PEOPLE

SSP Military Fellow Lt Col Thaddeus Drake, USMC spoke on  "The Fantasy of MCDP-1,"  Tactics and Operations, Marine Corps Tactics and Operations Group Podcast, January 2, 2023.

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of the Security Studies Program Taylor Fravel organized and spoke at a Starr Forum on "Xi Jinping’s Third Term: Challenges for the United States". The event was moderated by Yasheng Huang and featured Fravel, Arthur Kroeber, Susan Shirk, and Jessica Chen Weiss. The event was held on campus as a hybrid event on November 17, 2022. Fravel was also featured in multiple news outlets discussing ongoing tensions between China, Taiwan, and the US, including this interview on TVBS News with Wenchi Yu.

Leo Marx Career Development Assistant Professor of the History and Culture of Science & Technology Erik Lin-Greenberg organized  “Emerging Technology and International Security: Challenges and Opportunities,” a program held in Washington DC in November 2022. It was supported by Bridging the Gap and New America.

CIS Senior Research Scholar, MIT Visiting Professor, and Director of the Seminar XXI Program Kelly M Greenhill presented the following talks: “Strategic engineered migration and US-Latin American relations,” MIT Seminar XXI Program, Cosmos Club, Washington, DC, December 2022; “What Do the Midterm Elections Mean for US Foreign Policy?” as part of a panel at Tufts University, November 2022;  “Geopolitics and migration,” Vienna Intergovernmental Migration Conference, Vienna, Austria, October 2022; “Fear and present danger: Extra-factual sources of threat conception and proliferation,” MIT Lincoln Lab, September 2022;  “State-making and statecraft: Understanding the geopolitics of forced migration” (with F Adamson), American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada, September 2022.

Associate Professor and MIT-Africa Faculty Director Mai Hassan was featured in “Machinery of State,” by Leda Zimmerman, Department of Political Science, November 21, 2022.

Principal Research Scientist Eric Heginbotham spoke at a Cato Institute Livestream event, “How Much Does China Really Spend on Defense?” in December 2022.

PhD Student Jung Jae Kwon was featured in “Questioning the nuclear umbrella,” by Leda Zimmerman, Department of Political Science, September 9, 2022.

Total Professor of Political Science and Contemporary Africa and Faculty Director of MISTI Evan Lieberman organized and spoke at a Starr Forum on "Speaking truth to a new power: Perspectives on the free press and democracy in South Africa". The talk was moderated by Emmanuel K Akyeampong and the panelists included Lieberman, Branko Brkic, Styli Charalambous, and Eve Fairbanks.

2023 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow Gabriela Sá Pessoa gave an interview on hope and crisis in Lula’s Brazil, “Covering Climate Now,” Columbia Journalism Review, January 19, 2023.

SSP Senior Advisor Carol Saivetz appeared as a commentator on a number of TV programs this quarter, including WGBH’s Greater Boston, GBH News, and NECN. Her appearances focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine including: Ukraine gaining ground over Russian troops; ‘This war isn’t even close to over’: Ukrainian advances spring hope, but not victory. 

Saivetz and Professor of History and Co-Director of the MIT Eurasia Program Elizabeth Wood co-chaired two Starr Forums focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including: “An Update on Russia's War Against Ukraine,” featuring Volodymyr Dubovyk, MIchael Kofman, and Steven Simon; and “Energy as a Weapon of War: Russia, Ukraine, and Europe in Challenging Times,” featuring Margarita Balmaceda and Constanze Stelzenmüller.

Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of CIS Richard Samuels (with CIS Principal Research Scientist Eric Heginbotham and PhD Candidate Samuel Leiter) gave a virtual talk on “‘Ukraine Today May be East Asia Tomorrow:’ Japan’s Lessons from the Ukraine War,”  for the Japanese Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies, December 2022. Samuels presented a book talk on “Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community,” University of Toronto, November 2022.

CIS Research Affiliate Erik Sand spoke at the George Washington University’s Foreign Area Officer Sustainment Initiative Seminar in December 2022.

Senior Administrative Assistant Laurie Scheffler retired from MIT after 31 years of service. Her last official work day at CIS was February 28, 2023. The Center hosted a retirement party in her honor on February 27, 2023.

The late CIS Executive Director and Principal Research Scientist John Tirman, and CIS Research Affiliates Hussein Banai and Malcolm Byrne, were featured in Informed Comment for a book review of their co-authored book:  The US-Iran conflict: Review of “Republics of Myth,” on September 9, 2022.

SSP Senior Research Associate Jim Walsh was featured on CBS News where he spoke on North Korea launches nuclear-capable missile over Japan on October 4, 2022. He was also featured on WBUR and spoke on Protests, political unrest and violent clashes plague Iran on September 26, 2022.

PUBLICATIONS

CIS Senior Research Fellow Joel Brenner, “Ace of Spies” Mysterious Life, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, November 18, 2022.

CIS Research Affliiate Fiona Cunningham, “Strategic Substitution: China's Search for Coercive Leverage in the Information Age,” International Security (2022) 47 (1): 46–92.

SSP Military Fellow Lt Col Thaddeus Drake, USMC,  "Drill Baby Drill!," Marine Corps Gazette, January 2023.

____________"The Pentomic Division: A Cautionary Tale," Marine Corps Gazette, December 2022. (republication; original publication Sept 2020.)

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of the Security Studies Program M Taylor Fravel (with Charles L Glaser), “How Much Risk Should the United States Run in the South China Sea?” International Security Vol 47, No 2 (Fall 2022) 

____________(with Thomas J Christensen, Bonnie S Glaser, Andrew J Nathan, and Jessica Chen Weiss), “How to Avoid a War Over Taiwan: Threats, Assurances, and Effective Deterrence,” Foreign Affairs, October 13, 2022.

Leo Marx Career Development Assistant Professor of the History and Culture of Science & Technology Erik Lin-Greenberg, “The Dawn of Drone Diplomacy: Unmanned Aircraft are Upending the Arms Trade—and the Balance of Power,” Foreign Affairs (Online), December 20, 2022.

____________(with  Brian Blankenship) “Tripwires and Alliance Reassurance: An Exchange - The Authors Reply,” Security Studies. December 15, 2022.

____________(with Michael Horowitz) “Algorithms and Influence: Artificial Intelligence and Crisis Decision-making,” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 66. No. 4.  07 October 2022. With c.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Mariya Grinberg, “Sanctions won't end Russia's war in Ukraine,” The National Interest, December 24, 2022. 

CIS Principal Research Scientist Eric Heginbotham, “Why We Believe the U.S. Still Has the Upper Hand in War Over Taiwan,” Newsweek, January 31, 2023.

MIT-China Program Faculty Director and MIT Sloan Professor Yasheng Huang, “China's COVID protests are powerful, but they cannot challenge Xi Jinping's regime,” Boston Globe, December 6, 2022.

______________ “Xi broke the social contract that helped China prosper.” New York Times,  December 1, 2022.

SSP Research Affiliate Peter Krause (with Emil Aslan Souleimanov and David S Siroky), Kin Killing: Why Governments Target Family Members in Insurgency, and When It Works, Security Studies Vol. 31 (2022).

SSP Research Affiliate Nicholas Miller (with Jeff D Colgan), “The Rewards of Rivalry: US-China Competition can Spur Climate Progress” Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 2022.

PhD Student Mina Pollman, “NPT conference collapse, military drills further strain Japan-Russia relations,” The Diplomat, September 7, 2022.

Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry Posen, “Russia's rebound,” Foreign Affairs, January 4, 2023.

SSP Senior Advisor Carol Saivetz, “Russia in the Caucasus and Central Asia after the invasion of Ukraine,” Lawfare, January 29, 2023

Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of CIS Richard Samuels, “Are We Brave Enough?”  Paper for the Columbia University Conference on the Future of Japanese Studies, December 2022.

SSP Research Affiliate Josh Shifrinson (with Patrick Porter), “Attacking Russia in Ukraine means War,” Inkstick, November 2022.

Robert E Wilhelm Fellow Steven Simon, “As Blinken visits Israel amid violence, US confirms drone attacks on Iran,” Responsible Statecraft, January 30, 2023

______________(with Aaron David Miller), “Biden is about to have his hands full in the Middle East,” Foreign Policy, January 13, 2023.

______________(with Adam Weinstein), “The new Iraqi PM is a status quo leader, but for how long?” Responsible Statecraft, November 8, 2022.  

SSP Research Affiliate Caitlin Talmadge (with Michael E O'Hanton and Melanie W Sisson), Managing the risks of US-China war: Implementing a strategy of integrated deterrence, Brookings, September 2022.

____________Why Russia’s mobilization may lower the risk of nuclear war — for now, Washington Post Monkey Cage, September 21, 2022

____________(with Brendan Rittenhouse Green) Then What? Assessing the Military Implications of Chinese Control of Taiwan, International Security (2022) 47 (1): 7–45.

CIS Research Affliate Rachel Tecott, “Norm Diffusion through US Military Training: An Exchange Security Assistance and Recipient Civil-Military Relations: What We Still Don’t Know,” Security Studies, September 23, 2022.

Ford Professor of Political Science Kathleen Thelen (with Jacob Hacker, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, and Paul Pierson), “The American Political Economy: Markets, Power, and the Meta Politics of US Economic Governance,” Annual Review of Political Science 25 (2022).

SS Senior Research Associate Jim Walsh, “What ever happened to our fear of Armageddon?” Responsible Statecraft, October 2022.