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	News@E40 November 18, 2008 Experts' call to improve U.S. relations with Iran A group of scholars and former diplomats has issued a "Joint Experts' Statement on Iran" calling for a change of U.S. direction to emphasize diplomacy. The statement was written with the help of several scholars with Center connections, including research associate Jim Walsh, executive director John Tirman, and research affiliates Sanam Anderlini (one of the group's organizers), Ali Banuazizi, and Juan Cole. Geoffrey Forden, of MIT's Program in Science, Technology and Society, is another participant. The effort, co-chaired by Ambassadors Thomas Pickering and James Dobbins, calls on the new administration to "open the door to direct, unconditional and comprehensive negotiations at the senior diplomatic level where personal contacts can be developed, intentions tested, and possibilities explored on both sides." The experts' statement, which calls for a step-by-step approach to improve bilateral relations in the interest of U.S. security, is stirring widespread interest following a Capitol Hill news conference Tuesday, November 18. Full Statement (PDF)
	News@E40 November 17, 2008 Conflict resolution in Jerusalem The Center's Jerusalem Seminar Series presents its final talk on Thursday, Nov. 20, with Susan Collin Marks as guest lecturer. Marks is the executive vice president of Search for Common Ground, an international conflict resolution and management organization. A South African, she served as a peacemaker and peace-builder under the auspices of the National Peace Accord during South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy. She lived for two years in Jerusalem co-directing Search for Common Ground's Middle East Program. Her talk, Building Peace from the Ground Up: Conflict Resolution and Civil Society in Jerusalem, commences at 4:30p, in MIT Bldg. 3-133.
	News@E40 November 13, 2008 Starr Forum: Obama and science policy The Center's Starr Forum is hosting an advice session to the Obama administration on science and the future of America. Leading the discussion will be Marc Kastner, Donner Professor of Physics and Dean of Science at MIT. Eugene Skolnikoff, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at MIT and a former director of CIS, will chair the discussion. The event will be at the Broad Institute auditorium on Wednesday, November 19, at 6p. More information »
	News@E40 November 7, 2008 Graduate funding opportunities Graduate funding opportunities with application deadlines approaching include the CIS Summer Study Grant and the National Security Education Program's Boren Fellowships. The Center's Summer Study Grant provides funds for doctoral students in international affairs on a broad range of issues. NSEP's Boren fellowships enable U.S. graduate students to add an important international and language component to their graduate education through specialization in area study, language study, or increased language proficiency. Information about a variety of fellowships and other funding opportunities are available here.
	News@E40 November 7, 2008 Fellowship for undergraduates Monday, January 5, 2009, is the application deadline for the CIS-administered research fellows program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Applicants must be graduating seniors or have graduated within the past year, and must not have started graduate school. Successful applicants are matched with a senior associate—academics, former government officials, lawyers and journalists from around the world—to work on a variety of international affairs issues. Fellowships begin August 1, 2009. More information »
	News@E40 October 28, 2008 Bustani Seminar: 'Who Speaks for Islam?' On Tuesday, November 4, the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar brings to MIT, Dalia Mogahed, senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. Her talk, "Who Speaks for Islam," is based on her new book, Who Speaks for Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. The talk commences at 4:30p in MIT Bldg E51-095.
	News@E40 October 28, 2008 Jerusalem talks conclude with built & civil society The Center's fall 2008 Jerusalem Seminar Series concludes with the following talks: "Architecture and the Built Environment," by Nili Portugali, The Technion, on Thursday, October 30, 4p, MIT Blg 4, Rm 237; and "Civil Society and Conflict Resolution," by Susan Collin Marks, Search for Common Ground, on Thursday, November 20, 4:30p, MIT Bldg 3, Rm 133. The series explores the history, economy, physical structure, and civil society of Jerusalem. The talks are free and open to the public.
	News@E40 October 23, 2008 A conversation with Admiral Fallon The Center is honored to host a Starr Forum with Admiral William Fallon, former head of CENTCOM, on Tuesday, October 28. He will address global issues of national importance for the next U.S. administration just one week before the national election. Admiral Fallon joined CIS as a 2008-09 Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow. The talk will commence at 4:30p at the Wong auditorium (MIT Tang Center, 70 Memorial Drive). EVENT DETAILS »
	News@E40 October 21, 2008 US Nuclear Policy: Critical Choices A provocative discussion of America's nuclear policy and the critical choices facing a new administration in Washington will be held on Wednesday, October 22. The speakers for the talk, "U.S. Nuclear Policy-Critical Choices: A Conservative and Progressive View," are Joseph Cirincione, author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons and president, Ploughshares Fund; and Mark Esper, executive vice president, Global Intellectual Property Center, U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The event commences at 4p at MIT Blg 32-141 (Stata Center). Co-sponsors are The Technology and Culture Forum at MIT, MIT Nuclear Weapons Abolition Initiative, and the MIT Center for International Studies.
	News@E40 October 17, 2008 Starr Forum on health care policy The World Health Organization ranks America's health care a dismal 37, with France and Italy among the top two. And the U.S. comes in dead last on most measures of performance when compared to other advanced nations, cites a 2007 study by the Commonwealth Fund. The U.S. health care system is a critical issue in the current presidential campaign, with Barack Obama and John McCain each offering a remedy. Join noted health care expert and MIT professor of economics Jonathan Gruber as he diagnoses our ailing health care, explains why other countries' systems are in better shape, and offers a recovery plan to our next president. The Starr Forum, "Health Care Policy and the Next U.S. Administration," will be on Wednesday, October 22, 2008, at 6p, in MIT Bldg E25-111.
	News@E40 October 17, 2008 Nilüfer Göle to speak at Bustani Seminar Nilüfer Göle, a professor of sociology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris and a leading authority on the political movement of today's educated, urbanized, religious Muslim women, will speak at the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar on Tuesday, October 21, 2008. A prominent Turkish scholar, she is the author of The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling. The talk, "Islam and Europe: The Changing Face of Public Culture," is at 4:30p in MIT Bldg E51-095.
	News@E40 October 15, 2008 Upcoming public talks Competing for Foreign Students and Workers in Science and Engineering, B. Lindsay Lowell, Georgetown University, on Nov 12; Russian Military Reform and Anatoly Serdyukov, Dale Herspring, Kansas State University, on Nov 19; Science Policy and the Obama Administration, Marc Kastner, MIT, on Nov 19; and Conflict Resolution in Jerusalem, Susan Collin Marks, Search for Common Ground, on Nov 20.
	News@E40 October 15, 2008 Avishai on peace and Israel's economy The Center's Jerusalem Seminar Series continues with "Does the Israeli Economy Really Need Peace?" Bernard Avishai, a resident of Jerusalem and contributing editor of the Harvard Business Review, is the guest speaker. Avishai is associated with the Monitor Group, a privately owned global management consulting firm and is the author, most recently of The Hebrew Republic. Joining the lecture as a discussant is Kate Rouhana, a researcher, writer, and fundraising consultant who has worked extensively on Israel and Palestine, both regionally and in the U.S. She has reported for Al-Fajr English newspaper in Jerusalem, co-directed the Council of Palestinian Public Affairs Research Unit in Jersualem, and served as the coordinator for a Israeli-Palestinian Working Group at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard. The public talk will be held on Thurs, Oct 16, in MIT Bldg 3, Rm 133, from 4p - 6p.
	News@E40 October 10, 2008 MISTI turns 25 MIT celebrated 25 years of international engagement through the Center's International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) at an Oct. 2 dinner hosted by Dana Mead, chairman of the MIT Corporation, and Deborah Fitzgerald, Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. MIT's largest international program, MISTI is a pioneer in the field of applied international studies. It prepares MIT students to participate in the global economy by connecting them to hands-on professional internships and research opportunities across the globe. MISTI began in the early 1980s with the creation of the MIT-Japan Program. By 1991, more than 60 MIT interns each year were working in Japan. Today, MISTI prepares and sends more than 300 MIT interns annually to nine countries: China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico and Spain. "From the path that MISTI has broken, we are now paving the way to a whole new avenue for education at MIT," President Susan Hockfield said. "The reason I'm convinced that global exposure makes an MIT education even better for our students is that we have been very careful in designing those experiences. MISTI is the premier example."
	News@E40 October 5, 2008 Upcoming public events The Impact of Migration on Children Left Behind in Developing Countries, Andrea Rossi, John F. Kennedy School of Government, on Oct 14; Asia's Growing Footprints in the Middle East: What it Means for America, Geoffrey Kemp, Director, Regional Strategic Patterns, Nixon Cente, on Oct 15; Does the Israeli Economy Really Need Peace? Bernard Avishai, Monitor Group, on Oct 16.
	News@E40 July 24, 2008 Manrique on Colombia The Center's Neuffer Fellow, Jenny Manrique, will present a talk entitled "The Colombian Diaspora: Refugees and Asylum Seekers in South and North America," on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 4:30p. Her talk concludes the fall 2008 Myron Weiner Seminar on International Migration. In addition, Manrique recently published an Audit on Plan Colombia entitled "U.S. and Colombia: A Growing Military Intervention?" A journalist, Manrique writes forComunicaciones Aliadas, a non-governmental online magazine based in Peru that focuses on Latin American news, particularly human rights. She joined the Center as its 2008-09 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow. The fellowship is a project of the International Women's Media Foundation in memory of Elizabeth Neuffer, aBoston Globe reporter who was killed on assignment in Iraq in 2003.