News + Media

	In the News December 5, 2008 A 'Once-in-a-Century' Financial Crisis-Mortgaging the Future: How We Got in This Mess & Why It Could Happen Again Robert MadsenEconomy, Culture & History Japan SPOTLIGHT Bimonthly (November/December 2008): Pages 30-33 Overcoming the present financial crisis—which Alan Greenspan recently described as "a once-in-a-century" disaster—and shoring up the foundations of the world economy will doubtless require several years. In the meantime, the recriminations have already begun. Most of the criticism justifiably centers on the United States, whose poorly regulated real estate and mortgage markets precipitated the trouble and whose investment banks, hedge funds, and other institutions almost instantaneously transformed it into a worldwide phenomenon. It would be a mistake, however, to limit the scope of the inevitable scrutiny to just the United States or even the global financial system, for many other institutions also played significant roles in these tragic events.
	Audit December 1, 2008 US and Colombia: a growing military intervention? Jenny Manrique Cortés, MIT Colombia is one of the closest friends of American foreign policy. A country of 44 million, Colombia has been fighting for years against two scourges that have turned into primordial interests for the US: drug trafficking and terrorism.
	In the News December 1, 2008 The future of the American frontier John TirmanThe American Scholar Can one of our most enduring national myths, much in evidence in the recent presidential campaign, be reinvented yet again?
	In the News November 25, 2008 Fallon: US needs strategy on China Bryan BenderBoston Globe Former top commander says Pentagon officials insisted he prepare for war with China.
	News@E40 November 18, 2008 Experts' call to improve U.S. relations with Iran A group of scholars and former diplomats has issued a "Joint Experts' Statement on Iran" calling for a change of U.S. direction to emphasize diplomacy. The statement was written with the help of several scholars with Center connections, including research associate Jim Walsh, executive director John Tirman, and research affiliates Sanam Anderlini (one of the group's organizers), Ali Banuazizi, and Juan Cole. Geoffrey Forden, of MIT's Program in Science, Technology and Society, is another participant. The effort, co-chaired by Ambassadors Thomas Pickering and James Dobbins, calls on the new administration to "open the door to direct, unconditional and comprehensive negotiations at the senior diplomatic level where personal contacts can be developed, intentions tested, and possibilities explored on both sides." The experts' statement, which calls for a step-by-step approach to improve bilateral relations in the interest of U.S. security, is stirring widespread interest following a Capitol Hill news conference Tuesday, November 18. Full Statement (PDF)
	News@E40 November 17, 2008 Conflict resolution in Jerusalem The Center's Jerusalem Seminar Series presents its final talk on Thursday, Nov. 20, with Susan Collin Marks as guest lecturer. Marks is the executive vice president of Search for Common Ground, an international conflict resolution and management organization. A South African, she served as a peacemaker and peace-builder under the auspices of the National Peace Accord during South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy. She lived for two years in Jerusalem co-directing Search for Common Ground's Middle East Program. Her talk, Building Peace from the Ground Up: Conflict Resolution and Civil Society in Jerusalem, commences at 4:30p, in MIT Bldg. 3-133.
	News@E40 November 13, 2008 Starr Forum: Obama and science policy The Center's Starr Forum is hosting an advice session to the Obama administration on science and the future of America. Leading the discussion will be Marc Kastner, Donner Professor of Physics and Dean of Science at MIT. Eugene Skolnikoff, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at MIT and a former director of CIS, will chair the discussion. The event will be at the Broad Institute auditorium on Wednesday, November 19, at 6p. More information »
	News@E40 November 7, 2008 Graduate funding opportunities Graduate funding opportunities with application deadlines approaching include the CIS Summer Study Grant and the National Security Education Program's Boren Fellowships. The Center's Summer Study Grant provides funds for doctoral students in international affairs on a broad range of issues. NSEP's Boren fellowships enable U.S. graduate students to add an important international and language component to their graduate education through specialization in area study, language study, or increased language proficiency. Information about a variety of fellowships and other funding opportunities are available here.
	News@E40 November 7, 2008 Fellowship for undergraduates Monday, January 5, 2009, is the application deadline for the CIS-administered research fellows program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Applicants must be graduating seniors or have graduated within the past year, and must not have started graduate school. Successful applicants are matched with a senior associate—academics, former government officials, lawyers and journalists from around the world—to work on a variety of international affairs issues. Fellowships begin August 1, 2009. More information »
	Audit November 1, 2008 Recovering the liberal foreign policy tradition Nick Bromell, University of Massachusetts, and John Tirman, MIT Over the course of the seemingly endless 2008 electoral campaign, Barack Obama chose not to formulate a coherent and distinctive foreign policy. Aside from calling for a redeployment of military resources from Iraq to Afghanistan and expressing a greater willingness to open talks with countries like Iran, he never explained to voters exactly how he would manage foreign affairs differently from John McCain or, for that matter, from George W. Bush.