Europe was the principal battleground of the Cold War. Theater nuclear forces trained on targets across the continent, both east and west-the Euromissiles-highlighted how the peoples of Europe were dangerously placed between hammer and anvil. For those within NATO, the Euromissiles highlighted the fault lines of their alliance. Euromissiles is a hi…

When does bureaucracy make states prone to miscalculate in international crisis? International relations scholarship often assumes that bureaucracy increases the propensity for miscalculation, but offers comparatively few insights into what makes bureaucracy in some states more prone to miscalculation than in others. I develop a theory of crisis mi…

Under what conditions do coalition partners fighting alongside each other in a war take the next step and field their forces together in battle? While states frequently go to war with partners, they do not always fight side-by-side on the battlefield. Existing scholarship focuses largely on the motives of coalition partners to deepen their cooperat…

Azmat Khan speaks about her years of work investigating the human toll of America's air wars in the Middle East, including her recent award-winning reporting published in The New York Times, The Civilian Casualty Files.Azmat Khan is an award-winning investigative journalist with The New York Times Magazine, a Carnegie Fellow, and an assistant profe…

Rebel organizations regularly provide public services to citizens, even as they primarily focus on fighting. Existing scholarship documents many predictors of insurgent service provision, but the downstream effects of these activities and theoretical mechanisms for why they might change behavior remain unclear. This study examines Taliban judicial …

When, why, and how do belligerents choose to negotiate in the midst of war? Dr. Eric Min argues that wartime negotiations are an underappreciated and highly strategic activity that not only help to settle wars, but also to manage, fight, and potentially win them. Dr. Min is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at UCLA. He received his B.A. i…

The Hon. Kevin Rudd, president and CEO of Asia Society, served as Australia's 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. He discusses major topics of his new book, "The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China"Rudd …

In this episode, Dr. Amy Zegart examines the past, present, and future of American espionage, focusing on how emerging technologies are radically challenging every aspect of the intelligence enterprise. In this talk, Zegart also shares her findings about nuclear threat detection. Thanks to Internet connectivity, automated analytics like machine lea…

"Understanding the War in Ukraine" is a special seminar presented by MIT's Security Studies Program on Wednesday, March 2, 2022.Participants in the panel discussion and subsequent Q&A were:Dr. Mariya Grinberg, a professor of Political Science at MITDr. Barry Posen, a professor of Political Science at MITDr. Carol Saivetz, a special adviser to MIT S…

In this presentation for MIT SSP's Wednesday Seminar Series, Dr. Caitlin Talmadge analyzes the strategic implications of Chinese control of Taiwan, a "curiously understudied topic given Taiwan’s location at the center of the first island chain."Dr. Talmadge is Associate Professor of Security Studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown Un…

A part of MIT SSP's Wednesday Seminar series, recorded on Feb. 9, 2022.Dr. Michael Poznansky asks: How has the liberal international order shaped American foreign policy? Proponents argue its impact has been profound. Critics charge that it has failed to prevent the U.S. from violating rules and norms. The answer lies in between. While rule violati…

In this Wednesday Seminar presented by MIT SSP, Dr. Melissa Lee talks about recent research into grammatical shifts in the Unites States following the American Civil War. Specifically, how those shifts relate to conceptions of nationhood and sovereignty."Contestation over the structure and location of final sovereign authority – the right to make a…

As part of MIT SSP's Wednesday Seminar Series, Dr. Emma Ashford, of the Atlantic Council, speaks on the chance for the U.S. to alter its foreign policy priorities and strategies."We're at a moment in the debate over U.S. foreign policy where change seems possible for the first time in 30 years."Emma Ashford is a senior fellow with the New American …