News + Media

	In the News March 5, 2019 Kashmir's fog of war: how conflicting accounts benefit both sides Michael Safi and Mehreen Zahra-Malik The Guardian “The advantage of the fog of war, especially in the immediate aftermath of something like this, is that … you can actually sustain contradictory narratives,” said Vipin Narang. And that gives both countries room to claim victory and refrain from further strikes. “This kind of ambiguity can be de-escalatory for the moment. We can litigate the facts once things settle down.”
	Analysis + Opinion March 5, 2019 The Hanoi Summit was doomed from the start Ankit Panda and Vipin NarangForeign Affairs It should come as no surprise that the Hanoi summit between the United States and North Korea ended in failure. The two countries’ incompatible demands made reaching a new agreement—not just on North Korea’s nuclear program but on anything—almost impossible.
	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.
	In the News March 5, 2019 Are nuclear weapons keeping the India-Pakistan crisis from escalating — or making it more dangerous? Caitlin TalmadgeThe Washington Post This is the stuff of nuclear nightmares, especially with the U.S. government sitting on the sidelines. Worse, unlike the U.S. and U.S.S.R., India and Pakistan share a border – and their citizens may be pushing harder for escalation.
	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.