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September 11, 2020

The Center's bi-annual magazine is now available

précis, the Center's bi-annual magazine, features essays and the wide range of activities of our faculty, researchers and affiliates. The spring/summer 2020 edition is now available for download.

An Indian helicopter flies over a mountain range near the disputed border © AFP via Getty Images

In the News

September 11, 2020

China and India agree to ‘disengage troops’ in Himalayas

Amy KazminThe Financial Times

Vipin Narang quoted: “The bottom line is we have to see what happens on the ground,” said Vipin Narang. “Until there is physical disengagement on the ground, you could still get an accident that forces one or both sides into a conflict that they don’t want.”

Both India and China have strengthened their positions on the border © Yawar Nazir/Getty

In the News

September 10, 2020

India and China meet to defuse Himalayan border tensions

Amy KazminThe Financial Times

Vipin Narang heavily quoted: “I don’t think that either side really wants to risk a war over these positions along the line of actual control but we now have a lot of friction points,” he said. “The problem isn’t that one side starts a war intentionally. The risk is that they stumble into war.” But he added that expectations for the talks were muted. “I don’t think anybody expects there to be a massive breakthrough,” he said. “The best-case scenario is that both sides walk away with a detailed framework of how to disengage.”

Participating in an online interaction on Monday night to mark the release of his book The India Way, Jaishankar pointed to the serious situation on the LAC and underscored the need for “very deep conversations between the two sides at a political level”. (Photo @DrSJaishankar)

In the News

September 9, 2020

Fresh Pangong lake face-off complicates Jaishankar-Wang’s face-to-face meet

Rezaul H LaskarHindustan Times

Vipin Narang quoted: “I don’t think either India or China have an incentive to go to war over the border dispute, but the increasing intensity and persistence of friction, along with air activity and the presence of loaded firearms may cause them to ‘stumble’ into war,” he said. “An advertent or inadvertent incident at a local flashpoint could now really fuel a broader conflict that neither government wants, as the forces continue to come into contact with each other,” Narang added.

a vast "pyrocumulus" cloud generated by the Creek Fire in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

In the News

September 7, 2020

Pictures and videos show California burning as more wildfires break out across state

Aristos Georgiou Newsweek

Vipin Narang quoted: “This is not a nuclear blast. It is California on fire,” MIT professor Vipin Narang wrote in a post showing the image on Twitter.

Screen shot of Jim Walsh on Fox News

In the News

September 6, 2020

Russia 'thinks they can get away with' poisoning Navalny

Fox News

Jim Walsh discusses the suspected poisoning of Russian activist Alexei Navalny and Trump's response to the allegation.

Images suggest North Korea may be preparing launch of submarine missile -think tank

In the News

September 4, 2020

Images suggest North Korea may be preparing launch of submarine missile—think tank

David BrunnstromReuters

Vipin Narang quoted: “North Korea already tested a PKS-3 SLBM last October. And it didn’t cross Trump’s redline then, and is unlikely to this time. Trump won’t care,” Vipin Narang, a non-proliferation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote on Twitter.

TikTok building entrance

In the News

September 3, 2020

America’s problem is much bigger than TikTok

David WertimePOLITICO China Watcher

M Taylor Fravel quoted: This year’s annual Pentagon report on the People’s Liberation Army dropped this week and it’s “the most comprehensive and detailed one ever published.”

DF-41 intercontinental strategic nuclear missiles are reviewed in a military parade celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 2019. Liu Bin/Xinhua via Getty Images

In the News

September 2, 2020

China may double its nuclear arsenal in just 10 years. Don’t panic.

Alex WardVox

Vipin Narang quoted: “A doubling is not as scary as it sounds,” said Vipin Narang, a nuclear expert at MIT.  “China doubling over the next couple decades is kind of ‘it’s about time,’” said MIT’s Narang. “China is late to the game.”

In the News

September 1, 2020

Donald Blackmer, professor emeritus of political science and longtime leader at MIT, dies at 91

MIT News

An esteemed scholar and extraordinary steward of institutions and people, he was known to light up the academic landscape.

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