News + Media

 
Maria Ressa

Analysis + Opinion

November 28, 2021

Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa won't be silenced

Ada PetriczkoBoston Globe

Maria Ressa faces up to 60 years in prison in the Philippines on charges of cyber libel and tax evasion, both of which human rights advocates decry as a harassment campaign. But the embattled journalist refuses to be silenced.

President Biden and members of his Defense Department

Analysis + Opinion

November 17, 2021

How Americans' views of the military have changed over 20 years

Ronald R Krebs and Robert RalstonWar on the Rocks

Americans’ views on the relationship between civilian leaders and the military are disturbing. When it comes to decisions about the use of force, recent surveys demonstrate that Americans are inclined to disempower civilians and defer to the professional military’s judgment.

eyeball with data code overlayed with people walking on the street

News@E40

November 16, 2021

Seven students receive Human Rights and Technology Program fellowships

The Center is thrilled to announce that seven students, including one two-person team, are being awarded Human Rights & Technology Fellowships in the program’s fourth year.  These graduate students will be exploring human rights issues that are either aided or exploited through the use of technology.

montage, china's red flag in background with missile tanks and fighter jets

In the News

November 15, 2021

China’s nuclear build-up: ‘one of the largest shifts in geostrategic power ever’

Demetri SevastopuloFinancial Times

Quoted: Vipin Narang, a nuclear security expert at MIT, believes China is engaging in an “eye-popping” nuclear expansion because it thinks “the risk of a conventional war with the US is higher now than ever”. He says the biggest risk is not nuclear war but “an exceptionally intense conventional war where China unloads its massive arsenal of conventional missiles in the Asia theatre without fear of US nuclear escalation”.

Jim Walsh on Fox News

In the News

November 14, 2021

China is not looking to start a war with US

Fox News

International security expert Jim Walsh discusses China's upset over US lawmakers visiting Taiwan.

A new solar panel in Lagos, Nigeria, last year. “It’s the bigger emitters that should have the responsibility to cut,” one analyst said of fossil fuels. “We should be sensitive to history.”Credit...Akintunde Akinleye/EPA, via Shutterstock

Analysis + Opinion

November 12, 2021

The world needs to quit oil and gas. Africa has an idea: Rich countries first.

Shola LawalNew York Times

As world leaders meet at COP26 in Glasgow, some African leaders and activists are, for the first time, vocally opposing a speedier pivot to renewables for their countries.

This July 25, 2021, satellite image provided by Planet Labs shows what analysts believe is construction on an intercontinental ballistic missile silo near Hami, China. (Planet Labs Inc./AP)

Analysis + Opinion

November 11, 2021

China’s nuclear arsenal is growing. What does that mean for US-China relations?

Fiona Cunningham, Taylor FravelWashington Post

The new Pentagon report reveals China’s worries about US missile defenses. While any potential changes in Beijing’s nuclear strategy are unclear, three questions stand out regarding how Beijing might seek to use silo-based missiles to deter the United States.

 

Military mobilisation is more effective than public threats in demonstrating resolve against hawkish, as opposed to doveish, rivals. Not many in the world will characterise Xi Jinping as a dove anyway (AP)

Analysis + Opinion

November 11, 2021

Underplaying the China threat

Kunal SinghHindustan Times

The government has consciously decided to downplay China’s aggression. This has possible benefits but also costs, explains Kunal Singh for the Hindustan Times.  

Chinese military air force members

In the News

November 10, 2021

Will China surpass the US in military air superiority?

John XieVOA

Quoted: "They're putting together packages of fighter aircraft, the J-16 in particular, flown in large numbers. And that's a relatively new capability," said Eric Heginbotham, a principal research scientist at MIT's Center for International Studies. "They're putting complete packages together. They're also sending anti-submarine warfare aircraft up. So, they're showing a lot."  According to Heginbotham of MIT, a specialist in Asian security issues, less than 15% of US air inventories are in the western Pacific, and the US does not have all its aircraft flying around the clock. "The difference is probably that China can challenge you at their superiority locally and for certain periods of time." he said in a telephone interview with VOA.

New Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi arrives at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Wednesday. | REUTERS

In the News

November 10, 2021

Kishida's picks for top diplomat and rights adviser hint at striking balance on China

Jesse Johnson and Satoshi Sugiyama The Japan Times

Quoted: “I do see the Hayashi appointment as part of Prime Minister Kishida’s balancing act,” said Richard Samuels, a Japan specialist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....Those remarks garnered headlines, Samuels said, “but it was mistakenly identified as a shift in national policy.”

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