News + Media

Reid Pauly

In the News

March 26, 2019

Wargames and the sources of nuclear restraint

Reid B.C. PaulyHarvard Belfer Center

Reid Pauly explains how declassified records of wargames played by US policymakers can reveal why nuclear weapons have not been used since 1945.

Thirteen students participate in the inaugural run of MIT-India 3.008 Humanistic Co-Design in the Developing World.

In the News

March 25, 2019

Co-designing assistive technologies in India

Madeline SmithMIT News

MIT students connect with premier Indian institutes, hospitals, and students to collaborate on “humanistic” assistive design.

South Korean Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung leaves after a news conference at the Unification Ministry in Seoul on March 22. (Ahn Young-Joon/AP)

In the News

March 22, 2019

North Korea pulls out of liaison office with the South in blow to warming ties

Min Joo Kim and Simon DenyerThe Washington Post

Vipin Narang described the latest development as “ominous” but agreed it was more likely a pressure tactic than a sign of an irrevocable rift. “The optimistic view is it is very calibrated signaling designed to get the U.S. to move away from insisting on complete surrender up front,” he said. “The pessimistic reading, which I don’t yet share,” he added, “is that Kim has decided after Hanoi that it’s over and that he’s lost the will to negotiate further, and is now just prepping the battlefield, quite literally, for a return to hostile relations.”

FILE - Protesters march toward the U.S. Embassy during a rally supporting the U.S. policy to put steady pressure on North Korea, in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 3, 2018.

In the News

March 21, 2019

US imposes first N. Korea-linked sanctions since failed summit

Steve HermanVoice of America

Insisting on unilateral North Korean disarmament upfront is pushing on the wrong door. We should be pushing to first slow the program, then cap it, and ultimately keep rollback and disarmament the long-term goal,said Vipin Narang. But every month that passes without a grand deal is one in which North Korea's nuclear program continues to grow larger — increasing the risk of its own use and proliferation to other countries — and the chances of a deal grow smaller.

Sarah Williams

In the News

March 19, 2019

Mapping urban transport

Michelle EnglishMIT News

Sarah Williams is combining her skills as a geographer, architect, data scientist, and city planner to create data for civic change. Her latest project is funded in part by the Center’s International Policy Lab.

Vipin Narang

In the News

March 19, 2019

Trump officials privately bracing for North Korea's next move

Kylie Atwood and Zachary CohenCNN

We may not know until it's on the stand, according to Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at MIT, focusing on nuclear proliferation and strategy, who told CNN that it entirely depends on the type of engine and the payload it is carrying.

Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, discusses U.S.-Russia relations at MIT’s Starr Forum, Thursday, March 14, 2019.  Image: Laura Kerwin/MIT Center for International Studies

In the News

March 18, 2019

After the Cold War, an uncertain peace

Peter DizikesMIT News

In a recent MIT Starr Forum, Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia, explores tensions between the two countries.

A stairwell at Fatih University in Istanbul on March 7, 2013. (Photo by Monique Jaques/Corbis/Getty Images)

Analysis + Opinion

March 18, 2019

The geography of Gulenism in Turkey

Tugba Bozcaga, Fotini Christia Foreign Policy

Any government would have reason for concern if a group with undemocratic motivations such as the Gulen movement reached enormous capacity in bureaucracy and social services. 

  The 9.18 Historical Museum in Shenyang memorializes the 1931 "Mukden Incident," an explosion that the Japanese army staged and then used as a pretext to invade Northeast China.  Kacie Miura

In the News

March 14, 2019

Commerce and coercion

Leda ZimmermanMIT Political Science

Responding to disputes with foreign powers, China does not speak with one voice, finds political science doctoral candidate Kacie Miura.

Barry Posen

In the News

March 12, 2019

A trilogy of decency: Posen, Mearsheimer, Walt and the US grand strategy

Jose A Zorrilla Political Insights

Ambassador Jose A Zorrilla offers a review of Barry Posen's Restraint, as the first of three books offering comprehensive grand strategy to US foreign policy.

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