Contemporary Military Topics
Joli Divon Saraf
Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Limited to 30 participants.
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
In individual sessions, SSP's 2009-2010 Military Fellows discuss the counter IED flight in Iraq, the significance of GPS upgrades, and Seabasing.
Contact: Joli Divon Saraf, E40-477, x8-7608, joli@mit.edu
Sponsor: MIT Security Studies Program
Cosponsor: Center for International Studies
“Seabasing: Amphibious and Prepositioning Ship Requirements”
Lt Col. John Walker USMC
As the US has ongoing security challenges, the Marine Corps must respond with speed & versatility in inhospitable, often anti-access environments. Seabasing - essentially a port & airfield at sea with ability to offload mission equipment/supplies to forces ashore - is a new solution. With no large footprint ashore, the Corps will be able to run a full range of operations, from forcible entry to humanitarian assistance.
Tue Jan 26, 10:30am-12:00pm, E40-496, the Lucian Pye Room
"GPS: Changing the Engine Seamlessly, in Mid-Flight, for Over 1 Billion Users"
LTC Kurt Kunzelman USAF
The former commander of the world's 32-satellite, $3.5B Global Positioning System (GPS) will discuss how the USAF teamed with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, & the Aerospace Corp. to replace GPS' 1970s-era mainframe computer system with a server-based distributed architecture, the largest single upgrade to the GPS system in 22 yrs. We will discuss how the GPS control system works, challenges & lessons learned.
Wed Jan 27, 10:30am-12:00pm, E40-496, the Lucian Pye room
“The Counter IED Fight in Iraq: Action, Reaction, Counteraction"
Colonel William "Butch" Graham USA
The #1 killer of Coalition forces in Iraq & Afghanistan is the Improvised Explosive Device (IED). We will explore the IED fight following the cycle of insurgent action – Coalition reaction – insurgent counteraction. COL Graham has had 3 Iraq tours from 2003 through 2008, each deeply engaged with fighting the IED threat.
Thu Jan 28, 10:30am-12:00pm, E40-496, the Lucian Pye room
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How Baseball, Poker and Fermat Teach Us The Best Way to Elect the President
Alan Natapoff
Wed Jan 20, 04-05:30pm, 32-124
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
The Electoral College (EC) promotes the ideal of unanimity through large voting power. Small numbers (as in Florida-2000) can turn the presidency under it, but not under simple majority voting. The EC can empower the 80 million impotent voters in poorly contested states by adopting a vote-for-popular-vote basis in which a state's winner receives one vote for every popular vote cast. The opposition can vote for their candidate B (and count for a dominant A they accept) or cast a blank ballot that will not count for a hostile A. This rewards candidates, vote-for-vote, for the acquiescence of their opposition. The analysis suggests ways that France, Israel, and Iraq can protect their vulnerable systems. We trace the paradoxes, the delicious oddities, and the resolution of Florida's deadlock in 2000 by Fermat's Rule.
Web: http://natapoff@mit.edu
Contact: Alan Natapoff, 37-219, x3-7757, natapoff@space.mit.edu
Sponsor: Political Science
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Marxism Today, 20 Years Since Its "Collapse"
Felix Kreisel
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
World capitalist order, established following World War II and dominated by the US, has crashed and the United States is at the center of world instability. Collapse of the Soviet Union and other so-called "socialist" states has exacerbated the rivalries among the advanced capitalist countries while the US is trying to reverse its long-term economic decline through frenetic military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Web: http://wsws.org
Contact: x3-8625, fjk@mit.ed
Sponsor: Felix Kreisel, NW21-109, 617 253-8625, fjk@mit.edu
World Depression Made in America
Bill van Auken, WSWS editor
XX century was "American century" in the sense that the US was a dominant economic power, it underpinned world capitalism, stabilized and reinforced it. Today, the US acts as the most destabilizing element in the world economy and world capitalism has reached a critical turning point. Read: wsws.org
Tue Jan 5, 06-08:00pm, 8-119
Capitalist Russia Today
Vladimir Volkov, WSWS reporter, St. Petersburg, Russia
18 years after Soviet demise, what is the balance sheet of capitalist restoration in the former Soviet Union? While high oil and gas prices have propped up the Putin regime and the energy export-oriented Russian economy, its overall health is fragile. We shall look at the trends in the economy and society, the ethnic wars and a drift to dictatorship in Russia and other successor states.
Tue Jan 12, 06-08:00pm, 8-119
From Tzar to Lenin - the Russian Revolution
Felix Kreisel
We shall look at the Russian Revolution of 1917 within the context of the international situation in the early 20th century. How did the revolution come about? What was the outlook and the program of the Bolsheviks? What alternative paths existed for Russia in 1917? Suggested reading: Trotsky's "History of the Russian Revolution" and "Permanent Revolution".
Tue Jan 19, 06-08:00pm, 8-119
Stalinism vs. Socialism
Felix Kreisel
We shall review the history of the Soviet state over its 74-year lifetime, examine its internal contradictions, great strides forward, huge victories and bitter defeats, Stalinist regime's crimes against its own people, and, ultimately, brilliant hopes dashed. We will look at the reasons for the collapse of the USSR and suggest its historic lessons. Suggested reading: Leon Trotsky's "The Revolution Betrayed".
Tue Jan 26, 06-08:00pm, 8-119
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Planning, Funding, and Implementing Transportation Projects in the Real World (or How It Really Works)
Kate Fichter, Eric Plosky
Fri Jan 22, 01-04:45pm, 9-450A
No limit but advance sign up required (see contact below)
Single session event
As a vital and complex element of any urban or regional environment, transportation infrastructure both affects and is affected by land use patterns, economic development policies, political power-brokering and environmental resources, and so offers a lens through which to study many of the choices and constraints available to today's planners. This seminar will offer a practice-oriented overview of the issues, players and trends most relevant to contemporary transportation planning, as taught by two MIT/DUSP alumni/ae currently working in the field.
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, x3-2024, eglenn@mit.edu
Sponsor: Urban Studies and Planning
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Sex and Slavery
Julie Fahnestock
Tue Jan 12, 19, 26, 07-09:00pm, 32-155, 4-270 on January 26
No limit but advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 08-Jan-2010
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
29 million people are enslaved today. This 3 week discussion will unveil the facts about modern day slavery and sex trafficking around the globe and in our cities. We will high light NGOs making a stand against these injustices and take a look at how the international governing communities are responding. We will end the course by giving practical insight into how we can live as advocates for the oppressed. Come ready to be challenged.
January 12th- Putting an end to Human Trafficking (32-155)
January 19th- In Our Hometowns (32-155)
January 26th- Our Response (4-270)
Contact: Jennifer Recklet, E23-323, x3-1614, reck@med.mit.edu
Sponsor: SpousesandPartners@mit
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The New South Africa Twenty Years after Apartheid: Films, Discussions, and a Free Book!
Christopher Capozzola
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
February 11, 1990 - Nelson Mandela walks free after 27 years in prison & South Africa begins transitioning from apartheid to multiracial democracy. This series honors the 20th anniversary of his release by examining the social issues that confronted the "rainbow nation" in the last two decades: healing past wounds in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; public health & the HIV/AIDS crisis; urban landscape transformations after residential desegregation; and resurgent xenophobia targeting recent immigrants from other sub-saharan African countries. Please join us for this IAP series.
Contact: Christopher Capozzola, E51-180, x2-4960, capozzol@mit.edu
Sponsor: History
Forgiveness (2004)
Christopher Capozzola
From 1995-1998, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission offered a highly public scrutinity of crimes by the apartheid regime. Forgiveness, a taut drama explores how a South African family and a former South African police officer grapple with the burdens of memory even after the TRC’s work was done. A short lecture on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission precedes the film with a post-film discussion.
Wed Jan 20, 07-10:00pm, Room 5-217, see sessions for details
Tsotsi (2005)
Christopher Capozzola
Tsotsi is an award-winning drama based on a novel by South African writer Athol Fugard. Following a young orphan who joins a Johannesburg street gang, the film chronicles the impact of inequality and HIV on the lives of South Africa’s children.
The film will be preceded by a short lecture on HIV in contemporary South Africa and a post-film discussion.
Thu Jan 21, 07-10:00pm, Room 3-133, see sessions for details
Book Discussion - With a Free Book! Phaswane Mpe, Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001)
Christopher Capozzola
A most interesting short novels from post-apartheid South Africa, set in Hillbrow, a diverse & tumultuous residential neighborhood in Johannesburg. In the words of the author, "everything is there...." Free copy to 1st 12 MIT student/faculty/staff w/ MIT ID who sign up. See http://web.mit.edu/history/www. Also on reserve at the Humanities Library and available at local libraries, bookstores, & online booksellers.
Wed Jan 27, 05-07:00pm, Room 4-249, see sessions for details
District Nine (2009)
Christopher Capozzola
Sci-fi hit District Nine tells the story of forced removal of aliens terrorizing the slums of 21st-century Johannesburg, and uses conflicts over an alien “prawn” species to explore undocumented African migration and the lingering legacies of apartheid-era urban surveillance & forced removal. A short lecture on migration politics in contemporary South Africa precedes the film w/ a post-film discussion.
Wed Jan 27, 07-10:00pm, Room 4-231
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