Among those who graduated from the Department of Political Science this year were five graduate students affiliated with the Center’s Security Studies Program: Nicholas Ackert (SM), Nasir Almasri (PhD), John Minnich (PhD), Mina Pollmann (PhD), and Apekshya Prasai (PhD). Three additional graduates are members of the Center’s Global Diversity Lab: Jasmine English (PhD), Rorisand Lekalake (PhD), and Elizabeth Parker Mahyar (PhD). 

Derek Allmond ’24 and Kinan Martin ‘24 are the recipients of this year’s MISTI Excellence Award. The award recognizes undergraduate student achievement and commitment to global leadership. Allmond, a climate system and engineering major, and Martin, a computer and cognitive sciences major, experienced the world while advancing knowledge, tackling tough challenges, and preparing for lives of impact, service, and leadership.

Thirteen doctoral students in international affairs at MIT were awarded CIS summer research grants, covering travel costs related to field work up to $4,000. Within this group, Natasha Ansari (DUSP) and Olivia Houck (School of Architecture) were named the fifth annual Jeanne Guillemin prize winners, an endowed fund that provides financial support to women-identifying PhD candidates in global studies. The Center is pleased to support the work of an outstanding and varied cohort from across the Institute. 

SSP postdoctoral fellow Polina Beliakova (with Sarah Detzner) wrote “Security Sector Governance and Reform in Ukraine,” for the London School of Economics, Conflict and Civicness Research Group.

SSP Stanton fellow Sarah Bidgood presented “Preparing for the Uncertain Future of US-Russia Arms Control: A Food for Thought Paper,” Perry World House, January 19, 2024.

Global Diversity Lab (GDL) Paige Bollen PhD 23 will be joining Ohio State University as assistant professor of political science.

SSP PhD candidate Zachary Burdette (with Jacob L Heim, Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga) wrote “U.S. Military Theories of Victory for a War with the People's Republic of China” RAND Research Report, 2024. Burdette (with Alexandra T. Evans, Emily Ellinger, Jacob L. Heim, Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga, and Lydia Grek) also published “Managing Escalation: Lessons and Challenges from Three Historical Crises Between Nuclear-Armed Powers” RAND Research Report, 2024.

Ford International Professor of the Social Sciences Fotini Christia has been named director of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS).

GDL PhD students Jerik Cruz, Carla Garcia, Miriam Hinthorn, Kathryn Urban, and Diana Zhu were selected for methods training at the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research (IQMR) at the University of Syracuse in June.

CIS and SSP research affiliate R David Edelman wrote Rethinking Cyber Warfare: The International Relations of Digital Disruption, Oxford University Press, April 2024. He also appeared on Financial Times’ Tech Tonic for a program titled “AI with Military Characteristics.”

GDL fellow Jasmine English PhD 24 will be joining Reed College as an assistant professor of political science.

SSP PhD students Suzanne Freeman, Wright Smith, and Ye Zhang are recipients of World Politics and Statecraft Fellowships granted by the Smith Richardson Foundation. In addition, Freeman will be a pre-doctoral research fellow at George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies for the 2024-2025 academic year. Freeman was a presenting scholar at Notre Dame International Security Center’s Emerging Scholars Conference.

CIS research affiliate Eugene Gholz wrote “The US Military Role in the Red Sea — Now Turning Offensive — Is a Bad Deal” for the Cato Institute, published on January 12, 2024.

SSP senior fellow Charles Glaser wrote “Fear factor: How to know when you’re in a security dilemma,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2024.

Seminar XXI faculty director Kelly Greenhill (with Fiona Adamson) authored "Organized forced migration, past and present: Gaza, Israel-Palestine and beyond" POMEPS 51; and Greenhill (with Hugo Brady) wrote, “Arriving at a crossroads: Can Europe avoid replaying the policy failures of the 2014-16 migration crisis?” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, March 21, 2024.

SSP assistant director Laura Kerwin received and Infinite Mile Award from the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS). She was recognized for her leadership skills, service, and for the many ways she has transformed the program.

SSP Stanton fellow James D Kim will be joining the University of Washington as an assistant professor in September 2024. He wrote (with Jonghoon Lee) “Travel to allies or adversaries? A Compositional Analysis of U.S. Diplomatic Visits,” Social Science Quarterly, February 2024.

CIS and SSP faculty Erik Lin-Greenberg, Mariya Grinberg, and Kenneth Oye were among 23 MIT faculty selected as “committed to caring” by the Office of Graduate Education. The award recognizes faculty who demonstrate outstanding mentorship to their graduate students.

Leo Marx Career Development Assistant Professor in the History and Culture of Science and Technology Erik Lin-Greenberg and SSP PhD candidate Benjamin Harris published “Cheap tweets?: Crisis signaling in the age of twitter,” International Studies Quarterly, Volume 68, Issue 2, June 2024; and Lin-Greenberg (with Theo Milonopoulos) wrote “The tradeoffs of transparency: How commercial intelligence enables—and inhibits—national security outcomes," for The Republic, Spring 2024, Vol 1, No 1.

Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science Vipin Narang (currently on public service leave) was promoted from principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy to acting assistant secretary of defense for space policy for the US Department of Defense.

GDL fellow Elizabeth Parker-Magyar PhD 24 will be joining Yale University as an assistant professor of political science beginning in July 2025. She will spend the 2024-2025 academic year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Weatherhead Center at Harvard.

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science Roger Petersen published Death, Dominance, and State-Building: The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention. Oxford University Press. 2024.

Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry Posen wrote “The Devastation of Gaza Was Inevitable” in Foreign Policy in February 2024.

SSP PhD 24 recipient Apekshya Prasai will be joining the Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs at Brown University as a postdoctoral fellow. In July 2025, she will be joining Boston University as assistant professor of political science.

Ford International Professor of Political Science and faculty director of the MIT- Chile Program Ben Ross Schneider published Routes to Reform: Education Politics in Latin America. Oxford University Press. 2024. 

SSP senior fellow Carol Saivetz joined Gautam Mukunda to discuss “Can Ukraine keep up the fight against Russia, two years after the invasion?” on GBH News on February 23, 2024.

CIS Elizabeth Neuffer fellow Anjana Sankar is reporting on the Middle East for the New York Times. A list of her publications is available here.

Associate professor Caitlin Talmadge (with Jeffrey Feltman et al) contributed to “The Israel-Gaza crisis” for the Brookings Institution.

CIS research affiliates Rachel Tecott Metz and Erik Sand wrote “Defending Taiwan: But...What Are the Costs?” Washington Quarterly, published December 2023.

SSP visiting scholar Chikako Ueki presented at a Stimson Center webinar titled “Japan’s National Security Strategy: The Role of Alliance and Partnerships.”

SSP senior research associate Jim Walsh was a guest on WBUR's Here and Now to discuss “War in Israel: Military and diplomatic analysis”, “What does the Israel-Hamas War mean for global stability?”, and “Pakistan and Iran launch airstrikes at each other, raising regional tensions.”

Ford International Professor of History and faculty director of the MIT-Ukraine and MIT-Eurasia programs Elizabeth Wood authored “Gender systems in the Putin autocracy,” Frontiers in Sociology, 9 (2024). She gave a public talk for the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC on “Gender Systems in the Putin Autocracy." She also appeared in six interviews with CTV (Canadian TV), three on the demise of Alexei Navalny (Feb 16, Feb 19, and March 1, 2024) and three on Russian elections (March 15, 16, 18). She interviewed with Voice of America (June 3) on the 80th Anniversary of D-Day in comparison to Russian Victory Day. She serves as faculty chair for the Global MIT At-Risk Fellows Program (GMAF).