In the News | 2024

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) fires a RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile during a live-fire exercise in the Pacific Ocean, 9 April 2024. WikiCommons

In the News

April 20, 2024

China rebukes US deployment of missiles in Indo-Pacific

New Delhi Times

Quoted: “The deployment of these ground-based missiles into the Pacific is a significant development,” says Eric Heginbotham, a principal research scientist at CIS. “For example, in an invasion of Taiwan, a Chinese amphibious fleet would effectively have to anchor off a landing area in Taiwan. Its location would be known. And these maritime strike Tomahawks could go to work, target the fleet, and sink part of it,” he tells VOA.

aiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, center right, chats with Taro Aso, vice president of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party during a visit to the Presidential Office in Taipei, Taiwan, Aug. 8, 2023.

In the News

April 11, 2024

Surviving without the bomb: Extended deterrence and the strategic use of non-nuclear military power by US allies

Harvard Kennedy School Belief Center for Science and International Affairs

On April 11, Jung Jae Kwon, a PhD candidate in the Security Studies Program, will be speaking on his research into how non-nuclear allies of the US try to generate deterrence without their own nuclear arsenal, and a theory to explain and predict their behavior.

Paulo Lozano, Agustín Rayo, and Griselda Gómez celebrate 20 years of MIT-Mexico with MIT alumni in Mexico City

In the News

April 10, 2024

MIT-Mexico Program fosters cross-border collaboration

Lisa CaponeMIT News

For two decades, MIT-Mexico has funded student internships and teaching, as well as faculty research collaborations.

President took part in the festive Parade of Troops on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence, 2021

In the News

March 31, 2024

The false promise of nuclear deterrence for postwar Ukrainian security

Matthew EvangelistaLawfare

Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry Posen was referenced in this Lawfare article on how postwar Ukraine should avoid tying its security to nuclear weapons—its own or NATO’s—and instead ensure its conventional forces are robust and defensively oriented.

Abhijeeth Paruchuru

In the News

March 26, 2024

How a ‘murder’ in Boston that didn’t happen made national news in India

Anjana SankarBoston Globe

Reporting from our 2024 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow. 

Awa Koné

In the News

March 25, 2024

Building operations for Africa’s most valuable fintech

Andrew HusbandMIT Sloan School of Management

Former MISTI-Africa student, Awa Koné, always wanted to get involved in Africa’s bustling business ecosystem. Since early 2020, she has been doing just that at the fintech startup Flutterwave.

In the News

March 25, 2024

Podcast: Social science of war: Why defense reform in Ukraine is crucial

Alexandra ChinchillaModern War Institute at West Point

Polina Beliakova, Russian Foreign and National Security Policy Fellow at the Security Studies Program, discusses the war in Ukraine with Alexandra Chinchilla on the Social Science of War podcast.

Israeli soldiers; photo: Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

In the News

March 24, 2024

What would you have Israel do to defend itself?

David BrooksThe New York Times

Ford International Professor of Political Science, Barry Posen, was quoted: "Hamas’s strategy could be “described as ‘human camouflage’ and more ruthlessly as ‘human ammunition.'"

Professor Ericmoore Jossou

In the News

March 20, 2024

Optimizing nuclear fuels for next-generation reactors

Poornima ApteMIT News

While working to nurture scientific talent in his native Nigeria, Assistant Professor Ericmoore Jossou is setting his sights on using materials science and computation to design robust nuclear components with help from a Global Seed Fund grant.

GMAF Fellows

In the News

March 19, 2024

Visting scholars from Ukraine kick off Global MIT At-Risk Fellows Program

Lisa CaponeMIT News

Ukrainian researchers and faculty will spend a semester at MIT during the two-year pilot program.

USCG sailors rescuing Haitian refugees

In the News

March 16, 2024

Policymakers must confront weaponized migration to address border crisis

Bethany BlankleyKPVI

Quoted: "The United States is... being targeted by foreign adversaries through 'weaponized migration,' Kelly Greenhill, a senior research scholar at MIT Center for International Studies, director of Seminar XXI, and author of 'Weapons of Mass Migration,' wrote in an analysis."

Sanne Verschuren

In the News

March 6, 2024

Verschuren shares research at MIT’s Security Studies Program

Boston University Frederick S Pardee School of Global Studies

Last month, Sanne Verschuren, Assistant Professor of International Security at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, presented her latest research, “Imagining the Unimaginable: War, Weapons, and Procurement Politics,” at the MIT Security Studies Program Wednesday Seminar.

Belmont Apartments

In the News

March 1, 2024

Developers got backing for affordable housing. Then the neighborhood found out.

Jason DeParleThe New York Times

Quoted: “A lot has changed in American life over the past 50 years, but the hostility to affordable housing has remained surprisingly durable,” said Justin Steil, associate professor of law and urban planning and steering member of the Inter-University Committee on International Migration

In the News

March 1, 2024

Climate change and military power: Hunting for submarines in the warming ocean

Andrea Gilli, Mauro Gilli, Antonio Ricchi, Aniello Russo, Sandro CarnielTexas National Security Review

Quoted: "In his prominent work Restraint: A New Foundation for US Grand Strategy, Barry Posen summarizes a widespread view among traditional security studies scholars, noting that there 'might be an argument that such problems [like climate change] strongly affect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, power position, and safety of the United States…[but] this needs to be demonstrated, not assumed.'"

Death, Dominance, and State-Building,” a new book by MIT Professor Roger Petersen,

In the News

March 1, 2024

A careful rethinking of the Iraq War

Peter DizikesMIT News

The Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science Roger Petersen's new book details military operations and political dynamics in Iraq, shedding new light on the challenges of state-building.

MIT musicians and tour staff with the São Sebastião community

In the News

February 28, 2024

Learning and listening in Amazonia

Talia KhanMIT Technology Review

Talia Khan, a former MISTI MIT-Brazil student, documented their experience returning to the Amazon rainforest with 80 fellow MIT musicians.

Sudhakar Kesavan

In the News

February 28, 2024

'Tech Titan' aims to serve

Julie FoxMIT Technology Review

Former Neuffer Fellow, Sudhakar Kesavan, spent nearly 40 years at consulting firm ICF, serving as CEO from 1999 to 2019, and recently created the MIT-IIT Kanpur Seed Fund to foster more collaboration between India and MIT.

Discussion on the impacts of Japan’s National Security Strategy

In the News

February 27, 2024

Japan’s national security strategy: The role of alliance and partnerships

Stimson

Chikako Kawakatsu Ueki, visiting scholar at the MIT Security Studies Program, will discuss on the impacts of Japan’s National Security Strategy on Tokyo’s security cooperation with Washington and other like-minded partners.

Gautam Mukunda and Carol Savietz

In the News

February 23, 2024

Video: Can Ukraine keep up the fight against Russia, two years after the invasion?

GBH News

Carol Savietz, senior advisor for MIT's Security Studies Program, joined Gautam Mukunda to discuss the state of the war after nearly two years, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and hundreds of billions in foreign aid from the US.

Fake News illustration

In the News

February 23, 2024

How misinformation and disinformation spread, the role of AI, and how we can guard against them

Taylor McNeilTufts Now

Director of the Seminar XXI program, Kelly M Greenhill, shows how to tell the true from the false, and what it means for politics.

Branden Spitzer

In the News

February 23, 2024

Nourishing the mind, hand, and stomach

Angelina ParrilloMIT News

MIT senior Branden Spitzer explains how his love of food and cooking unlocked his interest in materials science and engineering. Through MISTI, Branden has spent time in the UK, Brazil, and South Africa, and is studying in Denmark this semester.

Screenshot of Elizabeth Wood

In the News

February 19, 2024

Video: Navalny's widow to carry on his work in Russia

CTV News

Faculty co-director of MIT-Ukraine program Elizabeth Wood speaks on the future of the Russian president election and European sanctions in the context of Alexei Navalny's death.

View of congested cars on Storrow Drive

In the News

February 15, 2024

New York’s congestion pricing is a good start, but Boston can do better

Carlo RattiBoston Globe

MIT-Italy faculty director Carlo Ratti explains how Boston could adopt and improve on New York's congestion pricing to reduce traffic.

Sarah Bidgood, William Potter, Samuel Meyer, and Hanna Notte

In the News

February 9, 2024

Death dust: The rise, decline and future of radiological weapons programs

James Martin Center for Nonproliferation StudiesMiddlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

This seminar focuses on the findings of the recently published book Death Dust: The Rise, Decline and Future of Radiological Weapons Programs, co-authored by SSP Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow Sarah Bidgood, William Potter, Samuel Meyer, and Hanna Notte. The speakers discuss the evolution of radiological weapons, the key incentives for and impediments to their development and deployment, and the future prospects for their proliferation and use.

Runako Gentles and Shiv Bhakta

In the News

February 6, 2024

Reflecting on COP28—and humanity’s progress toward meeting global climate goals

Office of the Vice President for ResearchMIT News

At a debrief hosted at CIS, MIT delegates share observations and insights from the largest-ever UN climate conference.

Scene at MIT: Learning ikebana during IAP

In the News

February 2, 2024

Scene at MIT: Learning ikebana during IAP

School of Humanities, Arts, and Social SciencesMIT News

During an IAP course offered each year by the MIT-Japan Program, Hiroko Matsuyama works with MIT students on the basics of the ancient art of Japanese flower arrangement.

Neta Crawford

In the News

January 24, 2024

Calculating the costs of war

Kathryn M O'Neill MIT Technology Review

Security Studies Program alum Neta Crawford works to reveal the full cost of military activity to show that the only way to prevent war is through society rejecting armed conflict as an acceptable way to resolve disputes.

Jim Walsh

In the News

January 18, 2024

Pakistan and Iran launch airstrikes at each other, raising regional tensions

Peter O'DowdWBUR

Peter O'Dowd speaks with SSP senior research associate Jim Walsh about what's at stake in the greater Middle East as Pakistan and Iran take military action against each other.

MIT-Africa participants in Ivory Coast

In the News

January 18, 2024

AXIAN Telecom partners with the MIT-Africa Program’s education initiative in Ivory Coast

AXIAN TelecomZawya

The MISTI MIT-Africa program has partnered with AXIAN Telecom to launch a new and empowering Global Teaching Labs initiative in Ivory Coast.

Kelly Greenhill

In the News

January 18, 2024

Podcast: The weaponization of migration

World Affairs Council of New Hampshire

Kelly M Greenhill, director of the MIT-Seminar XXI Program, discusses the how and why of migration as a "hybrid warfare tactic."

Australian researcher Ronald Loughland moved to Abu Dhabi in 1993 as a PhD student who went on to study the mangroves along the Arabian coast. All photos: Dr Ronald Loughland

In the News

January 8, 2024

Planting the seeds of change: How UAE rulers fuelled mangrove growth in the 90s

Anjana SankarThe National

2024 Neuffer Fellow Anjana Sankar discusses Abu Dhabi's long-standing commitment to mangrove conservation and how Australian researcher Ronald Loughland, who played a key role in studying and planting mangroves in Abu Dhabi, highlighted the emirate's significant efforts in increasing mangrove forest area by about 50% between 1990 and 2021.

Megan Li (left) and Mia Hines

In the News

January 4, 2024

Inclusive research for social change

Kaitlin Provencher | Institute for Data, Systems, and SocietyMIT News

The MIT Student Research Program pairs underrepresented students with opportunities to examine inequity through the IDSS Initiative for Combatting Systemic Racism. Fotini Christia, Ford International Professor of the Social Sciences is the associate director of IDSS and a co-organizer of the initiative.