People

Senior Research Fellow Joel Brenner was appointed to the Intelligence Community Studies Board, which is sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and operates under the aegis of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Technology.

PhD Candidate Emma Campbell-Mohn and PhD Student Suzanne Freeman received special recognition for their work from the Janne Nolan Prize for Best Article on National Security/International Affairs hosted by the Henry A Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Texas National Security Review.  

Ford International Professor in the Social Sciences and Director of MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center Fotini Christia's paper, coauthored with PhD Alumna Tugba Bozcaga and entitled "Imams and Businessmen- Islamist Service Provision in Turkey" was selected as the best MENA Politics paper presented to the 2020 meeting of the APSA. The paper was awarded the Weber Best Paper in Religion and Politics Award of the Religion and Politics Section of APSA. She received a $25,000 grant from World Bank, UNCHR, and UKAid on “Preventing Social Conflict and Promoting Social Cohesion in Forced Displacement Contexts"; organized the Systemic Racism and Computation Workshop Series (five sessions with colleagues from SHASS, DUSP and SCC); and co-organized the AI for Healthcare Equity Conference. 

SSP Alumna Fiona Cunningham joined the political science department at the University of Pennsylvania as an Assistant Professor in July 2021. She also testified before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Hearing on Deterring PRC Aggression Towards Taiwan, February 2021. 

Director of the Project on Technology, the Economy & National Security (TENS) at the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative and CIS Research Fellow David Edelman helped organize the AI Policy Forum: Symposium. The symposium engaged a number of foreign and US policymakers on matters of practical AI in public policy.  One particularly relevant panel included former Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, former Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, and OECD's top technology and innovation head Andy Wyckoff, and was chaired by Schwarzman College of Computing Dean Dan Huttenlocher. 

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of SSP Taylor Fravel gave the following talks: “Cooperation and Conflict on China’s Periphery” Ananta Centre, Delhi, May 2021; “China’s Grand Strategy” Seminar XXI, May 2021; “Few Strings Attached: Why Countries Join China’s Belt and Road Initiative,” School of Oriental and African Studies, April 2021, and Oxford University, January 2021; and “China’s Military Strategy in the New Era,” Center for Land Warfare Studies, Delhi, India, June 2021; Oxford University, April 2021; University of Kentucky, April 2021; and Fairbank Center, Harvard University, March 2021.

Professor of History and CIS Research Affiliate Malick Ghachem organized and moderated a Starr Forum event on “The Haitian Constitutional Crisis and the International Community” with panelists Robert Fatton, University of Virginia; Georges Fauriol, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Sabine Manigat, Independent Researcher (Haiti); and Amy Wilentz, University of California at Irvine on May 19, 2021.

PhD alumnus Andrew Halterman will begin as an Assistant Professor in political science at Michigan State University in August 2022. During the 2021-2022 academic year, he will be a Faculty Fellow at New York University's Center for Data Science.

PhD Candidate Eyal Hanfling received Honorable Mention for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). 

MIT-Africa Program Manager Ari Jacobovits spoke on the education panel at the Africa Innovate conference in July 2021.

Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow Renanah Joyce received the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Kenneth N. Waltz Award, awarded annually for the best dissertation published in the previous year in security studies. She was also awarded the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Dissertation Award for the best dissertation published in the previous year in international collaboration. The title of her dissertation is “Exporting Might and Right: Great Power Security Assistance and Developing Militaries.”

Associate Professor at Boston College and Research Affiliate at the Security Studies Program Peter Krause spoke at APSA Middle East and North Africa Section, Research Methods Training Seminar, May 2021; and at a Starr Forum on “Israelis and Palestinians: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” MIT Center for International Studies, May 2021.

PhD Student Sam Leitner won the John Quincy Adams Society and the National Interest’s 2021 Student Foreign Policy Essay Contest. His article is titled "How Japan is Falling Short."

Assistant Professor of Political Science Erik Lin-Greenberg received a James A and Ruth Levitan Teaching Award from MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and was appointed a Class of 2021 Fellow of the Schmidt Futures International Strategy Forum. 

PhD Alumnae Rachel Tecott and Sara Plana with PhD Students Suzanne Freeman, Nina Miller and PhD Candidate Emma Campbell-Mohn helped organize the Future Strategy Forum: The Future of National Security and Technology on May 10–12. Freeman gave opening remarks, and Tecott and Plana both moderated panel discussions. The virtual conference was held with the support of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Johns Hopkins SAIS Kissinger Center.

Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow David Logan testified at a hearing of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission and presented on US goals in arms control with China at the Princeton-Tsinghua-Wuhan Arms Control Seminar.

Associate Professor of Political Science Richard Nielsen was selected co-winner of this year's APSA MENA Politics Section Award for Best Article, for his article "Women’s Authority in Patriarchal Social Movements: The Case of Female Salafi Preachers.” 

Professor of Political Science and Professor of Data Systems and Society; Director of the Program on Emerging Technologies; and Seminar XXI Program Director (2020–21) Kenneth Oye and MIT-Japan Program Manager Christine Pilcavage organized and moderated a Starr Forum "On Causes of and Responses to Anti-Asian Violence," with Melissa Nobles, MIT; Paul Watanabe, University of Massachusetts Boston; Katharine Moon, Wellesley College; and Tram T Nguyen, Massachusetts State Representative and House Asian Caucus, on March 31, 2021.

PhD Candidate Apekshya Prasai received the 2021 Jeanne Guillemin Prize from the Center for International Studies.  She also received a Peace Scholar Award from the US Institute of Peace and will be a Peace Scholar during the academic year 2021-2022.

The Security Studies Program co-sponsored a special panel on academia, artificial intelligence and the armed forces, featuring MIT's President Reif, Eric Schmidt (formerly of Google), Army Reserve Medical Command Commanding General Jonathan Woodson, the Directors of MIT’s CSAIL and USAF-MIT AI Accelerator, and the Chief Technology Ventures Officer of MIT Lincoln Laboratory in May 2021.

Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of CIS Richard Samuels moderated a CIS Starr Forum: “3.11 Ten Years Later: Disaster and Resilience,” with Daniel Aldrich (Northeastern University), Miho Mazereeuw, (MIT), and Tatsujiro Suzuki, (Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition at Nagasaki University, Japan) on March 11, and was a speaker in “A conversation about Japanese politics and public policy,” at UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy on March 10.

SSP Senior Advisor Carol Saivetz discussed "Biden administration's focus on Russia," on New England Cable News, March 23; and "What's next after the Biden-Putin summit?" on New England Cable News, June 18.  She co-organized with Professor of History and Co-director of the MISTI Russia Program Elizabeth Wood the Focus on Russia Speaker Series featuring: “Palaces & Sandcastles: Deconstructing Putin’s Power,” with Sam Greene (Kings College London) on March 1; and “Advice to President Biden: Dealing with Putin’s Russia” with Angela Stent (Georgetown University) and Andrey Kortunov (Russian International Affairs Council) on April 20.

PhD alumnus Erik Andrew Hustand Sand was appointed assistant professor in the Strategic and Operational Research Department of the US Naval War College.

PhD Candidate Meicen Sun was awarded a Global Political Economy Project predoctoral fellowship from the Mortara Center for International Studies at Georgetown University, 

Principal Research Scientist and CIS Executive Director John Tirman moderated a CIS Starr Forum on “Israelis and Palestinians: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” MIT Center for International Studies, May 2021, and was named a Fellow at the Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

SSP Senior Research Associate James Walsh was awarded a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York for a project on communicating about nuclear weapons on social media and other digital platforms; he made multiple media appearances, and gave five talks, including for Lincoln Labs, the Special Forces Command in Tampa, and the Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC); and he completed a monograph on "The Implications of the JCPOA for Future Verification Arrangements Including a Potential Agreement with the DPRK." 

Professor of History and Co-director of the MISTI Russia Program Elizabeth Wood gave a talk on “Russian Influence and Counter-Influence: What Is to Be Done?” to the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration through the Industrial Liaison Program in March 2021; with SSP Senior Advisor Carol Saivetz organized the Focus on Russia Speaker Series featuring “Palaces & Sandcastles: Deconstructing Putin’s Power,” with Sam Greene (Kings College London) on March 1; and “Advice to President Biden: Dealing with Putin’s Russia” with Angela Stent (Georgetown University) and Andrey Kortunov (Russian International Affairs Council) on April 20. With Managing Director of the MIT Russia Program Ekaterina Zabrovski she organized: “Soviet and Russian Space Exploration: Celebrity and Propaganda, 1957–Present” with Victoria Smolkin (Wesleyan) and Andrew Jenks (California State University, Long Beach) as well as “MIT’s Own Astronaut: A Virtual Conversation with AeroAstro Alumnus Michael Fincke” (MIT-Russia and AeroAstro).

Published

John M Deutch Institute Professor Suzanne Berger, (Interview by Jonathan Schlefer), “The missing piece of the puzzle in manufacturing,” Boston Globe (Online) June 11, 2021.

PhD Candidate Emma Campbell-Mohn, "Politicians aren’t usually saints. But Pope Francis just put one on the path to sainthood," Washington Post Monkey Cage, July 7, 2021.

Ford International Professor in the Social Sciences and Director of MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center Fotini Christia and PhD Alumnus Aidan Milliff,
“Scalable Equilibrium Computation in Multi-agent Influence Games on Networks,” in Proceedings of the 35th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-21) (with Michael Curry, Constantinos Daskalakis, Erik Demaine, John P. Dickerson, Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi, Adam Hesterberg, and Marina Knittel).

Ford International Professor in the Social Sciences and Director of MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center Fotini Christia (with Zoumpoulis, S., Freedman, M., Yao, L., & Jadbabaie, A.), "The effect of drone strikes on civilian communication: Evidence from Yemen," Political Science Research and Methods, 1-9. June 15, 2021. 

PhD Alumna and Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Fiona Cunningham, “Cooperation Under Asymmetry? The Future of U.S.-China Nuclear Relations,” The Washington Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Summer 2021).

Professor of History and CIS Research Affiliate Malick Ghachem, "How the US could really help Haiti," Americas Quarterly, July 21, 2021. 

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of SSP Taylor Fravel, “Stormy Seas: The South China Sea in US-China Relations,” in Avery Goldstein and Jacques de Lisle, eds., After Engagement: Dilemmas in U.S.-China Security Relations (Washington, DC: Brookings, 2021) (with Kacie Miura).

_____________“A ‘China in the World’ Paradigm for Scholarship,” Studies in Comparative International Development Vol. 55, No. 1 (March 2021) (with Melanie Manion and Yuhua Wang).

_____________ “China and India are pulling back from the brink. They’ve created a buffer zone and started talks,” Washington Post, March 3, 2021.

Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow and PhD Alumna Mayumi Fukushima, “Why Iran May Be in No Hurry to Get Nuclear Weapons Even Without a Nuclear Deal,” The Rand Blog, June 28, 2021. 

Seminar XXI Program Director and Visiting Faculty Member Kelly M Greenhill, “Morocco ‘weaponized’ migration to punish Spain. That’s more common than you think.” Washington Post Monkey Cage, June 1, 2021. 

Principal Research Scientist Eric Heginbotham, “China Maritime Report No. 14: Chinese Views of the Military Balance in the Western Pacific,” U.S. Naval War College, CMSI China Maritime Reports in June 2021. 

Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow Renanah Joyce (with Brian Blankenship), “Access Denied? The Future of U.S. Basing in a Contested World,” War on the Rocks (February 1, 2021).

Associate Professor at Boston College and SSP Research Affiliate Peter Krause co-authored “COVID-19 and Fieldwork: Challenges and Solutions," PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 54, No. 2 (April 2021) pp. 264-269.

_____________ “You Can’t Get There from Here: Biden Negotiating the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” Political Violence @ A Glance, March 2, 2021.

Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Policy Lab Chappell Lawson (with Josh Kussman), "Want to fix the Border Patrol? Don't carbon-copy the playbook to reform police," AZ Central, July 24, 2021.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Erik Lin-Greenberg, "Soldiers, Pollsters, and International Crises: Public Opinion and the Military's Advice on the Use of Force," Foreign Policy Analysis, Volume 17, Issue 3, July 2021.

 _____________“Commercial satellites — not U.S. intelligence — revealed China’s missile program,” Washington Post Monkey Cage, August 3, 2021.

Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow David C Logan (with Phillip C Saunders), “China’s Regional Nuclear Capability, Non-Nuclear Strategic Systems, and Integration of Concepts and Operations,” in China’s Strategic Arsenal: Worldview, Doctrine, and Systems, eds. Paul Bolt and James M. Smith (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2021).

PhD Student Nina Miller, "Automation in nuclear weapon systems: lessons from the man who saved the world," Chatham House’s International Affairs blog, July 9, 2021.

Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science Vipin Narang (with Ankit Panda), “Sole Purpose Is Not No First Use: Nuclear Weapons and Declaratory Policy,” War on the Rocks, February 22, 2021.

PhD Alumna Sara Plana (interviewed by Kristen de Groot), “US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria Explained,” Penn Today, July 1, 2021.

Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry Posen, “The transatlantic relationship: Radical reform is in the U.S. national interest," The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies August 6, 2021. 

SSP Military Fellow Trevor Prouty, “Freedom of Navigation Operations: A Mission for Unmanned Systems,” War on the Rocks, July 2021.

Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of CIS Richard Samuels, “3 Questions: Richard Samuels on Japan’s 3.11 triple disaster and its impact 10 years later,” MIT News, March 10, 2021.

SSP Senior Advisor Carol Saivetz, “Russia’s new crises on the periphery,” Lawfare Blog, February 14, 2021.

Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the MIT-Brazil Program Ben Schneider, “Teacher Unions, Political Machines, and the Thorny Politics of Education Reform in Latin America,” Politics and Society, 2021. DOI: 10.1177/00323292211002788.

__________“Big Business and the Inequality Trap in Latin America: Taxes, Collusion, and Undue Influence,” at a conference organized by the Harvard Business School and at a conference organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Robert E Wilhelm Fellow Steven Simon (with Jonathan Stevenson), “How Can We Neutralize the Militias?” The New York Review, August 19 Issue. 

Principal Research Scientist and CIS Executive Director John Tirman, (Interview by Mohammad Mazhari)  “Iran has done well to resist Trump’s maximum pressure: research scientist,” Tehran Times, February 3, 2021.  

PhD Alumni Rachel Tecott and Andrew Halterman, “The Case for Campaign Analysis: A Method for Studying Military Operations,” International Security, Volume 45, Issue 4 (April 2021).

PhD Alumna Rachel Tecott, “The Taliban has seized more cities, despite U.S. efforts to build a strong Afghan military,” Washington Post Monkey Cage, August 9, 2021. 

Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow Heather Williams (with NATO Director of Nuclear Policy, Jessica Cox), “The Unavoidable Technology: How Artificial Intelligence Can Strengthen Nuclear Stability,” The Washington Quarterly,  March 2021.

Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow Audrye Wong, “How Not to Win Allies and Influence Geopolitics: China’s Self-Defeating Economic Statecraft,” Foreign Affairs, in May/June 2021.

Professor of History and Co-Director of the MISTI Russia Program Elizabeth Wood, “Paradoxes of Gender in Soviet Communist Party Women's Sections (the Zhenotdel), 1918-1930,” The Routledge International Handbook to Gender in Central-Eastern Europe and Eurasia, eds., Katalin Fábián, Janet Elise Johnson, and Mara Lazda (Routledge, 2021).

________________“Performing Memory and its Limits: Vladimir Putin and World War II in Russia” in David L. Hoffmann, ed., The Memory of the Second World War in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia (Routledge, 2021).