In the News | 2016

Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in May.

In the News

December 9, 2016

Japan’s pivot from Obama to Trump

Joshua HuntThe New Yorker

Abe’s visit to Trump Tower in November went against the wishes of Obama’s White House, according to a Japanese media report, which cited an unnamed diplomatic source. But Richard Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of CIS, says that Abe’s team “did what they had to do, quickly and well.”

Detail of the Sultanahmet Mosque (the "Blue Mosque"), in Istanbul

In the News

December 7, 2016

How political science helps combat terrorism

Emily Hiestand, Kathryn O'NeillSHASS News

“As humans, we have all sorts of cognitive biases that come into play when we try to evaluate the risks posed by terrorism as well as the trade-offs of various counterterrorism policies,” says Richard Nielsen, assistant professor of political science.

Trump-Pence rally (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

In the News

November 9, 2016

Donald Trump’s victory is part of a global white backlash

Zack BeauchampVox

Roger Petersen has argued, persuasively, that ethnic conflict around the world is often driven by something he calls “resentment”: the feeling of injustice on the part of a privileged portion of society.

Businessman Trump or bureaucrat Hillary - Whom does Asia prefer?

In the News

November 8, 2016

Businessman Trump or bureaucrat Hillary—Whom does Asia prefer?

Wesley RahnDeutsche Welle

“The longing for closer association with the West is real,” Richard Samuels, director of CIS and Ford International Professor of Political Science, told Deutsche Welle. “However, it is constrained by the economic forces and opportunities that have only expanded since Clinton made that statement five years ago.”

Shirtless Vladimir Putin On A Horse

In the News

October 15, 2016

On the Putinization of politics

Elizabeth Wood

Concern about the possible role of Russian president Vladimir Putin in the American political process has emerged as an issue in the 2016 presidential election. Elizabeth Wood, professor of history, shares insight into this perspective in an effort to help inform the American voter.

Fotini Christia (left), associate professor of political science; and Ali Jadbabaie, the JR East Professor of Engineering.

In the News

October 14, 2016

Collaborating with peers across disciplines

Story prepared by MIT SHASS Communications; Editorial and Design Director: Emily Hiestand; Writer: Leda Zimmerman MIT News

Fotini Christia, associate professor of political science, and Ali Jadbabaie, JR East Professor of Engineering, discuss their research on the dynamics of sociopolitical change. They also share about the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society and how it brought them together.

US fighter planes

In the News

October 13, 2016

The US defense budget: Too big, too small or just right?

Michelle NewbyThe National Interest

“Everything starts with strategy in this business,” answers Barry Posen, Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the MIT Security Studies Program, as to whether the US defense budget is the appropriate size. “If you accept the present grand strategy it might be true that the defense budget is actually too small.”

Statue Of Liberty

In the News

October 12, 2016

Immigration and terrorism

John Tirman

Negative attitudes toward immigrants have many roots. But several studies demonstrate that immigrants of all kinds boost the US economy overall and hurt few if any native-born Americans. So, what really mobilizes anti-immigrant attitudes? John Tirman, CIS executive director and principal research scientist, explains.

NATO-Ukraine Commission working session, 2014 / Photograph: Paul Shaw

In the News

August 22, 2016

NATO has problems, but Trump won’t fix them

Simon WaxmanBoston Review

For Barry Posen, NATO and other permanent alliances are not just a financial drain; they also arguably make Americans less safe, writes Simon Waxman in the Boston Review. Posen refers to such security subsidies as “welfare for the rich.”

Clothes and weapons belonging to soldiers involved in the coup attempt that have now surrendered lie on the ground abandoned on Bosphorus Bridge on July 16, 2016, Istanbul, Turkey. (Gokhan Tan/Getty Images)

In the News

July 18, 2016

From Turkey to Nice, looking at safety and stability around the globe

Here & Now

Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti speaks with security analyst Jim Walsh about what instability in that country could mean for the rest of the world, as well as what we’re learning about the recent terrorist attack in Nice, France.

Panoramic view of Tiananmen Square, from Wikipedia

In the News

June 6, 2016

Mass atrocity Monday, 6/6/2016: Tiananmen Square

Kate Cronin-FurmanJustice in Conflict

Saturday was the anniversary of the suppression by the Chinese military of mass protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Twenty-seven years later, the death toll is still unknown. Beijing’s official estimate puts the figure at 241, but credible reports suggest that over 1,000 people may have been killed.

Children hold up flags from the G7 countries in the wind as the foreign ministers visit the Peace Memorial Park, on the sidelines of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Hiroshima on April 11, 2016. Kerry and other G7 foreign ministers made the landmark visit on April 11 to the memorial site for the world's first nuclear attack in Hiroshima. (Jonathan Ernst/AFP/Getty Images)

In the News

May 13, 2016

Obama's visit To Hiroshima is 'about memory, more than it's about apology'

Meghna ChakrabartiHere & Now

Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti talks to Richard Samuels, director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founding director of the MIT Japan Program, about the significance of Obama's visit, and Japan's evolving attitudes toward militarization.

“New Order and Progress: Development and Democracy in Brazil,” (Oxford University Press) edited by Ben Ross Schneider.

In the News

March 22, 2016

Brazil's crisis moment

MIT News

Brazil has been much touted in the 21st century as a fast-rising “BRIC” country (Brazil, Russia, India, China) spurring global growth. But a sprawling political corruption scandal and economic turmoil have cast shadows on this once-sunny landscape. President Dilma Rousseff faces impeachment hearings over potentially misappropriating bank funds for the state, and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is implicated in a corruption case. Ben Ross Schneider, the Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the MIT-Brazil Program, has been studying Brazil for decades and is the editor of a new volume on the country: “New Order and Progress: Development and Democracy in Brazil,” published this month by Oxford University Press. (The book stems in part from connections forged through the MIT-Brazil Program.) Schneider talked with MIT News about the progress and setbacks Brazil is experiencing.

In the News

February 23, 2016

It's all in our heads

MIT News

Political science PhD student Marika Landau-Wells is using psychology and neuroscience to better understand political behavior.  A typical political scientist is not likely to develop a research plan that employs data from national archives, survey experiments, public health data, and an fMRI study in a single dissertation. But then, Marika Landau-Wells is not your typical political scientist.