analysis of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war. Barbara Bodine, a visiting scholar at CIS, and Barry Posen, Ford International Professor of Political Science and MIT's Security Studies Program Director, are featured in the film. A screening of "No End in Sight" is tentatively scheduled for this spring at MIT.

The Center for International Studies is launching its Foreign Policy Index, a "yearbook" of data and analysis on a broad range of topics. Designed to complement the "Audits of the Conventional Wisdom" series, the Foreign Policy Index provides students, scholars, journalists, and citizens with easily accessed, high-quality information on pressing international issues. The Index, supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and other donors, was compiled by CIS graduate students Kelly Grieco and Peter Krause.

The Center's "Audits of the Conventional Wisdom" series continues with a thought-provoking essay, "Iraq's Political Factions: The Last Chance to Build a Governing Coalition?" Here Barry Posen, Ford International Professor of Political Science and MIT Security Studies Program Director, provides a pragmatic analysis of President Bush's new strategy for Iraq, and suggests a practical alternative. Click here for PDF.

Doctoral students in international affairs may apply for up to $5,000 in summer support for dissertation research. The application deadline is Friday, February 2, 2007. Research on international aspects of such issues as energy and the environment, and the relationship between energy and security, are especially welcome, but research on a broad range of issues will be considered. Support may be requested either for fieldwork and/or archival research, or for home-based research and write-up. (Click here for details on the MIT-Japan International Studies Fund.)

The Program on Human Rights and Justice (PHRJ) is accepting applications for several 2007 Research Fellowship positions. These fellowships are aimed at professionals, academics and activists who are working at the intersection of human rights and other topics, and who wish to conduct in-depth research into social and natural sciences and engineering as they relate to human rights and justice issues. For more information, go to: http://web.mit.edu/phrj/.

Under the direction of CIS Executive Director John Tirman and the Inter-University Committee on International Migration, the Center is engaged in a new project on women, migration and conflict. Ten scholars will contribute papers to the effort, which has been organized in conjunction with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). The papers, which will address problems of women who are refugees or are internally displaced as a result of war, will be presented at a UNFPA conference in March 2007. The participating scholars are: Susan Forbes Martin of Georgetown University; Dale Buscher of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children; Jennifer Leaning of the Harvard School of Public Health; Dr. Susan Bartels of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Roger Zetter of Oxford University; Camillo Boano, a Ph.D. candidate at Oxford; Therese McGinn of Columbia University; Audrey Macklin of the University of Toronto Law School; Elzbieta Gozdziak from Georgetown University; and Jay Silverman of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Bernd Widdig and Sigrid Berka from MISTI's Germany program are taking 21 MIT undergraduates to Germany during IAP for a beginner's immersion in German language and culture. The students will participate in a workshop on transportation and energy issues (sponsored by Deutsche Bahn, Siemens and Lufthansa) before taking off for several locations in Baden-Württemberg for the German immersion course (sponsored by the Max Kade Foundation), as well as visits to companies, universities and historical sites. This is a new MISTI-Germany project.

In collaboration with the European Commission, MISTI's MIT-France, MIT-Germany, MIT-Italy, and MIT-Spain Programs will gather experts from both sides of the Atlantic for a panel discussion titled "Is European Research Competitive?: The Role of People, Policy and Collaboration." This special event, which will open the 11th European Career Fair, will be held on February 1, 2007 (Stata Center, 3:00 to 5:30 p.m.). Registration by January 15 is required. MIT Associate Provost and Vice President for Research Claude Canizares will be joined on the panel by Charles Wessner of the US National Research Council, Ernst Ludwig Winnaker, Secretary General of the European Research Council, and other high-profile guests. Click here for details, and to register.

This year's Independent Activities Period (IAP) will feature several political science-related offerings. In January 2007, CIS Visiting Scholar Ambassador Barbara Bodine will teach a seminar on crisis leadership; Visiting Fellow Dr. Carol Savitz will lead two-sessions on "Putin's Russia: Friend or Foe?"; Ali Wyne will direct a seminar on "The Future of Power" (e.g., the rise of India and China); and this year's MIT Security Studies Program military fellows will present a three-session course on planning for combat. Some of these offerings require advanced sign-up; see the IAP political science course list for details. In addition, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning will host an Environmental Film Festival, with screenings every Tuesday and Thursday evening.

Associate Professor of Political Science Roger Petersen's work on social networks as a key to understanding violent conflicts is cited in George Packer's December 18th article in The New Yorker, "Knowing the Enemy." The article profiles political anthropolgist David Kilcullen and details his proposals for altering the way in which the United States approaches counterinsurgency in 'the war on terror.'

The Center's "Audits of the Conventional Wisdom" policy paper series continues with essays by CIS Executive Director John Tirman and CIS affiliate Diane E. Davis, Professor of Urban Sociology in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning and Associate Dean of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning. In his essay, Tirman argues that taking a regional approach to the crisis in Iraq may be easier said than done. In her Audit, Prof. Davis writes about the tremendous challenges that violence and insecurity present in the Global South.

Ford International Professor of Political Science and MIT Security Studies Program Director Barry Posen continues to write about the Iranian nuclear problem. In February 2006, he published a New York Times op-ed that later appeared as a paper in the CIS Audit of the Conventional Wisdom series ("We Can Live With a Nuclear Iran"). Recently, Professor Posen elaborated on his arguments in a report for the Century Foundation, "A Nuclear-Armed Iran: A Difficult But Not Impossible Policy Problem." The paper is part of a series intended to inform the policy debate about Iran-related issues. Click here for the pdf.

After several months spent trying to obtain a visa to travel to the U.S., Huda Ahmed, an Iraqi journalist who has been covering the war in Iraq for Knight Ridder, has joined the Center as its 2006-2007 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow. Ms. Ahmed was cited for bravery for her coverage of the fight for Najaf in 2004; she and a fellow reporter were trapped overnight in a rebel-controlled shrine. In particular, she has attempted to write about "the issues of women and children at risk in a war zone, the human rights abuses of police and occupying forces, and the struggles of women in politics in a Muslim society." Ms. Ahmed will be in residence at CIS for several months, and will have an opportunity to write for the Boston Globe and New York Times. The fellowship is named for Elizabeth Neuffer, a Globe reporter who was killed while on assignment in Iraq in 2003.

The Center has published two new 'Audits of the Conventional Wisdom' by Associate Director Stephen Van Evera. In 'The War on Terror: Forgotten Lessons from World War II' and 'The Bush Administration is Weak on Terror,' Professor Van Evera critiques administration counter-terrorism policy and urges Washington to learn the lessons of World War II as they apply to the war on terror. Also new in the Audits series is an essay by CIS Director Richard J. Samuels on the policy tightrope being walked by new Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. In 'Waiting for Goldilocks: Getting Japan's Foreign Policy Just Right,' Prof. Samuels writes that "Abe is left with the responsibility to find a policy toward the DPRK that is 'just right.' North Korea's nuclear weapons test in October 2006 and its July 2006 missile tests certainly do not make this any easier."

Professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Director of the Program on Human Rights and Justice, and Professor Lawrence Vale, Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, will host a day-long conference on Friday, December 1, 2006 on the centuries-old tragedy of manual scavenging. "Virtual Slavery or Just a Job?: Tackling Manual Scavenging Through Technology, Law & Development" will address what it will take to abolish the practice in India; examine the human rights issues involved; and look at technological alternatives. Included in the day's events will be the presentation of a report prepared by a student team from MIT, Harvard and Tufts that advocates ecological sanitation as a method of dealing with this problem. Contact: Topher McDougal, tlm@mit.edu.

Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, will speak on "Terrorism and Deterrence: Lessons from Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza" at the MIT Security Studies Program Wednesday Seminar Series on November 1. The other guest speakers during the second half of the fall semester will include MIT Senior Research Scientist Richard Lanza (on long-range detection of nuclear materials); Martin Klingst of Die Zeit (on Europe and the Middle East); and Bruce Blair, President of the World Security Institute (on China's energy security). All are welcome to these talks, which are held in E38-615 from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Can we live with a nuclear Iran and North Korea? Will we have to? Would nuclear arsenals in Iran and North Korea prompt nuclear arms races in Asia, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf? These are some of the questions on the agenda at the Nov. 9, 2006 CIS Starr Forum, "Iran, North Korea and the Second Nuclear Age." On the panel: Professor Barry Posen, Director of the MIT Security Studies Program and author of the CIS Audit of the Conventional Wisdom essay "We Can Live With a Nuclear Iran"; SSP nuclear proliferation expert Jim Walsh, who has traveled to both Iran and North Korea; and David Albright, President of the Institute for Science and International Security. CIS Executive Director John Tirman will moderate.

On Nov. 7, 2006, two Japanese specialists on Northeast Asian security will speak at CIS under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of State: Norihiko Nakajima, an officer in the Nonproliferation, Science, and Nuclear Energy Division of the Foreign Policy Bureau at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Professor Akihiro Sado, School of Business and Public Policies, Chukyo University. Nonproliferation, Japanese security and defense policy, and U.S. foreign policy will be among the topics addressed. The event will be held at 2:00 p.m. in the Center's 2nd floor conference room (MIT Building E38).

Zha Daojiong, Chair of the Department of International Political Economy and Director of the Center for International Energy Security at the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, will speak at CIS from noon to 1:30 p.m. on November 7, 2005 (E28-615). The talk, on "China, the United States, and the Worldwide Search for Energy Security," is part of the CIS Starr Forum on the Rise of China series.

Rami Khouri, a syndicated columnist and Director of the Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, will speak at the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar on November 7, 2006. The talk, on "The Return of the Middle East Cold War: A View from the Regional New Ideological Battle Front," is from 4:30 to 6:30 in E51-345.

Patrick Webb, Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy At Tufts University---former Chief of Nutrition for the UN's World Food Program---will speak at MIT on UN Day, Wednesday, October 25, 2006. His talk is titled "How to Save Lives and Make Friends: Can Humanitarian Principles be Applied in an Era of Eroding Multilateralism?" The event is co-sponsored by CIS, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and the Special Program in Urban and Regional Studies. (Click here for event details.)

The School of Medicine at Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, Iraq, and The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University--in cooperation with MIT's Center for International Studies--have released a report on the under-examined question of civilian deaths in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. Its central conclusion, based on a population-based survey conducted at some risk by a team of Iraqi and American public health researchers, is that approximately 600,000 people have died violently above the normal mortality rate. Including non-violent deaths that are linked to the war, the total is estimated to be more than 650,000. ("The Human Cost of the War in Iraq: A Mortality Study, 2002-2006")

On October 12, 2006, the survey results will be published in the British medical journal, The Lancet.

The report on the survey findings, methods and implications, is available here. "The Human Cost of the War in Iraq: A Mortality Study, 2002-2006" explains the cluster survey method; discusses how so many fatalities are possible; looks at the overall status of health in Iraq; examines U.S. military casualties and deaths and their long-term consequences, and discusses policy implications of the study.

For questions about the study, contact Tim Parsons, Director of Public Affairs, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, (410) 955-7619 or tmparson@jhsph.edu.

The MIT Security Studies Program (SSP) has teamed up with the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to examine the development and fielding of large, complex defense systems. "Organizing for a Complex World: Designing, Developing and Deploying Complex Weapon and Net-Centric Systems--Lessons of the Past and the Way Forward" will include six bi-monthly workshops and produce a handbook for policymakers.

Information about a variety of fellowships and other funding opportunities are available on this Web site, including details on the CIS Summer Study Grants (MIT-Japan International Studies Fund), which provides funds for doctoral students doing summer research abroad in international affairs, and the Luce Foundation Fellowships for 10-month internships in East and Southeast Asia (deadline: November 13, 2006). Click here for our online database.

The 2006-2007 CIS Starr Forum event series starts up at MIT's Bartos Theater at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 3, 2006, with a discussion about the U.S. in Iraq, past, present and future. Featured are two acclaimed journalists who reported on the invasion and its aftermath: New Yorker staff writer George Packer and former Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran. (Packer is author of "The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq" and Chandrasekaran, now the Post's Assistant Managing Editor, has just published "Imperial Life in the Emerald City", about life in Baghdad's walled-off U.S. enclave.) The Forum will be moderated by one of the senior U.S. officials these reporters covered, CIS Visiting Scholar Barbara Bodine. In 2003, Ambassador Bodine served as coordinator for post-conflict reconstruction for Baghdad and the central governates of Iraq.

The MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives--the cornerstone international education program at MIT--initiates its second annual "MISTI Week" on Monday, September 22, 2006, with a cultural fair in Lobby 10. On hand: Spanish flamenco dancers, Japanese Taiko drummers and other performers (and types of food) that reflect the eight countries in which MISTI organizes internships for MIT students. Other MISTI Week activities include a talk by CIS Director Richard Samuels on East Asia; a discussion about international careers; and a screening of Al Gore's global warming documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." (Click here for the full MISTI Week schedule.)

Boston University Professor of International Relations and Anthropology Augustus Richard Norton, whose current research focuses on strategies of reform in authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, will inaugurate this year's Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar on Tuesday, September 19, 2006, with a talk on the war between Israel and Hezbollah (E51-345, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.). The Bustani Seminar is chaired by MIT Associate Provost and Ford International Professor of History Philip S. Khoury.

Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatemi visited MIT on September 11, 2006, for an informal luncheon dialogue with a group of faculty members and invited guests. Khatemi is the most senior Iranian figure to tour the U.S. since 1979, when the two countries severed formal ties. His visit to MIT, hosted by Associate Provost Phillip Khoury and the Center for International Studies, came during his two-week tour of the U.S. In his remarks, Khatemi was critical of recent U.S. policy in the Middle East. Nevertheless, he said, negotiation between the U.S. and Iran on nuclear and other pressing issues is not only desirable but necessary. ("The Iranian nuclear problem can only be resolved through negotiation. It is now a pride issue in both countries.") "We welcomed the opportunity to discuss with President Khatemi a wide range of issues pertaining to Iran and bilateral relations," said John Tirman, CIS Executive Director. "He was forthcoming and informative. There is little doubt that more dialogue is needed between these two countries. This kind of forum is a small but important step in that direction."

In a Los Angeles Times article, former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen