IAP Independent Activities Period
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IAP 2011 Activities by Category

Politics and Social Sciences

Contemporary Military Topics
LtCol Tom Gordon
Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Limited to 30 participants.
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
Contact: Joli Divon Saraf, E40-477, x8-7608, joli@mit.edu
Sponsor: MIT Security Studies Program
Cosponsor: Center for International Studies

The Military's Role in Disaster Relief Operations
LtCol Tom Gordon
This seminar will consist of a series of talks on the military’s role in international Disaster Relief operations by the Military Fellows and experts in the field. Speakers will draw on their experiences in operations in Bangladesh and Haiti to highlight important lessons learned with respect to Joint, Civilian-Military, and host nation relationships within a multinational disaster response.
Tue Jan 18, 12-02:00pm, E40-496

Table Top Exercise on Disaster Relief Operations
LtCol Tom Gordon
Building on the morning seminar, the military Fellows will lead a table top exercise to demonstrate the complexities of a multinational disaster response. Challenges associated with coordination, communication, and cooperation will be highlighted through a guided scenario.
Tue Jan 18, 03:30-05:00pm, E40-496

Cyber International Relations: Emergent Realities of Conflict and Cooperation
Nazli Choucri, Daniel Goldsmith
Schedule: TBD
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)

In international relations, the traditional approaches to theory, research, practice and policy were derived from experiences in the 18th and 19th centuries, refined further in the 20th century. But cyberspace has created new conditions—problems and opportunities—for which there are no clear precedents. As an environment for communication, a venue for social interaction and an enabler of new mechanisms for power and leverage, cyberspace calls for new perspectives, policies and practices. A part of the MIT-Harvard multidisciplinary Minerva Project on “Explorations in Cyber International Relations (ECIR),” this activity seeks to adjust traditional views to the cyber realities of the 21st century.

Our vision is to create new understandings of these realities that help:

• Highlight alternative perspectives and policies as well as institutional requirements;
• Clarify threats and opportunities in cyberspace for national security, welfare, and influence;
• Provide analytical tools for understanding and managing transformation and change; and
• Attract and educate a new generation of researchers, scholars, and analysts.

We hope to discuss an integrated approach to international relations and help frame cyber theory and practice for the 21st century.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/ecir/home.html
Contact: Nazli Choucri, E53-493, x3-6198, nchoucri@mit.edu
Sponsor: Political Science

How Baseball, Poker and Fermat Teach Us The Best Way to Elect the President
Alan Natapoff
Wed Jan 19, 04-05:30pm, 37-212

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

Income Inequality in America
Frank Levy
Mon Jan 24, Tue Jan 25, Wed Jan 26, 10-11:00am, 8-205

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)

In 2008, the top 1 percent of households received about 21% of all income, twice its income share in 1990 and roughly equal its share in 1929 at the end of the Gilded Age. Average household income in the top 1 percent doubled over these years (adjusted for inflation) while income of the average household grew by 5 percent.

This activity will consist of three sessions reviewing what we know about the causes of income inequality including immigration, technological change, the growth of the financial sector and international trade. We will also devote some time to discussing what is known about the consequences of inequality for national life.
Contact: Frank Levy, 9-523, x3-2089, flevy@mit.edu
Sponsor: Urban Studies and Planning

MIT Washington Summer Internship Program Information Sessions
Charles Stewart, Tobie Weiner
Thu Jan 20, 11am-12:00pm, 4-145
Wed Jan 26, 01-02:00pm, 4-149

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Repeating event. Participants welcome at any session

Come to an information session and find out about the MIT Washington Summer Internship Program. The program was founded in 1995 to give selected MIT undergraduates the opportunity to explore science and engineering policymaking at the national level, through study and practical experience. The interns have worked in the offices of government agencies, the private sector, and advocacy groups. Complementing the summer internships are a trip to Washington, DC, during spring break and a 12-unit HASS subject designed to give students an introduction to policymaking. All sessions are the same; come to any one.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/summerwash/www
Contact: Tobie Weiner, E53-484, x3-3649, iguanatw@mit.edu
Sponsor: Political Science

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 by the US at the end of World War II, has crashed and the United States is at the center of economic convulsions. Collapse of the Soviet Union and other so-called "socialist" states has exacerbated the rivalries among the advanced capitalist countries. The US is trying to reverse its long-term economic decline through frenetic military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, and by exporting its crisis to competitors.
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
Felix Kreisel
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 4, 06-08:00pm, 6-120

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 11, 06-08:00pm, 6-120

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 18, 06-08:00pm, 6-120

Capitalist Russia Today
Vladimir Volkov, WSWS reporter, St. Petersburg, Russia
What is the balance sheet of capitalist restoration in the former Soviet Union 19 years after its demise? While high oil and gas prices have propped up the 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 25, 06-08:00pm, 6-120

Planning, Funding, and Implementing Transportation Projects in the Real World (or How It Really Works)
Kate Fichter, Eric Plosky
Wed Jan 19, 01-04:30pm, 9-450

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

U.S. Defense Process: A discussion of the Department of Defense from Policy to Planning to Programming and Budgets
LtCol John Price USAF
Tue Jan 25, 10am-12:00pm, E40-496

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event

This interactive seminar is intended to provide the “101” on the system that produces our national defense. It will focus on the structure and interaction of three major processes of the Joint Strategic Planning Process (JSPS), the Joint Operational Planning and Execution System (JOPES), and the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System. The discussion will promote a basic understanding of how billions of dollars get translated into the platforms, posture, programs and people that comprise the defense portion of national security.
Contact: Joli Divon Saraf, x8-7608, joli@mit.edu
Sponsor: MIT Security Studies Program
Cosponsor: Center for International Studies

Waltz with Bashir
Nakul Vyas
Mon Jan 10, 07:30-09:00pm, 4-231

Enrollment limited: first come, first served
Single session event

Waltz with Bashir tells the story of Ari Folman, a veteran of the an Israeli Army Mission in the first Lebanon War of the 1980s, as he plumbs the depths of his memory in search of what he has forgotten. A story animated in striking style and recounted in documentary form, Waltz with Bashir embarks on journey that is half mystery-thriller and half fevered dream. Nominated for an Academy Award and winner of a Golden Globe.

Pizza from Pizza Pier and other refreshments will be served.
Contact: Nakul Vyas, vyasn@mit.edu
Sponsor: Amnesty International


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Last update: 7 Sept. 2011