The first book from the Center's US-Iran project was published in May—Becoming Enemies: US-Iran Relations and the Iran-Iraq War, 1979-1988; Ordinary people show remarkable capacities for coping with and resisting violent actors in some of the world's most dangerous cities, a new study from the Center shows; The Center launched its first Artist in Residence Program with Kiana Hayeri; DUSP hosted a commemoration of Alice Amsden in the new Media Lab building; The International Security Studies Best Book Award Selection Committee announced the selection of Joshua Rovner, Fixing the Facts: National Security and the Politics of Intelligence (Cornell University Press, 2011) as the recipient of this year's prize; Roger Petersen's book Western Intervention in the Balkans won the ENMISA Distinguished Book Award.

Can strong authorities be made accountable to weak constituencies? If so, how? Greg Distelhorst, a PhD candidate in political science, shows how media liberalization improves government accountability even in a strong, authoritarian state like China.

Philip Khoury, associate provost, discusses with précis foreign policy in the Middle East, MIT's relationship to the policymaking community, and how an engineering school benefits the humanities and social science community.