CAMBRIDGE,  MA---Barry Posen, Ford International Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, assumed the directorship of the MIT Security Studies Program (SSP) on July 1, 2006. He succeeds MIT political scientist Harvey Sapolsky, who retired after 40 years of teaching at MIT and 15 years directing SSP, which is part of the MIT Center for International Studies.

Professor Posen, one of the country's leading experts on international security studies, recently received attention for an article he published in the January/February 2006 of Boston Review, in which he detailed a plan for the United States to exit Iraq.

In the article, "Exit Strategy: How to Disengage from Iraq in 18 Months," he wrote, "The war is at best a stalemate; the large American presence now causes more trouble than it prevents. We must disengage from Iraq -and we must do it by removing most American and allied military units within 18 months. Though disengagement has risks and costs, they can be managed. The consequences would not be worse for the United States than the present situation, and capabilities for dealing with them are impressive, if properly employed."

Professor Posen teaches courses at MIT on comparative grand strategy and military doctrine, U.S. military power, great power military intervention, and innovation in military organizations. His current research topics include European Union Defense Policy, the role of force in U.S. foreign policy, and innovation in the U.S. Army, 1970-1980.

More on Professor Posen:
http://web.mit.edu/polisci/faculty/B.Posen.html

More on the MIT Security Studies Program:
https://cis.mit.edu/programs

Professor Posen's article in Boston Review
http://bostonreview.net/forum/exit-strategy