News + Media

 
Posing for a picture with a poster of Maj Gen Qassim Suleimani in Baghdad on Saturday.Credit...Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In the News

January 4, 2020

Did the killing of Qassim Suleimani deter Iranian attacks, or encourage them?

Amanda TaubThe New York Times

Vipin Narang quoted: “He was a monster, no question,” said Vipin Narang, an MIT political scientist who has studied efforts to halt Iran’s nuclear program. “But there’s a consequentialist argument as well.”  Dr Narang said the deterrence argument “assumes a unitary, rational actor.” While he said that could apply to Iran, which may want to avoid war, it may not apply, say, to Hezbollah, which Iran backs in Lebanon.

The US claimed responsibility for an air raid in Baghdad that killed General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds force, raising fears that oil supplies could be disrupted in the Middle East [File: Haider al-Assadee/EPA]

In the News

January 3, 2020

Oil prices surge after US attack kills senior Iran military chief

Al Jazeera

John Tirman quoted: "Certainly Iran is going to retaliate in some way - retaliations will come, as they have in the past, in what we call an asymmetrical way. They're not going to confront the US directly but they will perhaps attack Saudi tankers again, maybe Saudi oil refineries again," John Tirman told Al Jazeera. "The fact is that Iran will come back and hit US assets or the assets of US allies in the region, and they will do so repeatedly over a period of time," Tirman said.

In this March 27, 2015 file photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, sits in a religious ceremony at a mosque in the residence of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran. A U.S. airstrike near Baghdad’s airport on Friday Jan. 3, 2020 killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Soleimani was considered the architect of Iran’s policy in Syria. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader v

In the News

January 3, 2020

Qassem Soleimani long targeted the United States

Sean Philip CotterBoston Herald

Jim Walsh quoted: “Soleimani was a central figure in Iran — he was Iran’s military representative to the Middle East,” Jim Walsh, an expert on terrorism and the Middle East at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the Herald. “There was sort of a cult of personality about him, and people thought of him as being talented.”

An Iranian woman covers her face with a picture of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani during a demonstration in Tehran against the killing of the top commander in a U.S. strike in Baghdad. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)

In the News

January 3, 2020

Qassem Soleimani, top Iranian general, killed in US airstrike in Baghdad

Peter O'Dowd WBUR Here & Now

Peter O'Dowd speaks with security analyst Jim Walsh about the US killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, which is expected to have larger repercussions.

President George W Bush

In the News

January 1, 2020

George W Bush slips in and out of town as Poodle naps

Nick WelshSanta Barbara Independent

John Tirman interview and research heavily referenced in piece about mortality rates and cost of war.

Jim Walsh

In the News

January 1, 2020

A look at the national security challenges facing the US in 2020

Robin YoungWBUR Here & Now

Robin Young speaks with security analyst Jim Walsh about the stalled nuclear talks with North Korea and the US embassy protests in Baghdad.

Kim Jong Un at the the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang.STR / AFP - Getty Images

In the News

January 1, 2020

North Korea signals end of nuclear-test suspension, promises 'new' weapon

Alexander SmithNBC News

Vipin Narang, a politics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who focuses on nuclear weapons, tweeted the potential to negotiate on this issue is "the door we should urgently push on."

A North Korean missile test in an undated picture released by North Korea's Central News Agency in November 2019 KCNA / Reuters

Analysis + Opinion

December 30, 2019

Is a new nuclear age upon us?

Nicholas L Miller, Vipin NarangForeign Affairs

The year 2019 has been an inflection point for three key features of a new nuclear age: renewed nuclear competition; the emergence of new nuclear powers; and a greater tolerance for escalation among existing nuclear powers. 

Kim Jong Un's speech will be closely watched for any signal that the regime intends to return to long-range missile and nuclear tests © -/KCNA/dpa

In the News

December 30, 2019

North Korea’s improved missile systems spark ‘deadline’ concerns

Edward WhiteFinancial Times

Vipin Narang quoted: Vipin Narang, a nuclear policy expert at MIT, said advancements across “mobility, survivability, reliability [and] penetrability” were a “nightmare” for missile defence systems across the region. “All of this has happened under the cover of this long-range missile moratorium . . . North Korea is developing both elegant and brute force ways to beat missile defences.”

Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy since1949

In the News

December 25, 2019

Book Review: Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy since1949

Suyash Desai Strategic Analysis

Book review of Taylor Fravel's latest book, Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy since 1949, the book fills a major gap in the study of the Chinese military strategy since 1949.

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