News + Media
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Analysis + OpinionAugust 5, 2011After war: reconstructJohn TirmanBoston GlobeThe US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan is now winding down. Both were considered to be vital to US security, and both exacted high tolls in human and financial costs. But neither has brought a satisfying result, and the mixture of high costs and dashed hopes may result in the neglect of both countries once our troops are withdrawn. |
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News ReleaseJuly 20, 2011MIT Japan 3/11 InitiativeA group of MIT faculty from a cross-section of disciplines is mobilizing its own response to the March 11 disaster in Japan with the launch of the MIT Japan 3/11 Initiative. Pat Gercik, associate director of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) program at CIS is the 3/11 Initiative's program coordinator and overseer of fundraising efforts. |
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News@E40July 19, 2011Gercik coordinates MIT Japan 3/11 InitiativeA group of MIT faculty from a cross-section of disciplines is mobilizing its own response to the March 11 disaster in Japan with the launch of the MIT Japan 3/11 Initiative. Pat Gercik, associate director of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) program at CIS is the 3/11 Initiative's program coordinator and overseer of fundraising efforts. Read more |
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Analysis + OpinionJuly 17, 2011The sacred and the humaneAnat BiletzkiNew York TimesHuman Rights are all the rage. They have become, currently, a very popular arena for both political activism and rampant discourse. Human rights, as we all know, are the rights humans are due simply by virtue of being human. But there is nothing simple here, since both “human” and “rights” are concepts in need of investigation. |
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News@E40July 11, 2011Harris named Fulbright ScholarTobias Harris, a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science and a member of the Security Studies Program, will study in Japan as a Fulbright Scholar during the 2011-12 academic year. Harris will conduct interviews and archival research for his project titled "The Politics of Reform in Japan, 1955-2009." He is studying decisions made by Japanese government entities regarding whether and how to undertake reforms, and the factors affecting their success, throughout the country's recent history. |
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News@E40July 6, 2011'Deaths of Others' in America's warsAmericans are greatly concerned about the number of our troops killed in battle—100,000 dead in World War I; 300,000 in World War II; 33,000 in the Korean War; 58,000 in Vietnam; 4,500 in Iraq; more than 1,000 in Afghanistan—and rightly so. But why are we so indifferent, often oblivious, to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those we fight and those we fight for? This is the compelling, largely unasked question that John Tirman, a principal research scientist and executive director at CIS, answers in The Deaths of Others. |
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News@E40July 5, 2011MIT-France helps advance energy researchMIT President Susan Hockfield and other Institute representatives traveled to Paris for the France-MIT Forum on Energy, an event to advance collaboration between Institute researchers and their French counterparts. The event also marks the 10th anniversary of the MIT-France program. Read more. |
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In the NewsJuly 4, 2011Supreme tragedyHussein BanaiMuftahAlthough he does not wear a crown (his black turban is as indistinguishable as the next cleric’s), Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has increasingly become regarded as a potentate in the tradition of Middle Eastern autocrats. As the renowned Iranian journalist and dissident, Akbar Ganji, has written of “Sultan Khamenei”’, “[he] has used his broad mandate to exercise control not only over all three branches of government but also over economic, religious, and cultural affairs, sometimes directly and sometimes through various councils or through the Revolutionary Guards. |
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News ReleaseJune 30, 2011'Deaths of others' in America's warsAmericans are greatly concerned about the number of our troops killed in battle—100,000 dead in World War I; 300,000 in World War II; 33,000 in the Korean War; 58,000 in Vietnam; 4,500 in Iraq; more than 1,000 in Afghanistan—and rightly so. But why are we so indifferent to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those we fight and those we fight for? This is the compelling question that John Tirman answers in The Deaths of Others. |
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In the NewsJune 28, 2011'Collective autism' about the costs of warChris LydonRadio Open SourceJohn Tirman is trying to explain how the United States got in the habit of fighting wars without a scorecard. We’re a country, curiously, that can focus like fiends on earned-run averages and on-base percentages. But who among us, on a pop quiz, could come up with the figures on how many died in the Iraq war, compared to the Vietnam war, Korea, the two World Wars, and the annexation of the Philippines at the turn of the 20th Century. |