News + Media

	In the News May 11, 2020 National security is in the eye of the beholder Brad GlossermanJapan Times Richard Samuels quoted: MIT Professor Richard Samuels describes this as the belief that societies must “organize to defend the wealth of individuals they comprise” — their skills, productive relationships, firms and R&D centers that create their wealth — and argues that this logic has long prevailed in Japan.
	Analysis + Opinion May 10, 2020 Can the democrats avoid Trump’s China trap? Rachel Esplin Odell, Stephen WertheimThe New York Times Democrats, and Republicans who truly put American security first, face a choice. Joe Biden in particular will decide whether to lead his party into Mr Trump’s trap or play a different game.
	Analysis + Opinion May 9, 2020 An ode to the humble balcony Bernardo ZackaThe New York Times It is private, yet public; exposed, yet secluded. It offers company without the demands of intimacy, and we should never take it for granted again, writes Bernardo Zacka in a New York Times opinion piece available here.
	Analysis + Opinion May 8, 2020 4 things that will happen if Kim Jong-un died Jim WalshThe National Interest Should Chairman Kim exit early, there may be an opportunity to return to the negotiating table, especially given the North's precarious situation--one that is likely to deteriorate even further over the near to medium term, writes Jim Walsh in The National Interest's series asking what happens if Kim Jong-un died.
	In the News May 8, 2020 Trump wages a war on watchdogs as coronavirus elevates their importance Liz GoodwinThe Boston Globe Joel Brenner quoted: “It absolutely sends a chill through the whole community,” said Joel Brenner, former inspector general of the National Security Agency. “It’s a very clear message. The president doesn’t want any inspector general issuing any report critical of the administration and any inspector general who does it has to understand that he or she is likely to be out of a job.”
	News@E40 May 7, 2020 Distinguished fellow and friend, Yukio Okamoto, felled by Covid-19 Yukio Okamoto, a Japanese diplomat and fellow at MIT, died from Covid-19 on April 24 at the age of 74. The former special advisor to two prime ministers of Japan joined the Center for International Studies (CIS) in 2012 as a Robert E Wilhelm fellow and served as a distinguished research fellow at CIS until his death.
	Analysis + Opinion May 7, 2020 Does the global pandemic open new South China Sea opportunities for Beijing? Not really. M Taylor FravelThe Washington Post A number of recent analyses have emphasized that China is seizing pandemic-created opportunities to improve its position in the South China Sea as other countries are distracted or otherwise unable to respond. A key implication of such claims is that absent the pandemic, China would have acted differently and perhaps with more restraint.
	In the News May 4, 2020 MIT Africa's Ari Jacobovits helps produce Covid-19 hackathon Ari Jacobovits, managing director of the MIT Africa program, helped organize a hackathon on Covid-19 with collectives from around the world—drawing from universities, industry, government, and NGOs, among others. CIS research affiliate Claude Grunitsky covered the story in his publication True Africa.
	In the News May 1, 2020 China's modern military strategy in historical perspective NCUSCR Podcast In an interview with NCUSCR President Steve Orlins, Taylor Fravel discusses his motivations for and key discoveries from writing, "Active Defense: China's Military Strategy Since 1949."
	In the News April 30, 2020 Outsiders consider possibility of chaos in North Korea Foster KlugAP News Vipin Narang quoted: “The million-dollar question is: When do you invoke the OPLAN and what indicators do you rely on to do so? Because one country’s ‘securing the country’ operation can look to the other nation like an ‘invasion plan.’ And then all hell can break loose,” said Vipin Narang, a North Korea nuclear specialist at MIT.