News + Media

	In the News June 22, 2021 Alas and a LAC - The Sino-Indian border a year on Sify Quoted: Taylor Fravel commented on the PLA's eventual pullback: "China appears to have calculated that the political costs of a long-term military standoff with India had now become too high. As I show in recent testimony, China's assessment of its international environment now emphasizes what Xi Jinping describes as 'profound changes unseen in a century' that are associated with power shifts, rapid technological change, decaying global governance and populism. Although this assessment sees a favorable 'rising East, declining West,' it also highlights greater uncertainty and sources of instability that China must navigate to achieve its ambitious economic goals. Stabilized relations with India will help China achieve these goals, whereas continued militarized confrontation would not."
	Analysis + Opinion June 22, 2021 Is Washington right to leave Afghanistan? Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs asks experts—including faculty and students affiliated with the Center and the Security Studies Program—to state whether they agreed or disagreed with the withdrawal from Afghanistan. They were also asked to rate their confidence level in their opinion. An excerpt of their responses are featured here.
	In the News June 20, 2021 N Korea’s Kim says to prepare for ‘both dialogue and confrontation’ with US Reuters Quoted: Kim’s comments continue a “wait and see” policy, while refraining from provoking the Biden administration, said Vipin Narang, a nuclear affairs expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. "It seems to suggest that Pyongyang thinks the ball is in the U.S. court at the moment, and it is waiting to see how the Biden administration outreach goes,” he said. “Given reports of North Korea’s food and COVID-19 situation, one presumes that Kim is also happy to avoid a near-term confrontation.”
	In the News June 18, 2021 What's next after the Biden-Putin summit? NECN Sue O’Connell sat down with Carol Saivetz, senior advisor for the Security Studies Program at MIT, to discuss the biggest takeaways from the Biden-Putin summit and what we can expect going forward.
	In the News June 17, 2021 One year after Galwan: The road ahead for Sino India Relations Centre for Policy Research On Thursday, June 17, the Centre for Policy Research featured an event with Taylor Fravel as a panelist to discuss the future of Sino-India relations. The event is archived and available on FaceBook.
	In the News June 17, 2021 Melissa Nobles named MIT’s next chancellor MIT has announced that its next chancellor will be Melissa Nobles, an accomplished scholar who has led the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences since 2015. “Human societies face very serious challenges, and the world’s issues seem quite immediate and pressing, sitting here at our doorstep,” says Nobles, who is the Kenin Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) and a professor of political science. “Our responsibility to educate our students in order to face these challenges is more important than ever..."
	In the News June 15, 2021 For the first time, NATO is focusing on China The World Both the Trump and the Biden administrations have described China as an adversary, a rival, even a threat. China has been front and center when it comes to Biden's foreign policy agenda. Now, the NATO alliance is also zeroing in on China with laserlike focus. In a statement coming out of the NATO summit, allies stated that China's behavior presents: "systemic challenges to the rules-based international order." Host Marco Werman speaks with Taylor Fravel.
	In the News June 14, 2021 Lin-Greenberg among six SHASS educators to receive 2021 Levitan Teaching Award Six individuals have received the James a and Ruth Levitan Teaching Award for 2021. The award, given annually by the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS), honors superlative teachers across the school, who have been nominated by MIT students themselves.
	In the News June 13, 2021 Biden’s Europe trip is an end, not a new beginning Max HastingsBloomberg Quoted: Posen argued in a recent paper that even if the US withdrew militarily from Europe, the European NATO allies are capable of defending themselves against Russian aggression.
	In the News June 11, 2021 Q&A: The missing piece of the puzzle in manufacturing The US Innovation and Competition Act, which sailed through the Senate on Tuesday [June 8, 2021], seeks to strengthen cutting-edge American technologies, manufacturing, and—the reason for this rare bipartisan enthusiasm—competitiveness against China.