News + Media

	Analysis + Opinion March 5, 2019 Woods Hole, MIT targeted by Chinese hackers Callum Borchers, Paris Alston, Walter WuthmannWBUR The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that MIT and more than two dozen other universities have been targeted by Chinese hackers. Joel Brenner joins as a guest in the conversation exploring what kind of technology the Chinese government might be interested in, and just how vulnerable these research institutions are to cyber attacks.
	Analysis + Opinion March 1, 2019 It is long past time to stop expanding NATO Matthew Cancian and Mark CancianWar on the Rocks NATO should have learned from its 2004 inclusion of the Baltic states, militarily weak and exposed countries whose defense now constitutes a major, expensive, and perhaps unachievable military requirement. Instead, the expansion of membership has continued. Albania and Croatia joined in 2009, Montenegro in 2017. It’s time to stop NATO expansion.
	In the News March 1, 2019 Narendra Modi v Imran Khan: Who won the war of perception? Soutik BiswasBBC According to Vipin Narang, professor of political science at MIT, neither side seems to want a war. He believes that they "have had their Cuban Missile Crisis moment and recognise how a couple of wrong turns could set off uncontrollable escalation". So both sides could get back to business. "Pakistan could finally crack down on terrorism and avoid getting the music started. India could continue strategic restraint," he says.
	In the News March 1, 2019 Trump-Kim talks or not, North Korea’s nuclear arsenal apparently continues to grow Victoria KimLos Angeles Times The shutdown of Yongbyon, which includes North Korea’s only plutonium reactor as well as a uranium plant, would at least have limited the growth of North Korea’s arsenal, said Vipin Narang, a nuclear proliferation expert and political science professor at MIT. “The nuclear program continues to grow; the talks have fallen apart,” he said. “Now we’ve got nothing. This is the risk of trying to get it all in one bite.”
	In the News February 28, 2019 Trump, Kim fail to reach agreement in Hanoi after talks abruptly collapse Dominique Mosbergen and Nick VisserHuffington Post Reacting to the “no deal” on Thursday, Vipin Narang, a professor of international relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the Hanoi summit’s outcome was “better than a bad deal or a deal that one side may violate.”
	In the News February 28, 2019 Was Donald Trump’s North Korea summit a failure? David Brennan Newsweek Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at MIT, argued that a nonagreement was somewhat inevitable, given the gulf between U.S. and North Korean demands. “We’ve been papering over the differences for so long, at some point the bill was going to come due,” he told Newsweek. “You could get to Hanoi by papering over the differences.”
	In the News February 28, 2019 Who left the island? Who got the rose? The Trump-Kim summit played out like a reality show. Emily TamkinThe Washington Post “Trump knows how to set up cliffhangers,” said Vipin Narang, a professor at MIT focused on nonproliferation (and, incidentally, a fan of reality programs like “Real Housewives” and “The Shahs of Sunset”). He pointed to a tweet sent out by the U.S. president in which Trump dangled the prospect of denuclearization. “They did a good job building expectations,” Narang said.
	In the News February 28, 2019 The art of no deal: how Trump and Kim misread each other Julian Borger The Guardian Vipin Narang, an expert on nuclear proliferation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it was “better that Kim Jong-un didn’t commit to shutting down Yongbyon if he was going to slow-roll it, because committing to it in writing and then leaving himself vulnerable to being accused of violating it sets us on a collision course”.
	In the News February 28, 2019 1 big thing: No deal in Hanoi Dave LawlerAxios World Jim Walsh, an international security expert at MIT who has negotiated with North Korea, says the two sides “squandered their time since Singapore,” adding: “It took 2 years of intense, regular negotiation to get the Iran deal. And Iran is easier. … So no, 30 days and winging it isn’t going to get it done.”
	In the News February 27, 2019 The Cybersecurity 202: CyberCom sent a message by taking down a troll farm on Election Day. Was Russia listening? Joseph MarksThe Hour “I think it was worth doing,” said Joel Brenner, a former senior counsel at the National Security Agency. “But it's likely to have a very slight deterrent effect because I don't see any penalty that's being imposed.” Brenner compared the IRA operation to police making criminals stay home and stop committing crimes for a few days rather than actually locking them up in jail. “Is that going to stop them from trying again?” he asked.