Starr Forum: Fate of the Reset

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:06:29 GMT

Participants:

Jeffrey Mankoff, Deputy Director, Russia and Eurasia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies 

Matthew Ouimet, Senior Analyst, Office of Analysis for Russia and Eurasia, Department of State 

Barry Posen, Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director Security Studies Program, MIT

 Carol Saivetz, Research Affiliate, Security Studies Program and Lecturer in Political Science

Ekaterina Paramonova: A nuclear networker

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 07:09:26 GMT

This MIT undergraduate is intent on leveraging her assets in some surprising ways, establishing a unique career track that combines nuclear engineering and diplomacy.

John Dower, Visualizing the Russo-Japanese War

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:30:09 GMT

MIT Visualizing Cultures

Visualizing the Russo-Japanese War
3/5/12

Presented by John Dower, Ford International Professor of History, MIT

John Dower, Professor of Japanese history, received his Ph.D. in 1972 in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University. Professor Dower's interests lie in modern Japanese history and US-Japan relations. He also has broken new ground through his scholarly use of visual materials and other expressions of popular culture in reexamining Japanese and US-Asian history. His numerous publications include War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War, which was honored with several prizes; Empire and Aftermath, a study of the life and times of the diplomat and later prime minister Yoshida Shigeru; and Japan in War and Peace: Selected Essays. He also was the executive producer of a documentary film entitled Hellfire -- A Journey from Hiroshima, which was nominated in 1988 for an Academy Award.

Visualizing Cultures was launched at MIT in 2002 to explore the potential of the Web for developing innovative image-driven scholarship and learning. The VC mission is to use new technology and hitherto inaccessible visual materials to reconstruct the past as people of the time visualized the world (or imagined it to be).

Skolkovo Tech - Director of Student Affairs

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 07:03:54 GMT

Bram Caplan, Director of Student Affairs at Skolkovo Tech, speaks about students.

Learn more about the SkTech/MIT Initiative: http://web.mit.edu/sktech/

Polina Golland - The quantifier

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:13:13 GMT

By helping biologists turn their hunches into rigorous mathematical models, Polina Golland builds software that interprets medical images. Read more about Golland's work at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/profile-golland-0112.html

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

Kyrgyzstan: CIS Assesses the Crisis
June 15, 2010

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:35:53 GMT

Featuring:
Carol Saivetz
Visiting Scholar, MIT Center for International Studies
Researcher, Security Studies Program

Bakyt Beshimov
Visiting Scholar, MIT Center for International Studies
Former Kyrgyz Opposition Leader
Former Member of Kyrgyz Parliament
Former Kyrgyz Ambassador to India

Lunch with a Laureate: Robert Merton

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Nobel Prize-winner Robert Merton pushes back against any assumptions that he might be a "renaissance man."

Rusnano: Fostering Nanotechnology Innovation in Russia

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:00:00 GMT

04/09/2010 12:00 PM E51"345Anatoly Chubais, General Director; Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO); Noubar Afeyan, PhD '87, Managing Partner and CEO, Flagship 87Ventures Description: In both lecture format and conversation with Sloan Senior Lecturer Noubar Afeyan, RUSNANO CEO Anatoly Chubais presents an ambitious plan to create Russia's Nanotechnology Center-a $10 billion, entrepreneurial ecosystem that incorporates education, research and business incubation. Noting that a plan of this depth also requires the deep engagement with an academic institution Chubias discusses the launch of SKOLKOVO, the Moscow School of Management, where MIT Sloan has been involved in a major collaboration. About the Speaker(s): Anatoly Chubais was born in Borisov, Belarus, then a part of the Soviet Union in 1955. He graduated in 1977 from the Leningrad Institute of Economics and Engineering with a degree in economics. He continued on as an assistant lecturer at his alma mater immediately after his graduation until 1982. He then became an assistant professor until 1990. Starting in 1990, he served as deputy chairman of the Leningrad Executive Committee. He also advised St. Petersburg Mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, on economic matters. He played a central role in Russia's transformation from a Soviet to market"based economy. As an influential member of the Yeltsin Administration, Mr. Chubais was instrumental in the privatization of Russia's economy in the 1990s. During his time in office, he held the post of Finance Minister for several terms as well as the post of Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office. In 1997, he became First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and Minister of Finance, and presided on the Security Council of the Russian Federation. During that year, Mr. Chubais also awarded Euromoney Magazine's 'Best Minister of Finance of the Year' award. Mr. Chubais was also chairman of Russia's state electric power monopoly RAO Unified Energy System of Russia for 10 years. More recently, he was appointed by President Dmitry Medvedev as CEO of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano), a non"profit state owned corporation to facilitate interaction between government, business, and the scientist community in the implementation of state policy for the nano"industry. Mr. Chubais has also played an important role in the launch of the SKOLKOVO Moscow School of Management in collaboration with MIT Sloan. Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

Death of the News?

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

03/02/2010 5:30 PM Wong AuditoriumMaria Balinska, Nieman Fellow, Harvard University (on leave from BBC); Susan Glasser, Executive Editor, Foreign Policy; Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief and Publisher, Technology ReviewDescription: While not dead, the U.S. news industry is severely depleted and likely to diminish further, these panelists agree. But they also believe that something vibrant and enduring might emerge from this period of digital disruption. Moderator Jason Pontin sets the stage with his "dolorous and long toll" of newspapers and magazines that have gone bankrupt, or cling to life as their subscriptions and ad revenues fall. He nevertheless invites panelists to make the case for journalism's survival. Susan Glasser declares herself "a total convert to the idea that this transformation heralds potentially an enormous golden age for people who care about informationtransparency, knowledge, about going to places in the world you couldn't get to in the past except with enormous difficulty" While this shift has just gotten started, with producers adapting print and TV information rather than originating content for digital media, changes are coming rapidly. Glasser's own Foreign Policy website grew 500% in a single year ("without spending a single dollar in marketing"), attracting enormous numbers of users "interested at a sophisticated level." Social media help drive users to the site, and suggest to Glasser an audience of millions for comparable specialized and nuanced content. But she does not believe that her audience, interactive as it may be, will displace seasoned journalists who labor in difficult circumstances to collect, analyze and report the news. U.K."based radio journalist Maria Balinska concurs that reporters are irreplaceable: "Maybe journalism is not rocket science, but to tell a story well, with context, facts, is quite difficult. Good novelists don't walk the streets everywhere, and a good story is something that will engage our audience." The key to survival in the digital age will involve using new tools to capture "the many different publics," especially those who might have been alienated by a partisan or corrupt"appearing media. Balinska is "convinced there is a hunger for understanding the world around us." She wants to engage different audiences through a "partnership model," where users inform the journalistic process. She believes journalism should rediscover what is valuable, and look back to small"town newspapers, which helped create community. She also notes that elsewhere in the world, old and new forms of journalism are thriving: in Britain, daily national newspapers achieve circulations in the millions, and in Colombia, the population consumes its news via mobile phones. Pontin concludes that "fretfulness about the death of news may be a uniquely American perspective." While the current business model is failing in the U.S. -- "news has declining value relative to time" -- Pontin believes there is a "form of journalism people will pay for." The criteria for success include offering a unique mission that's uniquely smart ("don't fib to yourself); helping users with a decision "that is core to self"identity;" and being beautifully designed. "If you say those four things, you can charge for it." About the Speaker(s): Jason Pontin also serves as the publisher of Technology Review, overseeing all aspects of the company's business. In previous posts, he was editor of Red Herring, editor in chief of The Acumen Journal, and wrote a regular column for the Sunday New York Times, "Slipstream," about new ideas in technology. He has also written for The Economist, The Financial Times, Wired, and The Believer, among others, and is a frequent guest on television and radio, including ABC News, CNN, and NPR.Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Center for International Studies

Why History Matters: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT

02/22/2010 4:30 PM 66"110Victor Kattan, Fellow, University of London; Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor, MITDescription: Given the volume of writing on the Arab"Israeli conflict, "you might think that everything has been said," says Noam Chomsky. But Victor Kattan's new book, Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab"Israeli Conflict, takes a fresh look at the prehistory of the dispute, as well as the evolution of international law and its import for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, says Chomsky. While he is familiar with much of the material in this account, Chomsky also notes episodes in Kattan's narrative that open up new, "sordid chapters" in these "convoluted, complex, often painful historical events." Kattan set out to explore how the conflict began, and so pored over the writing of scores of European political figures, and leaders of Zionist and Arab nationalist movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries. His key insight: Neither Arabs nor Jews were to blame for triggering hostilities, but rather Britain, and the other major powers. Kattan argues that anti"Semitism, which welled up during a period of collapsing colonial empires, motivated British actions that led to a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and paved the way for trouble over decades to the current time. In the 19th century, Jews viciously persecuted in Russia began flooding Western Europe, especially Britain, where many thousands more embarked to the U.S. America and Britain were the promised land to the Jews, says Kattan -- not Palestine. But British distaste for these immigrants soon led to plans for diverting the unwanted foreigners to an alternative location. In the early 1900s, Kattan describes documents authored by British statesmen, and by such early Zionist leaders as Theodor Herzl, arguing that Britain's Jewish immigration "problem" could be solved by finding Jews a homeland in Palestine. Kattan even cites U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis endorsing such a solution. Anti"immigrant fervor, says Kattan, led to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, describing Britain's intention to facilitate a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This was a compromised piece of diplomacy, suggests Kattan, ushering in an era of unending disputes and hostility. Key issues the British sidestepped or muddied, says Kattan, included promises made to Arabs for their own independent kingdom, and the principle of self"determination, emergent in international law, which would have acknowledged the claims of the Arab majority in the lands carved out for the Jews. While Britain bore the largest share in creating the Middle East mess -- with its many vital interests in the region -- Kattan says that other nations were complicit, entangled as they were by immigration and independence movements and their own strategic influence. Kattan follows this sorry tale through the Second World War and Israel's founding, describing repeated failed attempts to reach a settlement between Arabs and Jews over a shared homeland. But due to a conflict set in motion so many years before, a "culture of blame" now exists that will likely prevent agreement, particularly, says Kattan, "as long as Israeli settlements expand." About the Speaker(s): Victor Kattan has an LL.B (Hons.) from Brunel University, an LL.M from Leiden University and is studying towards a Ph.D. He was a Research Fellow in Public International Law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law on their Human Rights in International Law and Iran project from 2006"8. Prior to this, he was a Director with the London"based media watchdog Arab Media Watch where he also worked as a journalist, an adviser and a researcher. In 2003"4, Kattan worked in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as a U.N. Development Programme TOKTEN consultant on secondment to the BADIL Resource Center, a non"governmental organization specializing in Palestinian refugee rights. Kattan is the author of more than half a dozen scholarly articles on the Arab"Israeli conflict in international law journals. His book, From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab"Israeli Conflict was published June 2009 by Pluto Books. Kattan also compiled an edited collection of legal articles in The Palestine Question in International Law, which was published by The British Institute of International and Comparative Law in May 2008. He was the assistant editor of the Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law from 2005"8. Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Center for International Studies

Foreign Policy and the Next U.S. Administration

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:00:00 GMT

09/18/2008 6:00 PM E51"315Barry Posen, Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT, Director Security Studies Program; Carol Saivetz, Visiting Scholar Center for International Studies,Research Associate Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies; Taylor Fravel, Associate Professor of Political Science MITDescription: After tuning in closely to the presidential campaign, these panelists don't discern worlds of difference in the candidates' approaches to foreign policy. But the speakers convey key concerns and offer words of advice to the next U.S. president. Barry Posenis interested in the future of U.S. grand strategy, by which he means our plan for achieving and maintaining security and power. Thus far, says Posen, both presidential candidates "largely share the same view on U.S. grand strategy," which is very expansive, with "a long, global agenda for U.S. security goals." Both sides agree on the continued struggle against terror, containment of rogue states, and a commitment to the spread of democracy. Their disagreements are "tactical, though not trivial," involving for instance the relevance of international institutions, and the role of diplomacy. Posen worries that both campaigns "overlook key problems in U.S. post"Cold War strategy or offer facile answers." Money is a big problem: we've been financing military ventures with so much borrowed money that Posen wonders if our power position in the world hasn't been diminished. The candidates "tend to talk about national security policy as if there are no resource constraints," and if the next president adopts the same unfettered approach, the U.S. risks provoking other nations -- pushing them to act recklessly and build up their militaries. Candidates must join the issue of "whether or not we need to make tradeoffs between solving problems at home and slaying dragons abroad." Carol Saivetzworries that the next president will usher in a new cold war with Russia. The past eight years have led to a steady erosion of U.S."Russian relations. When Putin came to power, he "wanted to play in the old boy's club," but met with a series of "perceived and real humiliations," from NATO expansion to Kosovo. Because "Russia is a superpower wanna be," says Saivetz, the next president must "craft serious policy towards Russian and not just knee"jerk reactions." Toward that end, Saivetz recommends the new administration develop a consistent and even tone of discourse with the Russians; keep them in international institutions but "reign them in tightly;" work with Russia on all issues where there's a commonality of interests, such as terrorism; make room for Russia in the negotiations around Iran's nuclear program; and if U.S. missile defense must go on in Europe, at least give the Russians access to sites. "We must stop this tit for tat retail," she says, noting Russia's new interest in Venezuela. The next president must "pull back from the edge; it sounds like Cuba." The candidates are not really discussing Asia, says Taylor Fravel, but they are surprisingly similar in what they do say. He describes a set of challenges to the next administration, including handling the evolving crisis with North Korea's nuclear program; maintaining stability in Taiwan and Chinese relations; achieving a climate change agreement with China; engaging multilateral institutions like ASEAN rather than bilateral military agreements; and "coping with and accommodating China's rise." About the Speaker(s): Barry R. Posen serves on the Executive Committee of Seminar XXI, an educational program for senior military officers, government officials and business executives in the national security policy community. He has written two books, Inadvertent Escalation: Conventional War and Nuclear Risks and The Sources of Military Doctrine, which won two awards: The American Political Science Association's Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award, and Ohio State University's Edward J. Furniss Jr. Book Award. Posen is also the author of numerous articles, including "The Case for Restraint," The American Interest, (November/December 2007) and "Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of U.S. Hegemony," International Security, (Summer, 2003.) He has been a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow; Rockefeller Foundation International Affairs Fellow; Guest Scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow, Smithsonian Institution; and most recently, Transatlantic Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Posen's current research interests include U.S. national security policy, the security policy of the European Union, the organization and employment of military force, great power intervention into civil conflicts, and innovation in the U.S. Army, 1970"1980. Carol Saivetz has written widely on Soviet and now Russian foreign policy issues and is currently working on a book on Putin's foreign policy. M. Taylor Fravel studies international relations, with a focus on international security, China and East Asia. His publications have appeared in International Security, Foreign Affairs, The China Quarterly, The Washington Quarterly, Journal of Strategic Studies, Armed Forces & Society, Current History, and Asian Survey as well as in edited volumes. His book, Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China's Territorial Disputes will be published by Princeton University Press in 2008. Taylor is a graduate of Middlebury College and Stanford University, where he received his PhD. He has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, a Predoctoral Fellow the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, a fellow with the Princeton"Harvard China and the World Program and a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also has graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Center for International Studies

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