News + Media

	Audit October 22, 2009 Afghanistan: elections, McCrystal report, & the Taliban Fotini Christia, MIT The Center's Audits of the Conventional Wisdom series continues with Fotini Christia on Afghanistan. Fotini is an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science at MIT.
	Analysis + Opinion October 2, 2009 Putting the ‘I’ in aid Peter Bergen and Sameer LalwaniNew York Times The top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, is right to warn that efforts to rebuild that country depend on winning the “struggle to gain the support of the people.” And few issues do more to stoke the resentment of ordinary Afghans than the tens of billions of dollars of foreign aid from which they have seen little or no benefit.
	News@E40 October 2, 2009 MIT announces global strategy MIT's Global Council, co-chaired by CIS director and Ford International Professor of Political Science Richard Samuels, released two reports that will help frame MIT's international engagement strategy for years to come. "Our students' hopes for productive, sustainable careers increasingly depend on acquiring stronger, deeper, and more refined international skills and understanding. Society's best hope for scientific advance depends on our ability both to draw on knowledge from the entire world and to contribute to knowledge creation across national and cultural boundaries," said MIT President Susan Hockfield and Provost L. Rafael Reif in a letter announcing the reports to the MIT community. The new strategy underscores the need for both students and faculty to be involved in global research activities, which is a hallmark of the Center's MISTI Program, the largest international program at MIT.
	Analysis + Opinion September 25, 2009 Sanctions can’t be the centerpiece Jim WalshNew York Times With Iran, the more public the chastisement, the more likely the answer will be resistance, no matter what the cost.
	News@E40 September 25, 2009 Book talk with Kristof, WuDunn CIS and Harvard Book Store are delighted to host New York Times correspondents and Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn for a discussion of their new book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Kristof and WuDunn set out to expose the struggles of women across Asia and Africa, to tell their human stories, and to follow the progress of women who are ultimately given the opportunity to seize control of their own lives. Introducing the authors will be Diane Davis, professor of political sociology at MIT and head of the International Development Group. Davis also directs the Center's Jerusalem 2050 Program. The event will be Monday, October 5, at 6 PM, at the Brattle Theatre. Tickets are available at Harvard Book Store. Image courtesy Jason Koski, Cornell University.
	Audit September 23, 2009 Iran’s nuclear program: a race between sanctions and centrifuges? Jim Walsh, MIT The Center's Audits of the Conventional Wisdom series continues with Jim Walsh on Iran. Walsh is an international securities expert and research associate at the Center's Security Studies Program.
	News@E40 September 18, 2009 Luce Fellowship deadline Oct. 7 Wednesday, October 7, is this year's deadline for the Luce Scholars Program. The program is open to seniors, graduate students, and alumni from recent classes and junior faculty. Young scholars from a wide variety of intellectual fields will be placed in 10-month internships in selected countries in East and Southeast Asia. The fellowship is aimed for those with no prior experience in Asia.
	News@E40 September 15, 2009 Joint seminar on South Asian politics The Center has joined together with the Watson Institute at Brown and the Weatherhead Center at Harvard to launch a new Inter-University Seminar on South Asian politics. The seminar is chaired by Ashutosh Varshney, professor of political science at Brown and visiting fellow at CIS. Meetings are scheduled for Thursdays at 4 PM, unless otherwise noted. More details on speakers and the series are here.
	News@E40 September 8, 2009 BBC journalist joins CIS The Center welcomes Firle Davies, a journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation, as its 2009-10 IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow. The fellowship, which is offered through the International Women's Media Foundation, gives a woman journalist the opportunity to focus exclusively on human rights journalism and social justice issues. A journalist for more than two decades, Davies has worked for the BBC since 2000. She has reported for domestic and world service radio, domestic and world television, and has produced online and current affairs documentaries. Davis has worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Zairee, among other countries. Davis will spend nine-months at CIS in a tailor-made academic research program. The fellowship is named for Elizabeth Neuffer, a Boston Globe reporter who was killed on assignment in Iraq in 2003. Press Release
	News@E40 September 8, 2009 Starr Forum on U.S.-Cuba relations Cuban scholars Julia Sweig and Wayne Smith will be discussants at a Starr Forum entitled: Cuba-U.S. Relations: The Beginning of a Long Thaw? Sweig is a senior fellow and director for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the award-winning author of Inside the Cuban Revolution, and, most recently, Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know. Smith is senior fellow and director of the Cuba Program at the Center for International Policy, and a visiting professor of Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University. Smith served in the State Department as executive secretary of President Kennedy's Latin American Task Force and chief of mission at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. The Starr Forum event, which is free and open to the public, will be on Wed, Sept 23, at 4:30 PM, in the Wong Auditorium, MIT Bldg E51.