News + Media

	News@E40 November 2, 2009 CIS Advisory Board led by Admiral Fallon Fallon, the group includes Mary Boies, an attorney and high-level government adviser; Jon Borschow, a businessman based in Puerto Rico and an MIT alumnus; Susan Chira, foreign editor of the New York Times; Chas W. Freeman, Jr., former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia; M. Shafik Gabr, a Cairo-based head of a major investment group; Alexis F. Habib, managing director of Spinnaker Capital Limited, London; Dana Mead, Chairman of the MIT Corporation; Yukio Okamoto, former adviser to the Japanese government; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank who earned her PhD at MIT; John Reed, retired Chairman of Citigroup, and an MIT alumnus; Siddharth C.R. Shriram, an industrialist based in New Delhi; Jeffrey L. Silverman, a graduate of the Sloan School at MIT and a commodities trader in Chicago; Anthony Sun, a high-tech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley who earned degrees in engineering at MIT; Lynn Chatman Todman, director of the Institute on Social Exclusion in Chicago, and a MIT PhD in urban planning; and Thomas Wolf, a political science PhD from MIT and a Pennsylvania businessman who has served in the governor’s cabinet.
	précis November 1, 2009 Global financial crisis By David A. Singer and Layna Mosley The global financial crisis that began in 2007 is a once-in-a-lifetime event with wide-ranging consequences for government policymaking. The crisis has prompted much soul-searching among economists and financial experts who failed to anticipate it, or whose warnings were not taken seriously by regulators and investors.
	précis November 1, 2009 Japan's democratic party strives for normalcy By Tobias Harris Following the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, Tokyo was rife with speculation... The Bush administration had been viewed by many Japanese elites as good for Japan... Many commentators recalled the Clinton administration's "Japan passing" and saw the appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state as a sign that China would receive more attention than Japan.
	précis November 1, 2009 précis Interview: JoAnn Carmin JoAnn Carmin is associate professor of environmental policy and planning at the Department of Urban Studies at MIT. She also heads the Center's new Program on Environmental Governance and Sustainability (PEGS). She discusses with precis the mission of PEGS, her work on climate change adaptation, and her future plans.
	précis November 1, 2009 Briefings Under the leadership of Adm. William J. Fallon (USN-ret.) the Center has formed an advisory board of distinguished individuals to provide guidance in the coming years; MISTI launched the MIT-Brazil Program this fall to connect MIT students and faculty with research and innovation in Brazil; Firle Davies, a journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation, has been named the 2009-10 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow; the Center's Jerusalem 2050 Program seeks visions for a city of peace by mid-century—now; The Center's Audits of the Conventional Wisdom addressed the following topics this past semester.
	précis November 1, 2009 Activities CIS is delighted to announce our new location at MIT Bldg E40-400; MIT's Global Council released two reports that will help frame MIT's international engagement strategy for years to come; The Center has joined together with the Watson Institute at Brown and the Weatherhead Center at Harvard to launch a new Inter-University Seminar on South Asian Politics; The Center brought the world-traveling exhibit, DARFUR/DARFUR, to MIT campus; Photojournalist Randy Hope Goodman shared her images and discussed her work, Iran: Images From Beneath a Chador; The Center is undertaking a year-long assessment of the UN’s mandate on women and security—namely, UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
	précis November 1, 2009 End Notes End Notes features the professional achievements of our scholars, students, and staff. This includes recent awards, speaking engagements, and publications.
	News@E40 October 29, 2009 New research on women and security The Center is undertaking a year-long assessment of the UN’s mandate on women and security—namely, UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which obligates member states to include women in peace processes and peace building. A distinguished group of researchers from around the world will conduct case studies in Sri Lanka, Uganda, Aceh, Liberia, and Israel/Palestine to evaluate 1325’s impact on participation. Working with several key agencies in the UN system, the team will present their findings at the UN’s 10th anniversary observance of the resolution’s passage next year. John Tirman, CIS executive director and principal research scientist, and Sanam Anderlini, CIS research affiliate and director of the International Civil Society Action Network, are co-directing the project. The work is partially supported by the governments of Norway and Ireland.
	News@E40 October 23, 2009 Tellis on the Taliban Ashley Tellis delivers a talk entitled Reconciling with the Taliban? Toward an Alternative Grand Strategy in Afghanistan for the Brown-Harvard-MIT Joint Seminar on South Asia. Tellis served as advisor to Ambassador Blackwill in Delhi and is currently a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace. The talk will be at CIS (E40-496) on Thursday, November 5.
	News@E40 October 23, 2009 Obama & the Arab-Israeli conflict Khalil Shikaki and Shai Feldman give an Israeli and Palestinian perspective on current state of affairs on Thursday, October 29. Shikaki has directed the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah since 2000, and has conducted more than one hundred polls among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1993. Feldman served as head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University from 1997-2005 and is the author and co-author of numerous publications, including: Bridging the Gap: A Future Security Architecture for the Middle East and Track-II Diplomacy: Lessons from the Middle East.