Visit our website and events calendar for a complete listing of fall 2015 activities. Many of our events are captured on video and available to view on YouTube.

International Policy Lab Requests Proposals

MIT announced the first call for proposals from the International Policy Lab (IPL), a new program working to enhance the impact of MIT-sponsored research on public policy. The Center launched IPL last year in recognition of the growing need for science and engineering to inform public policy, with seed funding from the Office of the Provost; Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences; and its own budget. The IPL works with MIT faculty members and researchers to translate their scholarly work into policy-relevant materials and to connect them directly with policymakers.

Guide to Using Japanese Government Archives

Mayumi Fukushima, a PhD student in the MIT Department of Political Science's Security Studies Program, has published a very useful guide to using Japanese government archives on the widely used H-Diplo. "As a former Japanese Foreign Service officer, I did not imagine how hard it would be for outside researchers to identify and find archival documents relevant to their research questions. It was not until I searched the Japanese diplomatic archives myself as an academic that I learned the challenges foreign researchers faced in accessing governmental documents," says Fukushima.

SSP Receives Support From Carnegie

The MIT Security Studies Program extends its appreciation to The Carnegie Corporation of New York, which has awarded SSP a 36 month, $1 million, grant to support its research on the global "Diffusion of Power." This will allow the program to sustain and expand its work on Asian Security, Nuclear Arms Control and Strategy, Domestic Political Instability and Violence in the Greater Middle East, and U.S. Grand Strategy.

SSP Wednesday Seminars

The Security Studies Program's lunchtime lectures included: Roger Petersen, MIT, on "A Social Science Guide to the Iraq Conflict: Discussion of a Work in Progress;" Chris Bronk, University of Houston, on "The Rise of Geekpolitik: How Cyber Impacts Geopolitics and International Security;" Fred Logevall, Harvard University, on "Explaining the Vietnam War;" and Cindy Jebb, West Point , on "Reflections from Baghdad." A full list of SSP Seminars for fall 2015 is available here.

MIT Generation Global

CIS has nurtured an innovative outreach program open to MIT undergraduate and graduate students who are passionate about solving global problems and want to share that passion with local high school students. Called Generation Global, it recruits MIT students to lead a two-week problem-solving session with students from public high schools in the Boston area. Successfully piloted in 2015 with a Somerville, Mass., charter school, the Center now seeks to expand this model to several underserved schools in the metropolitan area. The program engages the high school students in a way they have not been challenged before, aids the high-school teachers involved in the program, and benefits the MIT students by immersing them in using their knowledge to hone skills of engagement, communication, and leadership. And Generation Global provides a unique opportunity for MIT to serve the Boston community. Watch a short video about the 2015 summer pilot program.

Starr Forums

The Center hosted multiple Starr Forums this fall including: Ayaan Hirsi Ali on her latest book Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now; William McCants from Brookings Institution on his latest book The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State; Jennifer Leaning from Harvard School of Public Health, Nahuel Arenas and Ali Aljundi from Oxfam Amercia, Serena Parekh from Northeastern University, and Anna Harding from Tufts and MIT on the global refugee crisis; and a panel discussion with J. Bryan Hehir from the Harvard Kennedy School, Haroon Moghul from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and Stephen Van Evera from MIT on religion and violence. For a full list of fall Starr Forums and a link to the videos, click here.