Outreach

 

 

CIS’s outreach extends to the MIT and Greater Boston communities, as well as to policymakers in Washington, DC, and other capitals.

The Center’s International Policy Lab helps connect MIT faculty who have produced research findings that have policy implications to policymakers, news media, Congress, and other avenues to inform the policy-making process.

For more than two decades, Seminar XXI has offered an educational program for senior military officers, government officials, and executives in nongovernmental organizations in the national security policy community. The program provides that community with the tools needed to understand international relations in depth.

The Center hosts multiple public events on campus, including the CIS Starr Forum. The Starr Forum, which brings to campus marquee speakers to discuss pressing issues on international affairs, is popular with the MIT community and beyond. The Starr Forum extends its reach to local high schools by inviting teachers and their students to participate.

Throughout the academic year, individual programs host seminars on a range of international topics that attract faculty, scholars, fellows, and students from the area. For example, the Security Studies Program offers a longstanding Wednesday Seminar Series on issues relevant to national defense and international relations.

The MIT International Science and Technology Initiative (MISTI) organizes classes on the cultures of the MISTI country programs during MIT’s Independent Activities Period (IAP) each January. In addition, MISTI’s MIT-Japan program sponsors weekly lunches where MIT-affiliates, including spouses and children, can practice speaking English, and where non-native speakers can practice their Japanese. MISTI’s MIT-Germany program organizes a weekly lunch, Stammtisch, where German speakers congregate.