The 2012 *General Jimmy Doolittle Award Dinner

Tue, 08 May 2012 07:03:48 GMT

Doolittle Award

Each year, SSP honors the memory of General “Jimmy” Doolittle, American war hero, aviation pioneer, and MIT graduate (SM ’24 and PhD ’25) with an awards lecture on a topic of aviation.

2012 General Jimmy Doolittle Award Dinner

On April 19, 2012, the 2012 James Doolittle Award was presented to Professor Richard K. Betts, Director, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University. The topic of Professor Betts' talk: "The Decline of Deterrence."

April 19, 2012

World Pieces: The Neuroscience of Conflict

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:03:09 GMT

A study of conflict resolution through neuroscience with Emile Bruneau and Rebecca Saxe. By Kenrick Vezina, Gillian Conahan and Emily Ruppel.

Technology Day 1995 - "War, Technology, Peace and Change"

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:18:21 GMT

MIT's 1995 Technology Day takes place on June 16, 1995 on the theme "War, Technology, Peace and Change." A fly-by of six vintage World War II airplanes led by a B-25, intended as a tribute to the sacrifices of MIT community members in wartime service, concludes the event. Featured speakers include Doris Kearns Goodwin, "The WWII Imperative for Democracy;" Robert Seamans, "WWII Comes to MIT;" Paul Gray "MIT's Response to the WWII Experience;" Lester Thurow, "The Economic Impact of the War on Society;" Charles M. Vest, "MIT and the Future." [T3069, T3070]

Excellence is a Shared Path: Working Together for Justice and the Quality of Life

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 05:00:00 GMT

02/09/2011 7:30 AM Walker Morss HallKhalea Robinson, '11; Pierre Fuller, 'GDescription: In their brief remarks honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., two students strike the theme of collaboration. They touch on the importance of humility and listening to one's inner voice while pursuing a shared vision of justice and equality. When she first came to MIT, Khalea Robinson was set to become a builder of bridges and skyscrapers. "Their visibility and permanence appealed to me." But a talk she attended on some of the world's pressing problems shook her commitment to this path. Access to clean water, and other issues, should surely count more than her own private engineering goals, she imagined. But after taking introductory courses in environmental and civil engineering, she realized that she "couldn't simply fall in line wherever there was a call, because there are so many calls, all of them worthy." Robinson felt that she should instead look for a field that would "bring forth my initiative, passion, drive, insight and courage," while also promoting justice and fairness. In a world "full of complex problems that need to be solved by many people," Robinson believes each of us "has a distinct voice that can and must be raised." Pierre Fuller finds a model in Biblical scripture's Nehemiah, who called on his people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem one brick at a time, "each man contributing according to his ability." Fuller recounts that when acquaintances call him a "genius" because he studies at MIT, he points to the help he received during his childhood in Flint, Michigan: his grandmother, a hospital cleaner; a barber friend with a drug record; and his mother -- "who guided me with equal doses of love and tender encouragement, and a wooden paddle and a backhand that would rival Serena Williams." Just as Fuller attributes his success to a collective that made unique contributions to his upbringing, he sees the project of building a better world as a function of individuals working together in humility, suppressing personal ambitions, and "replacing a savior mentality with a serving mentality." The technological innovations MIT sees as the foundation of the future are "only a brick, a small portion of the wall that is to sustain our community." The academic elite, says Fuller, must seek solutions for communities they serve. All of us "must humble our hearts" to work for "those who come after us, as we have been served by those who come before." About the Speaker(s): A native of St. Kitts and Nevis, Khalea Robinson has been deeply involved with social policy issues. In 2008 she participated in MIT's Presidential Policies Initiative to raise awareness among national candidates of the greatest issues facing the U.S., including education and mortgage reform. Pierre Fuller earned a B.S. in civil engeering and in architecture from Lawrence Technological University, and his S.M. in civil engineering from MIT. His current research focuses on applying computing techniques to solve problems in building construction and operations. Fuller has served as a teaching assistant at MIT, and is involved with various youth outreach programs, including MIT's STEM science enrichment program for middle school children.Host(s): Office of the President, MIT Annual Breakfast Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace Meals

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

10/19/2010 4:30 PM 66"110Anna Badkhen, Author, "Peace Meals"; Fotini Christia, Assistant Professor in Political ScienceDescription: While breaking bread around the world with friends and families suffering through war and deprivation, Anna Badkhen managed to compile not just a vivid chronicle of lives under duress, but a cookbook. In this dialogue with MIT political scientist Fotini Christia, Badkhen describes her new work, Peace Meals: Candy"Wrapped Kalashnikovs and Other War Stories< /i>, in which by some Proustian process frontline reporting melds with tasty recipes. Conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East or Africa seem remote to most Americans, seen mainly through the lens of a news camera. In contrast, Badkhen takes "a quiet, intimate long look" into the living rooms of people under constant threat of violence and destitution. Her persistence over 10 years of reporting has won her friends in dangerous and ravaged lands. Peace Meals arose from a series of food"based, extended conversations about survival with her most memorable acquaintances. Says Badkhen, "All that is holding us together are stories. And (my subjects) tell stories from their dinner tables." In her book, Badkhen mingles description of food preparation and consumption with a chronicle of conversation, and provides as well a complex stew of culture, history and politics that is a necessary part of each survivor's story. No matter how extreme her subjects' circumstances, "the more stripped down the house or kitchen, the more the emptiness was filled with extraordinary humanity and generosity." For her, each recipe or meal evokes a unique encounter and acquaintance. Dolma (stuffed grape leaves) calls up her Iraqi reporter friend and his family, who cooked with her in 2003 "while U.S. planes were bombing their hometown." A hearty borscht summons the evening in 2002 when Russian authorities invaded a Moscow theater held by Chechen terrorists, leading to the death of 129 people. For Russians, this beet soup is "the ultimate comfort food, like donuts," says Badkhen. Her friends "went for the borscht" because it was "hot, and protects you from the physical cold of living in a country that doesn't care." An American Army commander in Iraq shared his barracks meal: a burger, corn dog, French fries and Jell"O. "He ate the same meal every day," Badkhen says, regardless of whatever else was in the menu. "He felt each meal might be his last If the day ends, and he is still alive, there will be the corn dog which will remind him of home." About the Speaker(s): Anna Badkhen has covered wars in Afghanistan, Somalia, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Chechnya and Kashmir. She has reported extensively from Iraq since 2003. Her reporting has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The National, FRONTLINE/World, Truthdig, and Salon. Her wartime journalism won the 2007 Joel R. Seldin Award for reporting on civilians in war zones.Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Center for International Studies

Grace Lee & Shammi Quddus

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:44:29 GMT

Grace Lee ('10 Course 7) was the President of the MIT chapter of Habitat for Humanity (HFH). With the help of Public Service Grants, Grace Lee and MIT Habitat for Humanity volunteers have worked to provide Habitat families typically living in inadequate shelters with good homes. As HFH president, Grace Lee has transformed a small club that performed one event each year to a club that now has a large volunteer base, increased visibility, and co-sponsors a Habitat home. Last year, HFH helped to finish several homes in the surrounding areas of Boston. Grace is also the recipient of the Priscilla King Gray Award for Public Service in 2009. Shammi Quddus ('10 Course 7) and her partner, Ejaj Ahmad, spent the summer of 2009 in Shammi's hometown of Chittagong, Bangladesh implementing their community service program, Building Bridges Through Leadership Training. It was one of two MIT projects awarded the Davis Projects for Peace Fellowship. Shammi worked to create create dialogue between different peer groups in the spirit of active citizenry, while engaging students in class lectures, reflection, volunteerism, and community service work that totaled 670 hours. Shammi and Ejaj hope to form the Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center. Shammi hopes the Center will become a full-fledged training institute for young students and professionals.

Chris Moses

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:42:53 GMT

Chris Moses ('10 Course 9) was awarded a Davis Projects for Peace Fellowship and participated in the Public Service Fellowship and Grants programs to continue his work with the telemedicine-based health care delivery system called Sana (formerly MocaMobile). Chris is traveling to Manila this summer to launch a new collaboration between universities in Metro Manila and provincial health offices in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao, Philippines. He plans to work with local software engineers in Manila to customize the Sana telemedicine system to deliver primary care with a focus on child and maternal health, and will train health workers to carry out initial pilot studies in Mindanao.

Challenges in Nation Building

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

09/29/2009 2:30 PM 10"250President José Ramos"Horta, President, East Timor, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize LaureateDescription: At times humorous and defiant, JoséRamos"Horta describes nurturing the 21st century's first sovereign state through its formative years. The journey of East Timor from brutal Indonesian rule to fragile self"governance has involved Ramos"Horta in conflict and debate from the halls of the U.N. to the smallest villages of this tiny Southeast Asian island. He describes the scene in 2002, after two years of UN"supervised transition, when Indonesia handed off a nation it had governed by force for decades: "A human calamity -- close to 200 thousand people lost their lives." Another 200 thousand were forcibly displaced into West Timor. As it departed "in anger and frustration," Indonesia's military orchestrated the destruction of the nation's cities, roads, schools and clinics. "The economy was at a standstill," says Ramos"Horta. "We received barely a sketch of a state, a skeleton." The challenge of rebuilding East Timor is all the more daunting given "the psychological"emotional trauma of 24 years of violence." There are bitter disputes involving how to conduct a national process of reconciliation. Western ambassadors recently called on Ramos"Horta, "representatives of two countries most notoriousfor providing weapons and the red carpet treatment to the dictatorship of Indonesia." They advocated establishing an international tribunal to pursue crimes against humanity during Indonesian rule. Says Ramos"Horta, "Had I been in a bad mood, I would have said, 'Excuse me, the two of you are lecturing me on human rights and justice?'" Despite warnings from the U.N. that "lack of justice encourages impunity," he believes East Timor must travel its own path toward reconciliation. If East Timor set up such a tribunal, "Who would it start with -- Indonesia or the U.S., which provided weapons to Suharto, or Australia, or all of them at once?" He states, "If you pursue justice at any cost without being sensitive to the challenges and complexities on the ground, you undermine the incipient nation, democracy and justice." Today, when Ramos"Horta travels in the countryside, people don't want to discuss security and unity. Recounts Ramos"Horta, "They joke with me: 'Mr. President, we really like your road to peace, but we prefer a road to our village.'" He's now focused on providing his people with such essentials as clean water and electricity, and shoring up the nation's fragile social and economic institutions. "Let's put all the past behind us. Look after the victims, the wounded, in their minds, bodies and souls, build a country that is deserving of so much sacrifice. Chasing the ghosts of the past leads us nowhere," says Ramos"Horta. About the Speaker(s): José Manuel Ramos"Horta took office as the second President of East Timor (since independence from Indonesia) on May 20, 2007. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese Bishop Ximenes Belo for "sustained efforts to hinder the oppression of a small people. " As a founder and former member of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN), Ramos"Horta served as the exiled spokesman for the East Timorese resistance during the years of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor (1975 to 1999). After East Timor achieved independence in 2002, Ramos"Horta was appointed as the country's first Foreign Minister. He served in this position until his resignation on June 25, 2006, amidst political turmoil. In July 2006, he was officially sworn in as the second Prime Minister of East Timor. On February 11, 2008, Ramos"Horta was injured when he was shot during an assassination attempt. Ramos"Horta studied Public International Law at the Hague Academy of International Law (1983) and at Antioch University where he completed an M.A. in Peace Studies (1984). He was trained in Human Rights Law at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg (1983). He attended Post"Graduate courses in American foreign policy at Columbia University(1983). He is a Senior Associate Member of the University of Oxford's St Antony's College (1987). Host(s): School of Architecture and Planning, Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship

U.S.-Cuba Relations: The Beginning of a Long Thaw?

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

09/23/2009 4:30 PM Wong AuditoriumJulia Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow For Latin America Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Wayne Smith, Senior Fellow and Director of the Cuba Program, Center for International PolicyDescription: To the dismay of these seasoned Cuba specialists, the Obama administration is not pursuing a rapid thaw in relations with the Castro regime. While there appears no speedy end to 50 years of icy antipathy toward Cuba, the speakers detect a few hopeful signs of warming in recent times. Wayne Smith has seen opportunities for a real bilateral relationship come and go. He first went to Cuba in 1958, just before the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations. He was among the first to go back in 1977 when Jimmy Carter attempted to reopen channels for discussion. Smith left the foreign service in 1982 after Reagan was elected, and had great hopes that Clinton would soften the U.S. stance following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Cuban exiles in the U.S. succeeded in retaining a hard"line policy against Cuba. Smith says, "Here we are again: another opportunity." It's in the best interest of the U.S., says Smith, to begin "a mature relationship" with Cuba. He thinks the window is open a crack now. He knows many Cuban"Americans whose families lost property, or had relatives imprisoned, and "50 years later have come around to say, it's time to begin talking." We may be entering "an interesting period of change" following a half century of "abnormal, unnatural relations," says Julia Sweig. A few years ago, on the heels of Fidel Castro's illness, Cuba initiated a "significant reform agenda." In a record"short (34 minute) inaugural speech, Castro's appointed successor, brother Raul, "implied awareness of the intense unhappiness on the island," announcing proposed internal travel freedoms, and discussing agrarian and currency reform. "He sounded often more like Margaret Thatcher than Karl Marx," says Sweig. But this fledgling effort to expand opportunities for Cubans was derailed in 2008 by three devastating hurricanes, the collapse of world commodity and financial markets, and Fidel Castro's recovery (he's "notoriously allergic to the market," Sweig says). There is some reason for optimism beyond Cuba. Sweig perceives a major shift in public opinion among Cuban"Americans, especially the young cohort that helped vote in Obama. There's a prevailing sense that the embargo has failed, and that America should completely lift its travel ban. And the Obama administration has indicated a slight softening toward Cuba, permitting family remittances, and signaling that it might allow American telecom companies to do business in Cuba. Sweig believes "this glacial, almost like walking through peanut butter pace of change that we have in bilateral relations suits each government just fine." She concludes with a genuine bright spot: the September '09 Havana concert by Colombian musician Juanes, which demonstrated that the U.S. and Cuba can have meaningful contact with each other "without governments getting in the way." About the Speaker(s): Julia E. Sweig is the author of Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2009), and Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti"American Century,/i> (PublicAffairs, 2006), as well as numerous publications on Latin America and American foreign policy. She has directed several Council on Foreign Relations reports on Latin America. Sweig's Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground (Harvard University Press, 2002) received the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis Award for best book of the year by an independent scholar. Sweig serves on the International Advisory Board of the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI), on the editorial board of Foreign Affairs Latinoam_rica, and from 1999"2008, served as a consultant on Latin American affairs for The Aspen Institute's Congressional Program. She frequently provides commentary for the major television, radio, and print media, speaking in both English and Spanish. She holds a B.A. from the University of California and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Wayne Smith is also a visiting professor of Latin American Studies and Director of the University of Havana exchange Program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is a former Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. During his twenty"five years with the State Department (1957"82), he served as executive secretary of President Kennedy's Latin American Task Force and chief of mission at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. In addition, he served in Argentina, Brazil and the Soviet Union. Smith's most recent book is The Russians Aren't Coming: New Soviet Policy in Latin America (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), of which he is the editor. His other works include Portrait of Cuba (Turner Publishing, 1991); Toward Resolution: The Falklands/Malvinas Dispute (Lynne Rienner, 1991), again as an editor; and The Closest of Enemies: A Personal and Diplomatic Account of the Castro Years (W.W. Norton of New York City, 1987). He was also the co"editor, along with Esteban Morales, of Subject to Solution: Problems in Cuban"U.S. Relations (Lynne Rienner, 1988), which won the Critic award in 1989 as one of the best academic books reviewed that year. He received his university education at La Universidad de las Americas in Mexico City from which he holds a B.A. and an M.A. (summa cum laude), at Columbia University in New York City, from which he holds another M.A., and at George Washington University in Washington D.C., where he received a third M.A. and a Ph.D. In 1990, Smith received the Henry L. Cain Most Distinguished Alumnus award from La Universidad de las Americas. Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Center for International Studies

Ethics and Enlightened Leadership

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:00:00 GMT

04/30/2009 2:00 PM KresgeHis Holiness The Dalai LamaDescription: His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke at an inaugural event for a new institute in his name, the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values. He tempered his provocative ideas about promoting ethics in a secular society with a stream of lively banter. He recalled that he had visited a homeless shelter in San Francisco the other day and told a man he met that he, too, had suffered the same fate after he went into exile in 1959. "I said, 'me too. Homeless'." Turning to global issues, he framed the two largest issues facing the world as the economy and ecology. These must be solved with compassion toward those we don't agree with, and by acknowledging the root causes of them. He rejects the notion that the economic meltdown was caused by "market forces" and instead names the causes as human behaviors--greed and hypocrisy. He called upon the community to not think in terms of "we and them" and encouraged all of humanity to come forward to solve the world's problems. The only condition that should allow for a "we and them" mindset, he declares, would be if aliens from another planet were to visit the earth. "Inner disarmament can be achieved, external disarmament is difficult." About the Speaker(s): His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is both the head of state and the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born in 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in Taktser, Amdo, northeastern Tibet. At the age of two the child, who was named Lhamo Dhondup at that time was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth in order to serve humanity. In 1950 His Holiness was called upon to assume full political power after China's invasion of Tibet in 1949. In 1954, he went to Beijing for peace talks with Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping and Chou Enlai. But finally, in 1959, with the brutal suppression of the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa by Chinese troops, His Holiness was forced to escape into exile. Since then he has been living in Dharamsala, northern India, the seat of the Tibetan political administration in exile. Since 1959 His Holiness has received over 84 awards, honorary doctorates, citizenshiops and prizes in recognition of his message of peace, non"violence, inter"religious understanding, universal responsibility and compassion. His Holiness has also authored more than 72 books. Host(s): Dean for Student Life, The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values

Human Rights and Politics in Israel"Palestine

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:00:00 GMT

10/22/2007 6:30 PM 66"110Jeff Halper, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions; Anat Biletzki, Professor of Philosophy, Tel Aviv UniversityDescription: Human rights are central to the fraught politics between Israelis and Palestinians, these two panelists argue. Any conceivable solution to such an endless conflict must begin by acknowledging the current bleak realities of Palestinian life under Israeli rule, they say. Anat Biletzki and the group B'Tselem have conducted painstaking studies of how Israel's longstanding agenda of allowing its civilians to settle on Palestinian occupied land constitutes an infringement of the Palestinians' basic equality, property rights, freedom of movement, their very "right to self"determination." The settlements were given a "cloak of legality," sanctioned as they were by one Israeli government after another. Geographically, the settlements break up what might have been a contiguous Palestinian state. Biletzki ties the settlements together with other work by the Israelis conducted in the name of security to demonstrate the existence of a forbidding, two"tier society : a system of roads off limits to Palestinians in the occupied territories, or permitted only via carefully guarded checkpoints; the wall (or separation barrier), which runs through Palestinian land; and the total control of Gaza, from the economy to communications, which increasingly makes it "a big prison." This barricading of Palestinians has become a "routine phenomenon" _and not worthy of the headlines, in the way bombs and torture are, says Biletzki. She insists that "our political conversation must become a human rights conversation," and hopes that she can make an impact on American Jews and policy makers, who don't believe in the possibility of making a deal with the Palestinians: "If we give them the land, they'll throw us into the sea." Jeff Halper describes the current situation for Palestinians as apartheid, knowing full well the awful resonance of the term. He sees the system of settlements, roads and the wall as a deliberate land grab, "imprisoning tens of thousands of Palestinians within cities, towns and villages." The word apartheid "cuts through -- immediately you get it." This is important because the situation in Israel "is a global issue that affects everyone. It's the epicenter of instability in the entire regionone of the reasons you can't take toothpaste onto an airplane." Reframing the issue will bring the kind of negative attention that South Africa once drew, as well as international sanctions, and corporate divestment. While Halper believes Israel has essentially foreclosed a viable two"state solution, he still imagines that the U.S. might persuade Israel to pull out of the settlements, so Palestinians can move back in. "There would be dancing in the streets of Tel Aviv," Halper predicts, because so many Israelis "want this albatross off their back." About the Speaker(s): Anat Biletzki has been teaching at the Philosophy Department in Tel Aviv University since 1979. She has traveled widely, as a visiting scholar and fellow at, among others, Cambridge University, Harvard University, Boston University, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and the Wittgenstein Archives in Bergen, Norway. Her publications include Paradoxes (1996); Talking Wolves: Thomas Hobbes on the Language of Politics and the Politics of Language (1997); What Is Logic? (2002); and (Over)Interpreting Wittgenstein (2003). Biletzki has been active in the peace movement and in several human rights projects in Israel for over 25 years. In 1997"1998, Biletzki helped establish the human rights movement "Open Doors" which worked on liberating Palestinian administrative detainees in Israel. She is on the board of Faculty for Israeli"Palestinian Peace,and was chairperson of the board of B'Tselem " the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, from 2001"2006. In 2005 she was chosen as one of "50 most influential women in Israel" by Globes, the Israeli business monthly, and was nominated among the "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005." Jeff Halper is an Israeli anthropologist. He retired recently from Ben Gurion University. He is a harsh critic of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and, as founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), one of the leading peace and anti"occupation activists in Israel. A transplant from Minnesota, Halper has lived in Israel since 1973. He has researched and written extensively on Israeli society and is the author of the book Between Redemption and Revival: the Jewish Yishuv in Jerusalem in the Nineteenth Century Westview, 1991. Halper founded and directed Israeli's Committee to Save the Ethiopian Jews.Host(s): Office of the Provost, Program on Human Rights and Justice

Nuclear Technology in a Changing World: Have We Reached a Turning Point?

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 05:00:00 GMT

11/03/2005 3:30 PM Stata 123Mohamed ElBaradei, 2005 Nobel Peace Prize; Director General, International Atomic Energy AgencyDescription: We stand at a crossroads, states Mohamed ElBaradei: We can either employ nuclear energy to achieve global security, or watch nuclear technology lead to a global cataclysm. This stark analysis emerges from ElBaradei's broad vision of a world of haves and have-nots: 1.6 billion people lack access to modern energy services, and the "disparity in energy supply and corresponding standard of living creates a disparity of opportunity, and of hope." Not surprisingly, some members of the developing world are enraged by this state of affairs. "When we want to understand the rise of terrorism and extremism, we need to go back to the root causes," says ElBaradei. And while global tensions rise, the demand for energy in Western nations and in emerging Asian economic giants is escalating so fast that it's unclear if fossil fuel supplies, subject to market turbulence, will suffice in the coming decades. Given this grim scenario, the case for constructing new nuclear energy plants is gaining ground, says ElBaradei. They emit little greenhouse gas and offer a relatively inexpensive route to energy independence. But "nuclear energy alone is not the panacea," cautions ElBaradei. Innovation must tackle outstanding problems, such as waste generation, construction costs and safety. The larger issues involve political leadership, though. The technological obstacles to converting nuclear fuel to weapons have largely disappeared, so when a non-nuclear nation proposes building a new nuclear enrichment or reprocessing facility, it poses a regional or worldwide threat. This is "not the kind of security model we'd like to live under," says ElBaradei. The original members of the nuclear club must get serious about disarmament, and subscribe to new, regional solutions that give all countries equitable and safe access to nuclear fuels. About the Speaker(s): Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shares the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, with IAEA "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way". Mohamed ElBaradei has been with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 1984. Prior to that, he served with the United Nations' International Law Program. ElBaradei began his career with the Egyptian Diplomatic Service in 1964. He specialized in political, legal and arms control issues. He earned a doctorate in International Law at the New York University School of Law, and served as an adjunct professor there from 1981 to 1987. ElBaradei is a member of the International Law Association and the American Society of International Law. Host(s): School of Engineering, Nuclear Science and Engineering

Cause for War? Assessing the Bush Administration's Case Against Iraq " Part 2

Thu, 26 Sep 2002 04:00:00 GMT

09/26/2002 7:00 PM 34"101Kenneth Oye, Associate Professor of Political Science and Engineering Systems and Director of the MIT"CIS Program on Political Economy and Technology Policy; ; Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq ; ; Stephen Walt, Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard UniversityHost(s): Dean for Student Life, Technology and Culture ForumTape #: T13134 &T T13140

The Philosophy of Conflict Resolution

Mon, 15 Oct 2001 04:00:00 GMT

10/15/2001 10"250John Hume, 1998 Laureate for PeaceHost(s): Office of the President, Ford/MIT Nobel Laureate Lecture Series

Institutions vs. People: Will the Species Self"Destruct?

Tue, 10 Apr 2001 04:00:00 GMT

04/10/2001 Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor, MITAbout the Speaker(s): ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Noam Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. A brief sampling of his prolific work includes: The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory; Aspects of the Theory of Syntax; Language and Mind; American Power and the New Mandarins; Reflections on Language; Rules and Representations; Knowledge of Language; The Culture of Terrorism; Manufacturing Consent (with E.S. Herman); Understanding Power; Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance; and most recently, Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post"9/11 World, (with David Barsamian). Chomsky received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955. He joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955 and in 1961 was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. During the years 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. In the spring of 1969 he delivered the John Locke Lectures at Oxford; in January 1970 he delivered the Bertrand Russell Memorial Lecture at Cambridge University; in 1972, the Nehru Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, and in 1977, the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, among many others. Chomsky has received honorary degrees from universities around the world, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science. Host(s): Dean for Student Life, Technology and Culture Forum

Recent Videos tagged 'Peace' on MIT Video