The Center begins the 2008-09 academic year with a series of interviews with our scholars. Our first feature is with economist and securities expert Carl Kaysen. Kaysen joined the MIT faculty in 1976 and currently co-chairs the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Study Committee on International Security Studies. Among his many posts during his distinctive career was deputy special assistant for national security affairs to President Kennedy. Kaysen sat down with CIS in late July to discuss his current work, his advice to the next administration, and his proudest moments. Interview >>>

M. Taylor Fravel, member of the Center’s Security Studies Program and associate professor of political science at MIT, examines China’s security in his book, Strong Borders, Secure Nations (Princeton University Press, October 2008). His work has been endorsed as “novel and provocative” and a “benchmark study of China's behavior along its frontiers and a brilliant contribution to political science.” The Boston Globe featured a Q&A with Fravel on Sunday, August 10.

Jenny Manrique, a Colombian freelance journalist, joins CIS as its 2008-09 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow. Manrique writes for Comunicaciones Aliadas, a non-governmental online magazine based in Peru that focuses on Latin American news, particularly human rights. A reporter for seven years, Manrique has covered subjects such as kidnapping, drug trafficking and refugees. Most recently, she covered the release of hostages held by the Colombian guerrilla group FARC in January. In the course of her journalistic work, Manrique has received multiple death threats and was forced into exile in Peru for eight months. She will use her time as a Neuffer Fellow to improve coverage on social justice issues.