People

SSP Military Fellow Pete Atkinson’s research project, “From air to space: The perils of domain parochialism” received an Army War College writing award. The project, advised by SSP’s Erik Lin-Greenberg, has been submitted for publication and peer review.

CIS Senior Research Fellow Joel Brenner joined the editorial advisory board of the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. He was a featured speaker at the Starr Forum/Focus on Russia: “ The wider implications of the war in Ukraine, China, cybersecurity, nukes, insurgency, refugees,” on April 4, 2022; he was quoted extensively in “After Biden's warning, how might Russian cyberattacks play out in the US?” Boston Globe, March 25, 2022.

PhD Candidate Suzanne Freeman received a Carnegie/Harriman Research Grant for doctoral students in the social sciences.

PhD Candidate Eleanor Freund was awarded the 2022 Jeanne Guillemin Prize to help support her dissertation research on Chinese foreign and security policy.

CIS Senior Research Scholar, Visiting Professor, and Director of the Seminar XXI Program Kelly M Greenhill presented the following talks: “The diplomacy of forced migration,” (with F Adamson), British International Studies Association, Newcastle on Tyne, UK, June 2022; and the International Studies Association Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN, April 2022; “Fear and present danger: Extra-factual sources of threat conception and proliferation,” Tower Center, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, April 2022; she was a panelist for "The politics of migration and asylum," University of Cambridge (UK) May 2022; “Weaponizing migration,” UK House of Lords, London, UK, June 2022; and “Migration, borders and security,” Policing Border Spaces, Netherlands Defense Academy, Dutch Ministry of Defense, Breda, Netherlands, June 2022.

CIS Research Affiliate and SSP Alumnus Eugene Gholz discussed the defense industry supply chain, especially for Javelin missiles for NPR’s Morning Edition on May 27, 2022.

SSP PhD Alumnus Andrew Halterman received the Lucian Pye Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis from the MIT Department of Political Science.

CIS Principal Research Scientist Eric Heginbotham participated in the “3rd Track 1.5 US-Australia Indo-Pacific Deterrence Dialogue.” He was a panelist at a Starr Forum/Focus on Russia: “The wider implications of the war in Ukraine, China, cybersecurity, nukes, insurgency, refugees,” on April 4, 2022.

CIS Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow Maham Javaid moderated a Starr Forum: "#Viral potentials: How South Asian women use TikTok,” on June 24, 2022.

SSP Assistant Director Laura Kerwin started her new position on July 15, 2022. She transitioned to SSP from CIS where she coordinated programs and events. She succeeds Joli Divon Saraf who had served as the SSP Assistant Director for more than fourteen years.

Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science Vipin Narang was named Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy for the Department of Defense on March 28, 2022. He is on public service leave of absence from his faculty position while working for the DoD.

Associate Professor of Political Science Rich Nielsen presented a talk, “Data science and racist influencers on YouTube,” at HubSpot, a developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing, on June 7, 2022.

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science Roger Petersen made multiple speaking appearances including: “Combating terrorism: From conflict to prevention,” Political Science Department, Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq, May 16, 2022; “State-building in Iraq: Learning from other cases,” Iraqi Institute for Dialogue, Baghdad, Iraq, May 6, 2022; at a Starr Forum/ Focus on Russia: “The wider implications of the war in Ukraine, China, cybersecurity, nukes, insurgency, refugees,” April 4, 2022; and was co-organizer and co-presenter, MIT Security Studies Program Special Seminar “The strategic use and misuse of emotions: Lessons from the American civil war,” April 1, 2022. He was featured in an article in Sudduetsche Zeitung at the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war, March 8, 2022.

MIT-Japan Managing Director Christine Pilcavage received a SHASS Infinite Mile Award.

Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry Posen spoke on Ukraine war: Is Russian defeat nothing but a 'fantasy'? for DW News on July 11, 2022; he was a featured panelist on “What will be the impact of the war in Ukraine for the future of European security?”, for the Cato Institute, on June 29, 2022; he participated in “Ukraine’s war: Experts debate NATO’s role,” for Munk Debates Podcast, March 22, 2022; was a signatory to “We call on Biden to reject reckless demands for a no-fly zone,” The Guardian, March 11, 2022; and was featured on “Russia, Ukraine, and European security,” for Cato’s Power Problems podcast on February 22, 2022.

SSP Senior Advisor Carol Saivetz made multiple media appearances to discuss the war in Ukraine including: “Ukraine entering sixth month,” NECN, on July 25, 2022; “Is Russia failing in its fight In Ukraine?”  NECN, on April 25, 2022; “What are the implications of the Russian attack on Ukraine,” 10 Boston, February 24, 2022. She also participated in and/or moderated four Starr Forums/Focus on Russia webinars including: “The collapse of the Soviet Empire and the seeds of the new European war,” on April 25, 2022; “The wider implications of the war in Ukraine,” on April 4, 2022; “The war in Ukraine: A reporter's view,” on March 14, 2022; and “The Russian-Ukrainian conflict: A prologue to WWIII or another frozen conflict?” on January 28, 2022.

Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of CIS Richard Samuels was featured in multiple media outlets to discuss the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe including: “Why Shinzo Abe was such a towering figure in Japan,” The Hill, July 8, 2022; “What was Shinzo Abe’s political influence on Japan?” New York Times, July 8, 2022. He also contributed a gallery label for “Picturing the Invisible,” a photography exhibit sponsored jointly by the Royal Geographical Society (UK) and the Munich Centre for Technology in Society, memorializing the tenth anniversary of the Great Northeastern Japan Disaster at the Royal Geographical Society (UK) (2021-2022) and Deutsches Museum Munich, (2022- ). The exhibit, curated by Makoto Takahashi of Cambridge University, was awarded the 2022 Ziman Award for Public Engagement by the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology.

CIS Research Affiliate and SSP Alumnus Erik Sand appeared on the @ConvSix podcast to discuss sanctions against Russia after its war of aggression against Ukraine.

CIS Robert E Wilhelm Fellow Steven Simon was featured in “As war drags on in Ukraine, is it time to talk compromise?” WBUR On Point, June 21, 2022; and “Will the transfer of advanced weapons to Ukraine lead to a widening war?” PBS Newshour, on June 1, 2022.

CIS Principal Research Scientist and Executive Director John Tirman was featured in multiple media outlets in response to his new book, “Republics of myth: National narratives and the US-Iran conflict,” co-authored with CIS Research Affiliates Hussein Banai and Malcolm Byrne, including: “America’s Iran follies,” Foreign Policy, June 9, 2022; “When dueling narratives deepen a divide,” MIT News, May 16, 2022; The clashing narratives that keep the US and Iran at odds, DAWN, May 10, 2022; “Why the US and Iran hate each other,” Responsible Statecraft, May 2, 2022; “Republicans will quit any nuclear deal with Iran, scholar predicts,” Tehran Times, March 11, 2022. He was a featured speaker, along with his co-authors, at a Starr Forum: “Republics of myth; National narratives and the US-Iran conflict.” on May 11, 2022.

SSP Senior Research Associate Jim Walsh made several media appearances including for “Shangri-La dialogue opens in Singapore,” The Heat, on June 11, 2022; “Biden's move to send advanced weapons to Ukraine raises questions about US involvement in the war,” NPR, June 2, 2022 He was a featured speaker at the  Starr Forum: Focus on Russia: China, cybersecurity, nukes, insurgency, refugees, on April 4, 2022.

Professor of History and Co-Director of the MIT-Eurasia Program Elizabeth Wood made multiple media appearances and talks to discuss the war in Ukraine, including: w/ Ruth Green, International Bar Association, London, June 22, 2022; Voice of America, June 22, 2022; CTV News (Canada); Newsy (TV news program), March 28, 2022; Sueddeutsche Zeitung, March 7, 2022; GBH Radio News, February 27, 2022; Expresso (Portugal weekly newspaper), February 25,  2022. She also participated in and/or moderated four Starr Forums/Focus on Russia webinars including: “The collapse of the Soviet Empire and the seeds of the new European war,” on April 25, 2022; “The wider implications of the war in Ukraine,” on April 4, 2022; “The war in Ukraine: A reporter's view,” on March 14; and “The Russian-Ukrainian conflict: A prologue to WWIII or another frozen conflict?” on January 28, 2022.

Published

SSP Principal Research Scientist and Associate Director Owen Cote, “One if by invasion, two if by coercion: US military capacity to protect Taiwan from China,”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 10, 2022

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of the MIT Security Studies Program Taylor Fravel (with Joel Wuthnow) “China’s Military Strategy for a ‘New Era’: Some Change, More Continuity, and Tantalizing Hints,” Journal of Strategic Studies, March 2022.

_______ (as part of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) senior study group on strategic stability in southern Asia) “Enhancing strategic stability in Southern Asia,” USIP, May 17, 2022.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Erik Lin Greenberg “Wargame of Drones: Remotely piloted aircraft and crisis escalation,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, June 2022.

_______ (with Theo Milonopoulos) “Boots on the Ground, Eyes in the Sky,” Foreign Affairs, May 2022.

_______ (with Brian Blankenship) “Trivial Tripwires?: Military Capabilities and Alliance Reassurance,” Security Studies, Vol. 31, no. 1 (2022)

PhD Candidate Suzanne Freeman (with Katherine Kjellstrom Elgin) "What the use of Russian conscripts tells us about the war in Ukraine," Politico EU, March 17, 2022.

_______(with Erik Sand), "The Russian Sanctions Regime and the Risk Of Catastrophic Success," War on the Rocks, March 8, 2022.

MIT Visiting Professor and Director of the MIT Seminar XXI Program Kelly M Greenhill (with F Adamson) “Global Security Entanglement and the Mobility Paradox,” Current History, January 2022.

_______ “When Migrants Become Weapons: The Long History and Worrying Future of a Coercive Tactic,” Foreign Affairs, March/April 2022.

_______ with Josh Shifrinson “Causing Crisis Works” Foreign Policy, February 2022.

CIS Principal Research Scientist Eric Heginbotham, (with Rachel Odell, et al) “Active Denial: A Roadmap to a More Effective, Stabilizing, and Sustainable U.S. Defense Strategy in Asia.” Quincy Institute paper, No. 8, June 2022.

_______ “Deployment of several units to the southwestern islands: An MIT security specialist talks ‘Taiwan, China, and Okinawa’” Asahi Shinbun Globe, December 2022.

Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow Doreen Horschig, “Israeli Public Opinion on the Use of Nuclear Weapons: Lessons from Terror Management Theory,” Journal of Global Security Studies, May 2022.

_______ "The risk of Russian chemical weapons use," Political Violence at a Glance, April 7, 2022.

CIS Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow Maham Javaid, “The UN has documented at least 3,924 Ukrainian civilian deaths in the war.” New York Times, June 29, 2022.

_______“The American conspiracy against Pakistan that never existed,” Boston Globe, April 14, 2022.

_______“Watching war in real time, one TikTok at a time.” Boston Globe, March 1, 2022.

_______(with Brian MacQuarrie) “Ukraine war revives anxiety about nuclear conflict,”
Boston Globe, March 12, 2022.

SSP Research Affiliate Peter Krause (with Daniel Gustafson, Jordan Theriault, and Liane Young) “How Education Decreases the Fear of Terrorism,” Lawfare Blog, May 15, 2022.

_______ “Knowing is Half the Battle: How Education Decreases the Fear of Terrorism,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, April 18, 2022.

_______ “The Strategies of Counter-Secession: How States Prevent Independence,” Nations and Nationalism, March 23, 2022.

_______ (with Nils Hägerdal) “Blowback Operations as Rebel Strategy: How Sectarian Violence Spread from Syria into Lebanon 2013-2014,” Terrorism and Political Violence, March 11, 2022.

Total Professor of Political Science and Contemporary Africa and MISTI Director Evan Lieberman, “Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa After Apartheid,” Princeton University Press, June 28, 2022.

_______ (with R Lekalake) “South Africa's Resilient Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 2022. 33(2), 103-117. doi:10.1353/jod.2022.0021.

SSP Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow David Logan "The Nuclear Balance Is What States Make of It" International Security, April 2022.

CIS Inter-University Committee on International Migration Steering Group Member Robert Lucas, "Crossing the Divide: Rural-Urban Migration in Developing Countries,"  Oxford UK and New York USA: Oxford University Press, 2021.

 

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science Roger Petersen, “Here’s What Western Leaders Need to Remember About Zelensky’s Emotional Appeals” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 2022.

CIS Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow Ada Petriczko, “Four EU countries expel dozens of Russian diplomats suspected of espionage.”
New York Times, March 29, 2022

_______“A major Ukrainian internet provider reports a cyberattack.” New York Times, March 28, 2022

_______“NATO’s military presence in Eastern Europe has been building rapidly.” New York Times, March 24, 2022.

_______“Russian forces abducted four Ukrainian journalists, a union says.” New York Times, March 21, 2022.

_______“Poland will propose a NATO peacekeeping mission for Ukraine at the alliance’s meeting this week.” New York Times, March 20, 2022

_______(with Matthew Mpoke Bigg) “Ukraine’s celebrities are dying in the war, adding an extra dimension to the nation’s shock.”
New York Times, March 19, 2022.

_______“Aid organizations say they are seeing signs of trafficking of people fleeing Ukraine.” New York Times, March 18, 2022.

_______“In Poland, protesters demand a ban on road cargo traffic between the EU and Russia and Belarus.” New York Times, March 14, 2022

_______“More than 80,000 people have been evacuated from areas near Kyiv and the city of Sumy.” New York Times. March 10, 2022

_______“Pentagon says Poland’s fighter jet offer is not ‘tenable.’” New York Times, March 9, 2022.

_______“For this border crisis, Poles extend a warm welcome, unlike last time.” New York Times, March 8, 2022.

_______“A few members of the Russian Parliament speak out against the war.” New York Times, February 28, 2022.

Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry Posen, "Ukraine’s implausible theories of victory," Foreign Affairs, July 8, 2022.

_______ "Hypotheses on the Implications of the Ukraine-Russia War," Defense Priorities, June 7, 2022.

_______ "Can Russia and the West Survive a Nuclear Crisis in Ukraine?" The National Interest, May 13, 2022

_______ "Ukraine: Unleashing the rhetorical dogs of war," Just Security, February 15, 2022.

SSP Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow Robert Ralston, “The Falklands War at 40: A lesson for our time.” Responsible Statecraft, April 6, 2022.

Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of CIS Richard Samuels, “After Abe, Japan tries to balance ties to the US and China,” Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2022.

_______ “CIS mourns the loss of Shinzo Abe, former prime minister of Japan,” Center for International Studies, July 8, 2022.

_______ (Reviewed) Brad Williams, "Japanese Foreign Intelligence and Grand Strategy: From the Cold War to the Abe Era," Georgetown University Press, 2021 in Political Science Quarterly, Spring 2022.

CIS Research Affiliate Erik Sand (with PhD Candidate Suzanne Freeman), “The Russian Sanctions Regime and the Risk of Catastrophic Success,” War on the Rocks, March 2022.

SSP Research Affiliate Joshua Shifrinson (with Emma Ashford), “How the war in Ukraine could get much worse,” Foreign Affairs, March 8, 2022.

SSP Research Affiliate Jonathan Shimshoni, "Swords and Emotions: The American Civil War and Society-centric Strategy" Survival, April 2022.

CIS Robert E Wilhelm Fellow Steven Simon (with Jonathan Stevenson), “Ukraine needs solutions, not endless war.” National Interest. July 30, 2022 

_______(with Aaron David Miller) “What to expect from Biden’s big Middle East trip,” Foreign Policy, July 7, 2022.

_______(with Trita Parsi) "Let’s not grant Saudi Arabia a blank check for American support,” The American Prospect, May 17, 2022.

_______ (with Jonathan Stevenson) “Why Putin went straight for the nuclear threat,” New York Times, April 1, 2022.

PhD Candidate Kunal Singh, “Why the US wants a ban on ASAT missile testing,” Hindustan Times May 6, 2022.

_______ "Ukraine: Three divergent stands, three scenarios," Hindustan Times, April 10, 2022.

Raphael Dorman-Helen Starbuck Professor and Head of the Political Science Department David Singer (with Kai Quek), “Public Attitudes toward Internal and Foreign Migration: Evidence from China,” Public Opinion Quarterly, Spring 2022.

PhD Candidate Meicen Sun (with Jian Han et al), "How to Make Active Aging an Integral Part of Economic Growth in China" in World Economic Forum Agenda for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, May 2022.

CIS Executive Director and Principal Research Scientist John Tirman (with CIS affiliates Hussein Banai and Malcolm Byrne), “Republics of Myth National Narratives and the US-Iran Conflict” John Hopkins University Press, April 12, 2022.

_______ The clashing narratives that keep the US and Iran at odds, DAWN Democracy in Exile, May 10, 2022.

_______ ”How the war complicates Biden's Iran diplomacy,” DAWN Democracy in Exile, April 6, 2022.

_______ ”Five books that illuminate the agony and uncertainty of civilians caught in wars,” John Tirman, Washington Post, March 18, 2022.

_______ "History as it happens: Invisible carnage," Washington Times, February 9, 2022.

Ford International Professor of Political Science Stephen Van Evera, "To Prevent War and Secure Ukraine, Make Ukraine Neutral," Defense Priorities, February 2022.

MIT Professor of History Elizabeth Wood, “The ghosts of history haunt the Russia-Ukraine crisis,” Broadstreet Blog, March 7, 2022.

_______ Q&A: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, MIT News, March 2, 2022.

_______ Response to Andrea Graziosi, “The Weight of the Soviet Past in post-1991 Russia,” Journal of Cold War Studies, 24, 2 (Spring 2022).

_______ (co-authored with Irina Dezhina) “U.S.-Russian Partnerships in Science: Working with Differences,” Post-Soviet Affairs (2022), published online Feb. 16, 2022.

_______ Response to Andrea Graziosi, “The Weight of the Soviet Past in post-1991 Russia,” Journal of Cold War Studies, 24, 2 (Spring 2022).