John Tirman

Faculty + Scholars
John
Tirman

Executive Director & Principal Research Scientist (from 2004 to 2022)
Center for International Studies

tirman@mit.edu

CV
@JohnTirman
Personal website

Expertise: 

Conflict resolution, international relations, migration and refugees, Persian Gulf, ethnic conflict, development, foreign policy, terrorism, human rights

Extended Details

Biography

John Tirman served as the executive director and a principal research scientist at MIT's Center for International Studies until his sudden death on August 19, 2022. Tirman is author, or coauthor and editor, of fifteen books on international affairs, including, most recently, Republics of Myth: National Narratives and the US-Iran Conflict (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022), Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American Backlash (MIT Press, 2015) and The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars (Oxford University Press, 2011). Earlier work includes The Fallacy of Star Wars (1984), the first important critique of strategic defense, and Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America's Arms Trade (1997). In addition, he has published more than 100 articles in periodicals such as the The Nation, Boston Globe, New York Times, Washington Post, Esquire, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Review. Before coming to MIT in 2004, he was program director of the Social Science Research Council. From 1986 to 1999, Tirman was executive director of the Winston Foundation for World Peace, a leading funder of work to prevent nuclear war and promote non-violent resolution of conflict. In 1999–2000, Tirman was Fulbright Senior Scholar in Cyprus and produced an educational website on the conflict. He has been a trustee of International Alert, Mother Jones magazine, the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, and the Center for Contemporary Art at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Research

John Tirman’s main research interests focused on human security. He wrote extensively on the human costs of war to civilian populations in war zones, including The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars (Oxford University Press, 2011) and “The Human Cost of War and How to Assess the Damage,” in Foreign Affairs (online, October 2015). He also has written extensively about forced migration in studies for the United Nations Population Fund, published as Women, Migration, and Conflict: Breaking a Deadly Cycle (Springer, 2009) and a special post-9/11 series jointly organized by The New Press and the Social Science Research Council, The Maze of Fear: Security and Migration After 9/11 (2004).  More recently, MIT Press published Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American Backlash (2015). Tirman’s other major research focused on US–Iran relations. He has managed a long “critical oral history” project to examine how the relationship has evolved over the last 30 years, which has resulted in two books and several articles and public forums.

 

Publications

“How the war complicates Biden's Iran diplomacy,” Dawn, 6 April 2022.

“Five books that illuminate the agony and uncertainty of civilians caught in wars,” The Washington Post, 18 March 2022.

“History as it happens: Invisible carnage,” Washington Times, 8 February 2022.

“Will America ever reckon with the human cost of the Afghanistan war? ,” Dawn, 13 September 2021.

“Saudi money in US horse racing is the sport’s next moral jam,” Los Angeles Times, 25 November 2019.

“3Q: John Tirman on a new US human rights commission,” MIT News, 22 July 2019.

“Election Insights: On reducing gun violence,” MIT SHASS (online), 31 October 2018.

“The Origins Of America's Gun Obsession,” WBUR's Cognoscenti, 27 July 2018.

“An Adolescent’s Foreign Policy,” The Helsinki Times, 6 February 2018.

and Aswo Safari. “What Next For Kurdistan?,” Huffington Post, 1 November 2017.

“The End of the Commonwealth,” Huffington Post, 13 December 2016.

“The Wall And The Ban: Can Trump Really Accomplish Either?,” WBUR's Cognoscenti, 16 November 2016.

“SCOTUS and Immigration: The Politics Behind the Case,” Huffington Post, 19 April 2016.

“Beyond the Syria Debacle,” Huffington Post, 26 January 2016.

“The Origins of Intolerance in America,” Huffington Post, 15 December 2015.

“Is It Fascism? Obloquy Run Amok,” Huffington Post, 9 December 2015.

“Climate Leadership: Paris and the Paradox of the U.S. Role,” Huffington Post, 27 November 2015.

“Why Paris?,” Huffington Post, 15 November 2015.

“Can We Measure the Human Costs of War?,” WBUR's Cognoscenti, 16 October 2015.

“The Iran Deal Comes with a Price,” Boston Globe, 15 October 2015.

“The Human Cost of War: How to Assess the Damage,” Foreign Affairs, 8 October 2015.

“The GOP's Base and its Nativist Quagmire,” Washington Spectator, 23 August 2015.

“Who Won the Peace?,” Huffington Post, 14 July 2015.

“The Right's New Assault on Iran,” Huffington Post, 29 May 2015.

“The Immigration Debate is not about Legality,” Huffington Post, 16 March 2015.

“The 'Bent Twig' of Arabia: On the Rise of Jihadism,” Huffington Post, October 2014.

“Past Lessons, Current Threats: Assessing Obama's Case for War Against ISIS,” WBUR's Cognoscenti, 12 September 2014.

“Gaza, Iraq, Syria, and the Construction of Empathy,” WBUR's Cognoscenti, 21 August 2014.

“The Legacy of Unlearned Lessons and the Current Crisis in Iraq,” WBUR's Cognoscenti, 18 June 2014.

“The Roots of our Foreign Policy Blunders,” Huffington Post, 11 June 2014.

“Stumbling Toward the Finish Line: U.S.-Iran Peace Process,” Huffington Post, 21 May 2014.

“The Usual Suspects Aim to Spoil the Iran Deal,” Huffington Post, 24 April 2014.

“U.S.-Iran Misperceptions,” Huffington Post, 12 March 2014.

“Israel: The Chimera of Friendship,” Huffington Post, 17 December 2013.

“Human Trafficking Around the World,” Washington Post, 16 August 2013.

“The 'empathy gap' in regarding the Iraq War, and how similar it is to drone warfare,” OpenSecurity, 18 March 2013.

“‘Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam’ By Nick Turse,” Washington Post, 25 January 2013.

“Why do we ignore the civilians killed in American wars?,” Washington Post, 6 January 2012.

“The Forgotten Wages of War,” The New York Times, 3 January 2012.

Books