News + Media

 Charles Koch is investing in foreign policy programs at elite American universities. (Patrick T. Fallon/For The Washington Post)

In the News

November 11, 2017

Libertarian billionaire Charles Koch is making a big bet on foreign policy

Greg JaffeWashington Post

Stephen Walt, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Barry Posen, the director of MIT’s Security Studies program, will oversee the Koch-funded program at the two schools.

Richard Nielsen and his book, Deadly Cleris

In the News

November 9, 2017

Why some Muslim clerics become jihadists

Peter DizikesMIT News Office

What turns people into radical jihadist clerics? A new book by MIT political scientist Richard Nielsen offers a new answer: thwarted career ambitions.

 

Donald Trump talked to China's President Xi Jinping as Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived for a state dinner at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 9.

Analysis + Opinion

November 9, 2017

Trump and Xi forge a friendship with a frightening edge

Audrey Jiajia LiBoston Globe

Despite his China-bashing campaign rhetoric, President Trump is enjoying the warmest reception of his overseas trips — since his inauguration — in Beijing.

President Trump addresses the National Assembly in Seoul on Nov. 8, 2017. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

In the News

November 8, 2017

In speech to South Korean assembly, Trump tells the North 'Do not try us'

Robin YoungHere & Now

Here & Now's Robin Young discusses Trump's South Korea trip with Here & Now security analyst Jim Walsh (@DrJimWalshMIT).

Richard Clarke and Joel Brenner

In the News

November 3, 2017

Why we should welcome warnings

Peter DizikesMIT News Office

Richard Clarke, the former chief counter-terrorism advisor on the National Security Council, expanded on ideas in his new book, “Warnings,” asserting that specialists…can “see the thing buried in the data that other people don’t see.”

Japanese abductees

In the News

November 3, 2017

For families of Japanese abducted by North Korea, Trump visit brings spotlight

Motoko RichNew York TImes

“The abductee issue pulls at the heartstrings of the general public in a way that no other issue can,” said Richard Samuels, a Japan specialist and the director of the MIT Center for International Studies.

Kurdistan

Analysis + Opinion

November 1, 2017

What next for Kurdistan?

Aswo Safari and John TirmanThe Huffington Post

The central government of Baghdad all along was threatening the Kurdistan regional government, as did Turkey, Syria, and in particularly Iran.

Ai Weiwei's guilded cage

Analysis + Opinion

October 26, 2017

Ai Weiwei: The enemy of walls

Audrey Jiajia LiThe Boston Globe

Ai Weiwei is not an enemy of the state. He is an enemy of walls, physical or virtual, no matter who builds them, Trump or Xi Jinping.

Analysis + Opinion

October 25, 2017

What political science tells us about the risk of civil war in Spain

Sara PlanaWar on the Rocks

Spanish stability may well turn on what happens near the regional parliament building in Barcelona’s Barri Gotic—in the shadow of Roman and medieval relics — as Catalan citizens prepare to form human shields to literally block Spanish direct rule.

Analysis + Opinion

October 16, 2017

Deadly Overconfidence: Trump thinks missile defenses work against North Korea, and that should scare you

Ankit Panda and Vipin NarangWar on the Rocks

Could a president’s overconfidence in U.S. defensive systems lead to deadly miscalculation and nuclear armageddon? Yes. Yes, it could. If Trump believes — or is being told — that American missile defenses are that accurate, not only is he factually wrong, he is also very dangerously wrong.

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