News and Events

MIT Senior Congressional and Executive Branch Staff Seminar

The MIT Security Studies Program hosted its first Seminar for Senior Congressional and Executive Branch Staff titled “National Security in a Time of Austerity.” The seminar was held April 3-5, 2013 and was a project of the Frankel (MIT) Global Policy Program Fund. more information

Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear Security Policy Studies

MIT Political Science and the Stanton Foundation are proud to announce the establishment of the Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear Security Policy Studies.The Frank Stanton Chair will recognize a faculty member whose research and teaching interests focus on issues of nuclear proliferation, deterrence, and arms control. more information

Talks

Richard Samuels chaired at talk at MIT on February 19, 2013, titled "The Institutionalization of the U.S.-Japan Alliance in the 21st Century." Dr. Shingo Yoshida was the guest speaker.

Fotini Christia moderated a talk on February 19, 2013, titled "Contrasting Secular & Religious Agenda Terror and Guerrilla Warfare: From Che Guevara to Osama bin Laden." Dr. Jonathan Fine was the guest speaker. This event was co-sponsored by the MIT Security Studies Program and MISTI MIT-Israel.

Barry Posen and Carol Saivetz were among the participants at Starr Forum: The Fate of the Reset: a roundtable discussion on the future of US-Russian Relations, February 14, 2013. more information

Richard Samuels gave a talk at Harvard University on February 5, 2013. The topic: his forthcoming book, 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan.

Professor Barry Posen was one of several speakers at Starr Forum: Attack of the Drones on November 13, 2012, a discussion about the ethical, legal and strategic aspects of UAV use. more information, including a video of the event

On April 18, 2012, Amanda Rothschild gave the keynote address at the 2012 University Fellowships Dinner at Boston College to honor undergraduates who competed for national fellowships this year or received internal fellowships.

On April 17, 2012, Jim Walsh gave a talk at MIT titled "My 5 Dinners with Ahmadinejad: Iran, Nuclear Weapons, the Middle East."

Congressional Testimony

Taylor Fravel testified before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs on March 28, 2012. The topic of the session: "Investigating the Chinese Threat, Part One: Military and Economic Aggression."

Awards

Roger Peterson's book, Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Conflict, has won the AEEES Marshall Shulman Book Prize for outstanding monograph. more information The book has also won the Ethnicity, Nationalism and Migration section ( ENMISA) Distinguished Book Award from the International Studies Association. more information

Fotini Christia has been awarded the Mark Hyman Jr. Career Development Chair by the Institute, in recognition of her excellent research, teaching and service.

Roger Petersen has been awarded the ASN (Association for the Study of Nationalities) 2012 Joseph Rothschild Prize for his book, Western Intervention in the Balkans.

Jeanne Guillemin's book, American Anthrax, has been selected by the Massachusetts Center for the Book (the Commonwealth affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress) as a 2012 "Must-Read." Twelve books by Massachusetts authors are selected each year and the awardees attend a celebration at the State House in October.

Bjoern H. Seibert's submission, 'From Domaine Réservé to Area of Cooperation' has won the 2011 Air Marshal Sir Timothy Garden Essay Competition (in the UK). The topic of the competition was "Thinking the unthinkable in defence and security.

Kelly Greenhill has been awarded the International Studies Association (ISA) Best Book Award for 2011 for her book Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy. The award will be conferred at the 2012 ISA Annual Convention in San Diego in April. more information

IAP 2012

Contemporary Military Topics: In individual sessions, SSP's 2011-2012 Military Fellows led sessions on US Navy and Marine Corps; US Army and Air Force; and Joint and Combined Operations. more information

Fravel in the MIT Spotlight

On November 14, Taylor Fravel was the subject of MIT's home page spotlight. MIT was highlighting a news article about him, titled "Taylor Fravel decodes China's Foreign Policy."

Samuels receives award from Japanese Government

The Japanese Government awarded Professor Richard J. Samuels the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star for his contributions to scholarship about Japan and for promoting friendly relations between Japan and the United States.  He received the decoration from Prime Minister Noda on Monday, Nov. 7, and was presented to the Emperor of Japan at the Imperial Palace.  more information

Graduate Student Award

Amanda Rothschild is the recipient of an Undergraduate Award of Ireland & Northern Ireland for her essay "When is the international community justified in using force to protect human rights?" She was recognized by the president of Ireland at a ceremony on October 28, 2011. Please see attached press release for further details.

Jeanne Guillemin at AAAS Event

On October 20, 2011, Jeanne Guillemin spoke about the 2001 anthrax letter attacks at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Center on Science, Technology, and Security Policy. Please see a report on the session by Earl Lane titled: "Ten Years After the Deadly Anthrax Mailings, AAAS Event Explores Lingering Questions."

Jonathan B. Tucker

We were sad to receive news that SSP Alum Jonathan B. Tucker (Ph.D, Political Science, 1990) died unexpectedly July 31, 2011. He was an expert on biological weapons and an advocate of nonproliferation. more information obituary in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Tribute by Harvey Sapolsky

Lt. Thomas Gauvin

We were sad to learn that Lt. Thomas Gauvin, who attended SSP in the Fall of 2007 as a visiting student from the French Military Academy, Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, was killed in Afghanistan on 13 July 2011. more information

Corps of Engineers gets new commander

Several SSP affiliates were in attendance on July 29, 2011 as SSP's 2010-11 Army Fellow, Colonel Charles Samaris, was sworn in as the new commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, at a ceremony in Boston's Faneuil Hall. Click here for a Boston Globe article about the ceremony.

 

 

Paul Staniland wins APSA Award

Paul Staniland has won this year's Kenneth N. Waltz Award from the American Political Science Association, for best dissertation in Security Studies submitted and defended in 2010.

Panel discussion on Nuclear Arms Reduction

Jim Walsh was one of three panelists in a talk titled "Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle: MIT Faculty and Nuclear Arms Reduction." The event, which took place May 4, 2011, also featured Aaron Bernstein, MIT Professor Emeritus, Physics, and Alex Wellerstein, History of Science, Harvard University.

Roundtable on East Asia

On April 11, 2011, the Center for International Studies at MIT hosted a roundtable on "Contemporary East Asia" featuring Rt. Hon David Miliband MP, UK former Foreign Secretary, Professor Taylor Fravel, Professor Richard J. Samuels, and Professor Ed Steinfeld.

Panel Discussion

On April 12, 2011, Barry Posen and Bjoern Seibert were panelists at an event titled “After Libya – Revival of the Age of Intervention?” The panel discussion took place at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.

Book talk

Professor Taylor Fravel provided commentary for a book talk on March 28, 2011 featuring Adam Segal discussing his book Advantage: How American Innovation Can Overcome the Asian Challenge. This event was co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies, MIT China, MIT India, and the MIT Security Studies Program.

Starr Forum: Japan's Nuclear Crisis

Professors Richard J. Samuels, Ken Oye, and Michael Golay discussed Japan's nuclear past, present, and future from a political and engineering perspective. The presentation included an  eyewitness account of the crisis and the Japanese government's response.

SSP graduate students' awards and fellowships

Miranda Priebe and Nathan Black have received Smith Richardson Foundation World Politics and Statecraft Fellowships.

Mark Bell has won the CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues essay competition.

David Weinberg has received an award for excellence in diplomatic or military history from the George C. Marshall Foundation and Baruch Family Fund.

Joshua Itzkowitz Shifrinson has been awarded both the Woodrow Wilson Center Title VIII Eastern European Studies Reserach Grant and an O'Donnell Research Grant from the Scowcroft Institute and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library.

IAP 2011

On January 10, 2011, SSP hosted Future Soldier Trainer (FST) Tactical Weapon Simulator experience, a “hands-on” event. On January 18, SSP hosted a 3-part seminar on the military’s role in international disaster relief operations. On January 25, the topic was “US Defense Budget Process, from Policy to Planning, to Programming and Budgets”. The final SSP IAP event, on January 26, was a showing of the documentary film “Countdown to Zero” (2010) followed by a discussion.

Asian Security Conference

New Delhi, India, was the location of the Conference on Asian Security Challenges, January 9-10, 2011. Several SSP faculty were in attendance: Barry Posen, Dick Samuels, Taylor Fravel and Vipin Narang. Also in attendance were SSP graudate students Christopher Clary and Sameer Lalwani. The conference was co-sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies and the Delhi Policy Group.

Starr Forum: Report Card on Obama

Professor Barry Posen was one of the speakers at the Starr Forum on November 9, 2010. The panelists discussed Obama's work on Afghanistan, climate, and the economy and how the results of the Nov. 2 mid-term elections would affect these important issues. Professor Richard Samuels was the moderator for this event. More information, including a video of the event.

Boston Review Speaker Series: Ideas Matter

On October 28, 2010, Barry Posen was one of the speakers at an Ideas Matter event (jointly sponsored by the Boston Review and the MIT Political Science Department). Fotini Christia was moderator. The topic of this session was "Iraq and Beyond." More Information.

ISS/ISAC 2010 conference

Numerous SSP affiliates participated in the ISSS/ISAC conference "International Security Beyond 9/11" in Providence, RI, October 14-16, 2010. The conference was chaired by SSP alum, Joshua Rovner. Professor Barry Posen gave the keynote speech, titled "Restraint: A New Grand Strategy for the United States". Other SSP affiliates (alumni, faculty, and graduate students) participating as panelists included: Will Norris, Phil Haun, Keren E. Fraiman, Peter Krause, Sameer Lalwani, Paul Staniland, Sharon Weiner, Benjamin Friedman, and Jim Walsh.