Contemporary Military Topics
LtCol Tom Pecina
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
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
US Navy and Marine Corps
Lt Col Tom Pecina
Session provides an overview of the US Navy and Marine Corps, including roles and missions, organization, and responsibilities. Discussion will also be provided on current employment of and future considerations related to the Navy and Marines. A Q&A session will help facilitate additional perspectives on the service components and offer an opportunity to increase individual understandings of each.
Wed Jan 11, 10am-12:00pm, E40-496
US Army and Air Force
LTC D.A. Sim
Session will provide an overview of the US Army and Air Force, including roles and missions, organization, and responsibilities. Discussion will also be provided on current employment of and future considerations related to the Army and Air Force. A Q&A session will help facilitate additional perspectives on the service components and offer all in attendance an opportunity to increase individual understandings of each.
Wed Jan 18, 10am-12:00pm, E40-496
Joint and Combined Operations
LtCol Karl Schloer
Overview of the US military, including roles and missions, organization, and responsibilities of the National Military Command Authority. Current employment of and future considerations related to the Combatant Commands will also be discussed. A session including officers from each military service will offer an opportunity to further individual understandings of the joint service and their interoperabilities.
Wed Jan 25, 10am-12:00pm, E40-496
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Cyber International Relations: Emergent Realities of Conflict and Cooperation
Nazli Choucri, Robert Reardon
Tue Jan 17, Wed Jan 18, Tue Jan 24, Wed Jan 25, 09am-05:00pm, 56-162
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
This class explores the interaction between the development and growth of cyber space and international politics. Questions of theory and policy will both be addressed. The class is organized around the following core questions: How well can existing theories of international relations help us understand the political implications of cyberspace? How might cyberspace change traditional understandings of international politics? How might cyberspace affect security, identity, development, political freedom, social organization, and the distribution of global power? Does it represent a brave new world, or is it simply another over-hyped technological innovation? Over the course of the class, a series of interdisciplinary experts will offer their takes on these questions, present cutting-edge developments in the study of cyberspace and cyberpolitics, and engage participants in critical discussion. Falling at the nexus of the technical and the political, the class seeks to take advantage of MIT's unique strengths.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/ecir/home.html
Contact: Robert Reardon, reardon@MIT.EDU
Sponsor: Political Science
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Final MIT Washington Summer Internship Program Information Session
Charles Stewart, Tobie Weiner
Tue Jan 24, 05-06:00pm, 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/
Contact: Tobie Weiner, E53-484, x3-3649, iguanatw@mit.edu
Sponsor: Political Science
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How Baseball, Poker and Fermat Teach Us The Best Way to Elect the President
Alan Natapoff
Wed Jan 18, 04-05:30pm, 32-124
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
There is a movement afoot to elect the president by simple majority vote (SMV) —without an amendment—through an (unconstitutional, Article I.10.3) compact among states. Eight states have signed it. If it seems harmless, it is not: it would destroy all individual voting power over the presidency: SMV cannot provide significant individual voting power in any realistic presidential election. We will introduce the calculation of voting power and examine its consequences for election design. We will discuss the close analogy of voting rules to those of large-statistics sports. Last, we will discuss the statistical lessons offered by the history of presidential elections and examine the simple system that can cure the ills of the Electoral College without destroying its unappreciated strengths.
Web: http://natapoff@mit.edu
Contact: Alan Natapoff, 37-219, x3-7757, natapoff@space.mit.edu
Sponsor: Political Science
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Leading Technology & Policy IAP Lunch Seminar Series
Sebastian Pfotenhauer, Hamed Ghoddusi, Carey Friedman
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
January 12:
Strengthening national innovation systems through university collaborations: a look at MIT's international partnerships (Sebastian Pfotenhauer - Post-doctoral Associate, Leading Technology & Policy, MIT Portugal Program, Technology & Policy Program, and Harvard STS)
January 19:
The interaction of capital costs and engineering systems: the case of energy-climate scenarios (Hamed Ghoddusi - Post-doctoral Associate, Leading Technology & Policy and Engineering Systems Division)
February 2:
Persistent organic pollution: global transport and implications for policy (Carey Friedman - Post-doctoral Associate, Leading Technology & Policy and the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change)
Lunch is provided at all seminars.
Leading Technology & Policy is an initiative of the Technology & Policy Program at MIT committed to forming a stronger and more vibrant international scholarly community in the field of Technology & Policy.
Contact: Krista Featherstone, x2-3187, kfeather@mit.edu
Sponsor: Technology and Policy Program
Strengthening national innovation systems through university collaborations: a look at MIT's international partnerships
Sebastian Pfotenhauer
Thu Jan 12, 12-01:00pm, E40-298
The interaction of capital costs and engineering systems: the case of energy-climate scenarios
Hamed Ghoddusi
Thu Jan 19, 12-01:00pm, E40-298
Persistent organic pollution: global transport and implications for policy
Carey Friedman
Thu Feb 2, 12-01:00pm, E40-298, 2/2 - Location E40-380
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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 based on American economic hegemony has crashed and the US is at the center of economic and political convulsions. Collapse of the USSR and other "socialist" states has exacerbated rivalries among capitalist countries. The US is trying to reverse its long-term economic decline through frenetic military interventions in Afghanistan and elsewhere and by exporting its crisis to competitors.
Web: http://wsws.org
Contact: Felix Kreisel, 6-120, x3-8625, fjk@mit.edu
Sponsor: Felix Kreisel, NW21-109, 617 253-8625, fjk@mit.edu
Reemergence of class struggle
Felix Kreisel MIT
World banks and markets drive the various national governments to impoverish the working class and reverse social gains of the past century. In response we have seen an eruption of social struggles, from Wisconsin and #Occupy Wall St. to Arab Spring and the anti-budget cut protests in Greece. World politics is dominated by various forms of workers' resistance and rise of class struggle to oppose capitalist dictatorship.
Tue Jan 10, 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 17, 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 20 years after its demise? While high oil and gas prices have propped up the Putin regime and the energy exporting Russian economy, its overall health is fragile. We shall look at the trends in the economy and society, the recent election protests and see where Russia and the other successor states are heading.
Tue Jan 24, 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, achievements and bitter defeats, the ruling Stalinist regime's crimes against its own people and its betrayal of socialism. We shall examine the collapse of the USSR and suggest lessons for the future. Suggested reading: Leon Trotsky's "The Revolution Betrayed".
Tue Jan 31, 06-08:00pm, 6-120
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Occupying China: Tiananmen and the Lessons of Protest
Christopher Leighton
Wed Jan 25, 05-09:00pm, E51-095
Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Limited to 25 participants.
Single session event
The 1989 protest movement centered in Tiananmen Square convulsed China and captivated international attention. Why did it happen, what were its consequences, and what can it tell us about political change in today’s China? Does the Beijing Spring of twenty years ago offer any lessons for the Arab Spring of 2011 or America’s own Occupy movement? Participants will watch Tiananmen: the Gate of Heavenly Peace, a documentary film, share a meal of Chinese food, and discuss these questions.
Contact: Christopher Leighton, cleight@mit.edu
Sponsor: History
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Planners Read The Gorgias
Ezra Glenn
Wed Jan 18, 02-04:00pm, 9-450A
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
What is the role of oratory and power in a democratic society? Is it worse to do wrong or to be wronged? What is the difference between knowledge and true belief? Why is it important for both the accused and their judges to meet naked in court? (And what do all of these questions have to do with becoming an urban planner?)
Come explore these themes with us in a dramatic -- possibly participatory -- reading of Plato's "Gorgias," a Socratic dialog written in 380 BC that is as relevant today as when it was written.
Greek food included; togas optional.
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, x3-2024, eglenn@mit.edu
Sponsor: Urban Studies and Planning
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Planning, Funding, and Implementing Transportation Projects in the Real World (or How It Really Works)
Kate Fichter, Eric Plosky
Thu Jan 19, 01-04:00pm, 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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Science Policy Bootcamp
William Bonvillian, David Healey
Mon Jan 23 thru Thu Jan 26, 09am-03:00pm, Location TBA
Fri Jan 27, ??-??:00am, Location TBA
Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 31-Dec-2011
Limited to 40 participants.
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
Prereq: Juniors, Seniors, Grad students, Post-docs in Science & Eng.
Science and technology public policy strongly guides the future of science education and research. This five-day seminar, taught by MIT Washington, D.C. Office Director William Bonvillian, aims to equip science and engineering students with the basic background for involvement in science policymaking. Topics include: Drivers of science and technology support in government, the organizing framework for the U.S. science agencies, current challenges in health science and energy technology, and competitiveness on a global level. Class participants will have the opportunity to apply what they learn by participating in Congressional Visit Day in Washington, D.C. in April.
The course consists of morning, lunch, and afternoon sessions Monday – Thursday, and an expert panel on Advanced Manufacturing Competitiveness on Friday. Participants will be required to attend all sessions.
Enrollment is limited. To apply, send a brief essay (150 words or less) to dhealey@mit.edu. Deadline for Application is December 31, 2011.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/spi
Contact: David Healey, 13-2054, (801) 310-5814, dhealey@mit.edu
Sponsor: MIT Science Policy Initiative
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Shouting in the Dark
Nakul Vyas
Tue Jan 24, 07-08:30pm, 56-114
Enrollment limited: first come, first served
Limited to 35 participants.
Single session event
Film screening of "Shouting in the Dark", a documentary of the 2011 pro-democracy uprising on the island kingdom of Bahrain. Featuring footage shot by an Al-Jazeera crew operating undercover after all foreign journalists had been banned form the country. Winner of the Foreign Press Association's documentary of the year award.
Pizza from Pizza-Pier will be served.
Contact: Nakul Vyas, vyasn@mit.edu
Sponsor: Amnesty International
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