PEOPLE

PhD candidate Fiona Cunningham presented two papers at the annual APSA conference in Philadelphia: "Paper Tiger, Paper Ally? The Sino-Soviet Treaty and China's Nuclear Weapons Program" and "Chinese Views of Cyber Conflict and Escalation." In November, she presented "China-U.S. Strategic Stability in a Cross-Domain Environment" at the 15th PIIC Beijing Seminar on International Security in Suzhou, China.

SSP Senior Adviser Jeanne Guillemin was a keynote speaker at a conference in June on "Science/Technology/Security: Challenges to Global Governance," hosted by the Global Governance Institute at University College London (UCL). She spoke about the suppression of charges concerning Japanese biological and chemical warfare at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials, 1946-1948. Also in June, she participated in a "History, Security and Arms Control Workshop" held by the UCL Department of Science; Technology Studies, in cooperation with the University of Sussex. In November, Guillemin's research on the Soviet-era anthrax epidemic was featured in The Atlantic.

Principal Research Scientist Eric Heginbotham presented "The Military Balance in Asia and U.S. Rebalance: Implications for Japan” at the Grand Strategic Choices Conference at the Free University of Berlin in June. Also in June, Heginbotham presented “Military Balance in Asia: U.S. and Allied Policy Options” at the Carnegie International Policy Scholars Summer Workshop, as well as “U.S.-China Military Scorecard” at the Lincoln Labs Advanced Concepts Committee.

PhD candidate Marika Landau-Wells presented "Reconciling the Very Long and the Very Short: Applying an Evolutionary Perspective to Contemporary Political Behavior” at Cambridge University's AHRC Conference on Time and Temporality in September.

PhD candidate Renato Lima de Oliveira presented on "Petrobras: Innovation with Party Rent-Seeking" at the annual APSA meeting in September. In November, he was invited to present "From Geology to Public Policies in Mexico: Explaining Institutional Reforms in the Oil Sector" at the Emerging Scholars Workshop at the University of South Carolina (USC).

Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow Lourdes Melgar was a panelist at the 19th Latin America Conference at Harvard Business School in October. In November, she presented "Mexico's Energy Reform" at the Harvard Kennedy School's Energy Policy Seminar. She also spoke at the MIT Center for International Studies Starr Forum on "Trump's Victory: What Does it Mean For You?" In December, Melgar will present "Mexico is Open for Energy Business-Reflections After Four Successful E&P Bid Rounds" at an event jointly sponsored by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in Houston, the Norwegian-American Chamber of Commerce, INTSOK and Innovation Norway at the Norwegian House.

PhD candidate Phil Martin was awarded a CIS Summer Research Grant for field research in Harare, Zimbabwe, as well as a Summer Fellowship from the Bridging the Gap Project at American University. In July, he presented a paper, "The Wartime Origins of Civil-Military Relations in Insurgent-Ruled Africa: Evidence from Zimbabwe and Côte d'Ivoire" at the Conference of the Legacies of Armed Conflict in Southern Africa and Comparative Perspectives at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

PhD candidate Andrew Miller presented a working paper "#DictatorErdogan: How Online Censorship Backfires" at the annual meeting of the National Communications Association. He also graduated from Baltimore City's Citizen-Police Academy in preparation for his dissertation research.

PhD candidate Rachel Esplin Odell presented “Assessing the Effect of China’s Expanded Presence in the South China Sea on the U.S.-China Military Balance” in November at the University of Notre Dame, at the annual conference jointly sponsored by APSA’s International Security and Arms Control Section (ISAC) and ISA’s International Security Studies Section (ISSS), with MIT SSP alumnus Eugene Gholz as her panel discussant.

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science Roger Petersen participated in a workshop on "Emotions, Ideologies, and Unconventional Political Violence" sponsored by the Independent Social Research Foundation held at Girton College, University of Cambridge, in July. In September, he was the speaker at a book launch of Dara Cohen's Rape During Civil War at Harvard University. Also in September, Petersen presented "Insurgency, Terrorism, Iraq, Syria" at the US Department of State Bureau of Counterterrorism in Washington, DC.

Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry Posen is the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress John W. Kluge Center. At the Kluge Center, Posen will study the implications of a multipolar international order for the United States. Kissinger scholars at the Library of Congress are appointed annually by the recommendation of a selection of representatives from the academic community and foreign policy experts. In June, Posen gave the lunch address on "The Case for Restraint in US Foreign Policy" at the CATO Institute. In July, Posen's book, Restraint: A New Foundation for U.S. Grand Strategy, was featured in an International Security Studies Forum roundtable discussion. He presented “Restraint, President Obama, and the Middle East” at the Crown Center at Brandeis University in September. Posen participated in a panel discussion on “The NATO Alliance” with MIT alumnus Ambassador Ivo Daalder. The event, organized by the Charles Koch Institute, was held in October in New York City. Posen also presented “Restraint: A New Foundation for US Grand Strategy” at a CSIS conference on “The Third Offset” in Washington, DC. In November, Posen presented “Restraint: A New Foundation for US Grand Strategy” at the School of Advanced Airpower Studies Graduates at the Pentagon. He presented “Restraint and the Election of D. Trump” at the Center for International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Also in November, he presented “Keynote—Retrospective on Command of the Commons” at Commanding the Commons in the Early 21st Century, a conference inspired by Posen’s 2003 International Studies article. The conference was held at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service.

PhD candidate Amanda Rothschild presented two papers at the annual APSA meeting in Philadelphia: "Dissent, Debate, and the Origins of Responsiveness to Mass Killing" and "Dissent in the Ranks: Humanitarianism and US Foreign Policy."

Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies Richard J. Samuels is the Albert Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Berlin. Samuels was also awarded a Smith Richardson Foundation grant for his research on the history of the Japanese intelligence community. Samuels chaired a Starr Forum in October on "Racism, Violence, and Democracy." In November, he delivered the keynote lecture on "Allies Eye America's Decline" at the Einstein Foundation in Berlin. Also in November, Samuels presented "Japan and Global Security" at the Center for Global Partnership's 25th Anniversary colloquium in Tokyo.

Ford International Professor of Political Science Ben Ross Schneider presented "Delicate Dynamic: Business, Government, and Industrial Policy in Latin America" in August at a conference sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Mexico City.

Ford Professor of Political Science Kathleen Thelen was elected President-Elect of the American Political Science Association at the 2016 annual meeting.

PhD candidate Ketian Zhang is a Pre-doctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies (ISCS) at George Washington University. In September, she presented “Smart Bully—Explaining Chinese Coercion in The South China Sea (1990-2015)” at the annual APSA meeting. Also in September, she was invited to present “Patriots of Diverse Characteristics: Deconstructing China’s Anti-Japan Protests” at the Asia Fellows (Rajawali Fellows) Seminar Series at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center.

PUBLISHED

PhD candidate Fiona Cunningham (with Rupal N. Mehta), “Alliances, Extended Deterrence, and Managing Escalation in East Asia,” Shifting Dynamics: Next Generation Assessments on Asian Security, Ed. Sharon Stirling, Washington, DC: German Marshall Fund of the United States, 2016.

Associate Professor of Political Science Taylor Fravel, “Explaining China’s Escalation in the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands Dispute,” Global Summitry, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 2016.

________________“China’s Changing Approach to Military Strategy: The Science of Military Strategy from 2001 to 2013,” China's Evolving Military Strategy, Ed. Joe McReynolds, Washington, DC: Brookings Press, 2016.

________________ (with Peter Lorentzen and Jack Paine), “Qualitative Investigations of Theoretical Models: The Value of Process Tracing," Journal of Theoretical Politics, (forthcoming).

________________ “What will Guide China’s Response to the South China Sea Tribunal Ruling,” South China Morning Post, July 8, 2016.

________________“Traditional Fishing Grounds and China’s Historic Rights Claims in the South China Sea,” Maritime Awareness Project, July 11, 2016.

________________“China’s Claims in the South China Sea Rejected,” ChinaFile, July 12, 2016.

________________ “What is the Future of the South China Sea?” ChinaFile, July 12, 2016.

________________ “Why Does China Care So Much about the South China Sea? Here are 5 Reasons,” The Washington Post, July 13, 2016.

SSP Senior Adviser Jeanne Guillemin, “The Mail: Assad’s Atrocities,” New Yorker, June 6 & 13, 2016.

PhD candidate Renato Lima de Oliveira (with Associate Professor of Political Science F. Daniel Hidalgo and Julio Canello), “Can Politicians Police Themselves? Natural Experimental Evidence from Brazil’s Audit Courts,” Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 49, No. 13, November 2016.

PhD candidate Phil Martin, “Why Zimbabwe's Military Sticks With Mugabe,” Foreign Affairs, September 2016.

________________(with PhD candidate Nina McMurry, PhD candidate Daniel de Kadt, and Professor of Political Science Evan Lieberman, “Here are Four Reasons that South Africa's ANC Lost Ground in This Month's Elections,” Washington Post Monkey Cage blog, August 12, 2016.

PhD candidate Kacie Miura (with Jessica Chen Weiss), “Will China Test Trump? Lessons from Past Campaigns and Elections,” The Washington Quarterly, December 2016.

Associate Professor of Political Science Vipin Narang, “The Lines That Have Been Crossed,” The Hindu, October 4, 2016.

________________ (with SSP alumnus Christopher Clary), “Confusion is Risky,” The Indian Express, November 18, 2016.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Richard Nielsen, “Case Selection via Matching,” Sociological Methods and Research, Vol. 45, No. 3, 2016.

Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry Posen, “How to Think About Russia,” The National Interest, November 29, 2016.

PhD candidate Amanda Rothschild, “Trump Critics Serve Best as Insiders,” Boston Herald, November 30, 2016.

Ford International Professor of Political Science Ben Ross Schneider (with Richard Doner), “The Middle Income Trap: More Politics than Economics,” World Politics, Vol. 68, No. 4, October 2016.

PhD student Rachel Tecott, “Targeted Killing: Thinking Through the Logic,” War on the Rocks, September 2016.

________________(with PhD student Sara Plana), “Maybe U.S. Police Aren’t Militarized Enough. Here’s What Police Can Learn From Soldiers,” Washington Post Monkey Cage blog, August 2016.