The CIS Starr Forum is a public event series sponsored by the Starr Foundation of New York. We bring to the MIT campus leading academics, policymakers and journalists to discuss pressing issues in the world of international relations and U.S. foreign policy. Many of our events are webstreamed below. Some of them can also be viewed at MIT World, MIT's on-demand video site. CIS Starr Forums are open to the general public as well as to the MIT community.
An adjunct series, The CIS Starr Forum on the Rise of China, addresses the effect of China's growing economic power and national competitiveness on such global sustainability topics as global resource consumption, greenhouse gas production and climate change, international public health and disease control, and regional military security.
To contact the CIS Starr Forum, please e-mail starrforum@mit.edu or call Annie Abbondante at 617.253.8306.
| Upcoming Events |
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March 14, 2008
Leaderless Jihad: Radicalization in the WestMarc Sageman, an expert on al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations, discusses how people end up on the path to political violence in a post-9/11 world. His talk builds upon his best-selling book, "Understanding Terror Networks" and is based upon his recent publication, "Leaderless Jihad." Sageman is an independent researcher on terrorism and the founder of Sageman Consulting, LLC. He holds various academic positions at the George Washington University, the University of Maryland and national think tanks, like the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Homeland Security Policy Institute.
See the event flyer here.
Room E51-376, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
4:30p–6:00pm
10:30a–12:00pm
CIS Starr Forum Archive
Speakers' titles are as of the date of the given event.
2007 EVENTS
2006 EVENTS
2005 EVENTS
2004 EVENTS
2003 EVENTS
2002 EVENTS
2001 EVENTS
| 2008 EVENTS |
March 14, 2008
Dissolving War: Women as Peacemakers
Sanam Naraghi Anderlini's latest book, Women Building Peace: What They Do, Why it Matters, continues her ground-breaking exploration of gender and conflict. A longtime consultant to the U.N. and NGOs on these issues, Anderlini has produced several important field studies and analyses of how women build and sustain peace in their war-torn countries and communities, often in unconventional ways. Sanam Naragi Anderlini was born and raised in Iran and educated at Cambridge University in the U.K. She has held leadership posts with International Alert, Women Waging Peace, and is now, in addition to her consultancies, a Research Affiliate of MIT's Center for International Studies. Co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies and the Technology and Culture Forum.
See the event flyer here.
32-124, MIT's Stata Center, 32 Vassar St. Cambridge, MA
January 8, March 8, April 8, 2008
CIS Film Series 2008: Women and the Middle East
This Spring CIS presents three films from the Middle East, based in Algeria/France, Israel/The Golan Heights and Iraq before, during and after the US war and invasion in 2003. The films focus on the lives of three women, linked together by their Middle Eastern identity and a variety of challenging issues. They are portrayed while following their life paths amidst the political and social trials common to the region. Meriam Belli, Anat Biletzki and Ban Al-Mahfodh from MIT will discuss some background aspects to the three films presented (respectively). They will aim to examine the socio-political context that Middle Eastern women are facing in the region. Both the films and speakers will attempt to throw light on their roles as women within the context of trying circumstances of isolation, tribulation and modern warfare, while holding on to freedom of spirit.
| 2007 EVENTS |
- December 10, 2007
Iraq's Three Civil Wars: Is the US Relevant to Them?
Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. After Sept. 11, he launched a Weblog, "Informed Comment,” in hope of offering the public a more accurate interpretation of the Middle East, where he had lived off and on for almost ten years. Informed Comment became a phenomenon, generating in some months as many as a million page views, and making him one of the top bloggers in the world. Cole is widely respected as a public intellectual on the Middle East and, in 2004, was invited to address the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations concerning the war in Iraq.See the event flyer here.
MIT's Landau Building 66-110, 25 Ames St. Cambridge, MA
Monday, December 10, 2007, 5:00p–6:30pm
Video will open in another window. Depending on your player and browser speeds, videos make take a few minutes to load.
- November 6, 2007
Don't Be an American Idiot
How does the U.S. use human rights in its foreign policy?
Does the occupant of the White House matter when it comes to U.S. human interests abroad? What is the role of civil society in making human rights matter?
Julie Mertus co-director of Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs Program, American University and award-winning author of Bait and Switch: Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy reflects on these questions and invites discussion on their importance in an election year.
MIT's Landau Building, 66-110, 25 Ames St Cambridge, MA
6–7:30pm
Video will open in another window. Depending on your player and browser speeds, videos make take a few minutes to load.
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October 3, 2007
The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy
John Mearsheimer (Wendell Harrison Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago) and Stephen Walt (Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard) talk about their recent book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. Joining the discussion is Bruce Riedel (Senior Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution.)
MIT's Stata Center, 32-123
32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
6-7:30pm
Video will open in another window. Depending on your player and browser speeds, videos make take a few minutes to load.
- May 2, 2007
No End In Sight Film Screening
Cited as a "surgical" and "comprehensive" analysis of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war, No End in Sight, a film by MIT alum Charles Ferguson, won a special jury prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Charles Ferguson introduced the film and led a question and answer session following the screening. - April 5, 2007
Is the Terrorist Threat a Fake?
John Mueller, professor and chair of National Security Studies at the Mershon Center at Ohio State University discussed his book Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate the National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them. -
March 14, 2007
The Battle of Algiers Film Screening
Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 film has made a recent comeback due to world affairs and is cited as a useful illustration of the problems being faced in Iraq. Mériam Belli, Dept. of History, MIT, an expert in social and cultural history of the Arab Middle East, introduced the film (shown in 35mm, 120 minutes).
| 2006 EVENTS |
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November 9, 2006
Iran, North Korea and the Second Nuclear Age
A discussion about the challenges to the world community posed by the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea. With David Albright, President of the Institute for Science and International Security; MIT political science professor Barry Posen, Director of the MIT Security Studies Program; and Jim Walsh, SSP Research Associate. Moderated by CIS Executive Director John Tirman.
- October 3, 2006
Reporters' Notebook: The U.S. in Iraq
A discussion with two journalists who reported on the war in Iraq, moderated by one of the senior U.S. officials they covered. With George Packer of The New Yorker, Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post, and Ambassador (ret.) Barbara Bodine, CIS Visiting Scholar.
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May 8, 2006
Beyond a Militarized Approach to Terrorism:
Experience from Sri Lanka
A talk by former two-time Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, a visiting scholar at CIS. (Audio quality improves one minute in.)
Listen to the audio
- March 7, 2006
U.S., Iraq, and the Future of Kurdistan
A presentation by Kevin McKiernan, author of The Kurds: A People in Search of Their Homeland. (This event aired on C-Span's "Book TV.")
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February 16, 2006
Saudi Arabia and the Global Community
A talk by Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Introduction by Institute Professor John Deutch
Listen to the audio
| 2005 EVENTS |
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October 27, 2005
The Big Question: How and When to Exit Iraq
A discussion with Bill Kristol (editor, The Weekly Standard); Phebe Marr (a leading U.S. historian of Iraq, Senior Fellow, United States Institute of Peace); Barry Posen (Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT); Jonathan Schell (peace and disarmament correspondent, The Nation magazine)
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October 17, 2005
A Report Card on the War on Terror
Hosted by former Colorado Senator and presidential candidate Gary Hart. With Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, authors of "The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting it Right."
- September 28, 2005
Israeli TV anchor Chaim Yavin on his documentary
"Land of the Settlers"
- September 27, 2005
The Sudan Crisis and Human Security
Speaker: Francis Deng
(Representative to the UN Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons; former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in Sudan)
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September 26, 2005
"Implications of an Avian Flu Pandemic"
With Laurie Garrett, Senior Fellows for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations, and Marc Lipsitch, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health.
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May 14, 2005
"Forced Labor in the Global Economy"
CIS, the MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice, and the BBC World Service Trust partnered for a high-profile event on forced labor and what can be done about it. Programs were taped at MIT's Kresge Auditorium for broadcast by National Public Radio and BBC Television: On Point, the WBUR/Boston program distributed by NPR and hosted by Tom Ashbrook; and BBC Television's The World Debate, with host Zeinab Badawi. (A private roundtable discussion with more than 30 experts on forced labor also was held on May 14; a pdf copy of the report is available here.)
- March 15, 2005
Author Tracy Dahlby discusses his book
"Allah's Torch: A Report from Behind the Scenes
in Asia's War on Terror"
- February 22, 2005
"Prospects for Mideast Peace in the Post-Arafat Era"
Sari Nusseibeh (President, Al-Quds University, Jerusalem)
Henry Siegman (Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations),
Naomi Chazan (CIS Wilhelm Fellow)
- February 10, 2005
A special event with the Boston Review
"Debating the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy"
Stephen Van Evera (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Associate Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
Stephen Walt (Professor of International Relations at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs)
John Tirman (Executive Director of MIT's Center for International Studies)
Robert Vickers (member of the CIA's Senior Executive Service and a visiting fellow at CIS's Security Studies Program)
Naomi Chazan (professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a former Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, and 2004-2005 Robert Wilhelm Fellow at MIT's Center for International Studies)
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February to May 2005
"The Politics of Reconstructing Iraq"
From February through May 2005, MIT's Center for International Studies and Department of Urban Studies and Planning presented a public colloquium series on Iraq. "The Politics of Reconstructing Iraq" looked at Iraq 's reconstruction through a variety of lenses and featured a number of experts from Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, as well as from the United States. Click here for a description of the series as well as streaming video of six of the seven events.
| 2004 EVENTS |
- October 5, 2004
"30th Anniversary of the Inter-University
Committe on International Migration"
Sharon Stanton Russell (Senior Research Scholar at MIT's Center for International Studies; Chair of the Steering Group of the Inter-University Committee on International Migration; Director of the Mellon-MIT Inter-University Program on Non-Governmental Organizations and Forced Migration)
Nazli Choucri (MIT Professor of Political Science)
John Harris (Boston University Professor of Economics)
Sharon Stanton Russell (introduction of keynote speaker)
Mamphela Ramphele (Co-Chair of the UN Global Commission on International Migration; Senior Advisor to the President of the World Bank)
- September 29, 2004
"Haiti: Moving Forward After Failed Transitions"
Suzanne Berger (MIT Raphael Dorman and Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science)
Myrtho Bonhomme (Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Haiti and
Special Ambassador, Dean and Founder of The National Diplomatic Academy of Haiti)
Chappell Lawson (MIT Associate Professor of Political Science)
- April 21, 2004
"Fostering Global Citizenship: Future Scientists on Science
in an Age of Terrorism"
Co-sponsored by MIT's International Students Office. Supported by the Kailath International Fund for International Students. Not webstreamed.
Rosalind Williams (Director, MIT Program in Science, Technology and Society)
Stephen Van Evera (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Associate Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
Julien Bachmann (MIT graduate student, inorganic chemistry)
Alexander Brown (MIT graduate student, Program in the History and Social Study of Science and Technology)
Gregory Koblentz (MIT graduate student, political science)
- January 8, 2004
"A Conversation with Kanan Makiya"
Kanan Makiya (Professor in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Brandeis University; member of the Iraq National Congress)
Hassan Mneimneh (Iraq Research and Documentation Project, Harvard)
Kenneth Oye (Associate Professor of Political Science, MIT)
| 2003 EVENTS |
- December 5, 2003
"Iraq: What Next?"
Ivo Daalder (Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution)
Juan Cole (Professor Of Modern Middle Eastern and East Asian History, Univ. of Michigan)
Stephen Van Evera (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Associate Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
MIT World Video
- November 2, 2003
"National Security and Civil Liberties"
Calif. Congressman Mike Honda
Mass. Congressman Barney Frank
Merrie Najimy (Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee)
Margie Yamamoto (Japanese American Citizens League)
Kenneth Oye (Associate Professor of Political Science, MIT)
- May 12, 2003
"Islam and the Challenge of Democracy"
Broadcast on WBUR (NPR) radio's "On Point" with host Tom Ashbrook
Khaled Abou el Fadl (Distinguished Fellow in Islamic Law, UCLA)
Fawaz Gerges (Chair, International Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies, Sarah Lawrence College)
- April 15, 2003
"Water: Casus Belli or Source of Cooperation?
The Middle East Water Project"
(not webstreamed)
Franklin Fisher (Professor of Economics, MIT)
- April 14, 2003
"The War with Iraq : Implications for U.S. Alliances and International Institutions"
Richard Samuels (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
Stephen Van Evera (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Associate Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
Suzanne Berger (Professor of Political Science, MIT)
Thomas Christensen (Professor of Political Science, MIT)
- March 21, 2003
"The War with Iraq : Conduct and Consequence"
Stephen Van Evera (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Associate Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
Owen Coté, Jr. (Associate Director, MIT Security Studies Program)
Thomas Christensen (Professor of Political Science, MIT)
Daryl Press (Assistant Professor of Government, Dartmouth)
- March 14, 2003
"Just Back from Iraq : Observations of a Weapons Inspector"
Rocco Casagrande (UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission/UNMOVIC)
- February 6, 2003
"Iraq and North Korea : A Former Insider Assesses U.S. Policy"
Robert Gallucci (Dean, Georgetown School of Foreign Service, Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large and Former Deputy Executive Director, UNSCOM.)
MIT World Video
| 2002 EVENTS |
- November 7, 2002
"The Ayalon-Nuseibeh Plan for Israeli-Palestinian Co-Existence"
(not webstreamed)
Boaz Tamir (founder, Telrad)
- October 28, 2002
"A U.S. Invasion of Iraq: Consequences and Scenarios"
Daniel Byman (Assistant Professor, Georgetown; 9/11 Inquiry Staff)
John Dower (Professor of History, MIT)
Herman Eilts (Emeritus Professor of International Relations, Boston Univ.)
Stephen Van Evera (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Associate Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
- October 21, 2002
"War with Iraq?"
Kenneth Pollack (Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution)
Owen Coté, Jr. (Associate Director, MIT Security Studies Program)
Stephen Van Evera (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Associate Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
- September 27, 2002
"The Israeli-Palestinian Stalemate"
Yoav Peled (Professor of Political Science, Tel Aviv Univ.)
Raif Zreik (PhD student, Harvard Law School)
- September 9, 2002
"Reflections on the One-Year Anniversary of 9/11"
Stephen Van Evera (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Associate Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
Suzanne Berger (Professor of Political Science, MIT)
Jeremy Pressman (Olin Fellow, Harvard)
MIT World Video
- February 25, 2002
"The U.S. and China: A Coming Conflict?"
Stephen Van Evera (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Associate Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
Edward Steinfeld (Associate Professor of Political Science, MIT)
Eric Heginbotham (graduate student in political science, MIT)
Harry Harding (Dean Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington Univ.)
Thomas Christensen (Professor of Political Science, MIT)
Chas Freeman (fmr. U.S. Ambassador)
Harvey Feldman (Heritage Foundation)
MIT World Video Session One
MIT World Video Session Two
| 2001 EVENTS |
- October 29, 2001
"The Colombian Civil War and U.S. Policy"
Jonathan Hartlyn (Director, Institute of Latin American Studies , Univ. North Carolina , Chapel Hill)
Marc Chernick (Visiting Associate Professor of Government and Latin American Studies, Georgetown)
Cynthia Arnson (Deputy Director, Latin America Program, Woodrow WilsoN International Center for Scholars)
Michael Shifter (Program Director, Inter-American Dialogue)
Chappell Lawson (Assistant Professor of Political Science, MIT)
- January 9, 2001
"The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Causes, Implications
and Prospects for Resolution"
(not webstreamed)
Stephen Van Evera (Professor of Political Science, MIT; Associate Director, MIT Center for International Studies)
Samuel Lewis (fmr. U.S. Ambassador to Israel)
Ian Lustick (Professor of Political Science, Univ. of Pennsylvania)
Jeremy Pressman (MIT graduate student in political science)
Geoffrey Kemp (Director of Regional Strategic Programs, Nixon Center)
William Quandt (Professor of Politics, Univ. of Virginia)
