John Tirman
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617.253.9861  -  tirman@mit.edu

Professional activities

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for International Studies, Executive Director and Principal Research Scientist, October 2004 - present.  The Center’s mission is research, training,  and public education, with programs on international education, security studies, human rights, environmental governance and sustainability, migration, the Middle East, etc.  My research: the Persian Gulf Initiative, human security, armed conflict, immigrant rights and security, U.S. foreign policy, urban violence, and others.

Social Science Research Council, Program Director, Program on Global Security and Cooperation, Sept. 2000 - Oct. 2004, and Washington Office Director (2001-04).  SSRC is an academic think tank founded in 1922. Projects created and managed included migration and security; globalization and conflict; humanitarian crises, multilateralism and international law. Administered large fellowship program for dissertation students and post-docs; outreach to Washington policy community.

Fulbright Senior Scholar, Republic of Cyprus, December 1999 - September 2000, conflict resolution. Included the creation of a Web site to develop a unitary historical narrative of the conflict (www.cyprus-conflict.net).

Winston Foundation for World Peace, Executive Director, April 1986 - December 1999, Boston and Washington.  Grant making (averaging $1 million annually) on education, conflict prevention, human rights, sustainability, and nuclear disarmament.  Convened dozens of meetings of NGOs on those issues; published Nuclear Times; was active in the philanthropic community.
Managing Consultant to the Henry P. Kendall Foundation in 1989-92, which principally funded in environmental issues (marine life, climate change) and arms control; and managed the CarEth Foundation, Boston, 1990-94, which funded peace, economic justice, and human rights. 

Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, Mass. Senior Editor and Director of Communications, 1982-86.  Planned and coordinated research on energy and environmental policy, nuclear power, arms control.  Managed all public programs and media relations.  Organized and edited two key volumes on “star wars” and was a leader in the advocacy efforts on all UCS issues.

New England Regional Commission, Boston, Senior Adviser, Energy and the Environment, 1980-82.  A federally-funded governors’ council (disbanded by Pres. Reagan).  Principal task was analysis and policy recommendations for governors’ staff, promoting renewable energy and conservation.

TIME magazine, reporter, 1977-79, New York, reporting on energy, national politics, and business and economics.

Education

Ph.D., Boston University, 1981, in political science (political theory).  Teaching Fellow, 1972-75, College of Liberal Arts.  Metropolitan College Scholar, 1974.  Major professors: Howard Zinn, Frances Fox Piven, Alasdair MacIntyre.  Dissertation: “Energy, Technology, and Democracy.”

B.A., Indiana University, Bloomington, 1972, major in political science and minor in history.  Indiana University Foundation Scholar, 1971-72. 

 
Service

Trustee of:
- The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (London, chair of U.S. board, 2006-2010), which trains journalists around the world to report on conflict and human rights;
-  International Civil Society Action Network (2004-present), chair, helps empower women to secure peace in the developing world;
- Eurasia Foundation (advisory committee on Iran, 2007-present);
- International Alert (London), 1999-2005, one of the world’s leading conflict resolution groups;
- Foundation for National Progress, publisher of Mother Jones (1993-99), co-chair. 

Reviewer for University of California Press, Westview Press, Conflict and Health, others


Major public presentations since 2002

• “War, Women, and Security,” U.S. Institute of Peace, November 4, 2010; U.S. Mission to the United Nations, October 28, 2010; Harvard Law School, Nov. 13, 2010.
• “Trust Building in International Affairs,” British House of Commons, organized by the University of Wales, February 2010.
• “A New Approach to U.S. Policy in the Gulf,” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC, February 2009.
• “America’s Self-Image and Values, and Global Anti-Americanism,” Testimony, U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, June 11, 2008
• “Divestment in Iran,” Testimony, Massachusetts Legislature, Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight, April 2008.
• “Human Rights in Iran and US foreign policy,” National Iranian-American Council conference, U.S. House of Representatives. July 26, 2007
 • “The New War in the Gulf,” Sidney-Pacific Lecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, December 7, 2006
• “Fear and the Politics of Homeland Security,” Chatham House, London, June 2, 2006
• “Iraq and Durable Insurgencies,” SSRC-NUPI Conference on Political Violence, Oslo, November 2005
• “The Security and Migration Nexus in the U.S.,” 10th International Metropolis conference, Toronto, Oct. 2005
• “Homeland Security and American Muslims,” Security and Terror in the New Century conference, Watson Institute, Brown University, June 2005
• “Civil Liberties, Immigration, Security—the Bush Agenda,” Speech before the annual conference of the Campaign for America’s Future, Washington, June 2005
• “Iran and the Bomb,” Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School, Sept. 2005
• “Washington Consensus and Conflict Onset,” U.N.-NGO conference, New York, Sept. 2005
• “Conflict and Globalization: An Introduction,” SSRC, Washington, April 2004
• “The U.S. and 9/11,” Jean Monnet Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 2002


Publications

1.  Books
•   The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars (Oxford University Press, forthcoming in June 2011)
•   Women, Migration, and Conflict: Breaking a Deadly Cycle (Springer, 2009), co-editor
•   Terror, Insurgency, and the State (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), co-editor  and contributor
•   Multilateralism under Challenge? Power, International Order, and Structural Change (UN University Press, 2006), co-editor and      contributor 
•   100 Ways America is Screwing Up the World (HarperPerennial, 2006)
•   The Maze of Fear: Security & Migration After September 11th (The New Press, 2004), editor and contributor
•   Making the Money Sing: Private Wealth & Public Power in the Search for Peace (Rowman & Littlefield, October 2000)
•   Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America’s Arms Trade (Free Press, 1997)
•   Sovereign Acts: American Unilateralism and Global Security (Harper & Row, 1989)
•   Empty Promise: The Growing Case Against Star Wars (Beacon, 1986), editor and contributor
•   The Militarization of High Technology (Ballinger, 1984), editor and contributor
•   The Fallacy of Star Wars (Vintage/Random House, 1984), editor


2.  Major Articles and chapter contributions, selected list

• “Security and Antiterror Policies in America and Europe,” in Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia and Simon Recih, eds., Managing Ethnic Diversity After 9/11 (Rutgers University Press, 2010)
• “Immigration and Insecurity: Post-9/11 Fear in the United States,” in David Neville-Wright and Anna Halafoff, eds., Terrorism and Social Exclusion (Edward Elgar, 2010)
•  “Diplomacy, Terrorism, and National Narratives in the U.S.-Iran Relationship,” Critical Studies on Terrorism, Vol. 2, No. 3 (December 2009): 527-539
•  “The Future of the Frontier,” The American Scholar (Winter, 2009)
•  “International Relations,” in Robert Looney, ed., Handbook of U.S.-Mideast Relations (Routledge, 2009)
• “Counting Iraqi Casualties—and a Media Controversy,” Editor & Publisher (Jan. 2008)
• “Shadows of the Images’: The Allegory of Iraq,” Strategic Insights, VI:6 (Dec. 2007)
• "Diplomacy and the Iraq War," Strategic Insights, VI:2 (March 2007)
• "Regionalizing the Iraq Conflict," Audit of the Conventional Wisdom (series), MIT Center for International Studies (December 4, 2006)
• “The Washington Consensus and Armed Conflict: Impacts on health care and education,” Development 48:3 (Sept 2005)
• “Security the Progressive Way,” The Nation (April 11, 2005)
• "Mistrusted Muslims" National Catholic Reporter (January 14, 2005) 
• “Homeland Security: The Fear Factor,” Washington Post (August 29, 2004)
• “The New Humanitarianism,” Boston Review (Dec. 2003); reprinted in Papeles de Cuestiones Internacionales (Madrid), Spring 2004
• “What Lurks in the Ruins?” AlterNet (April 10, 2003), on the future of Iraq
• “Providing Resources for Peace,” in J.P. Lederach et al, eds., Into the Eye of the Storm (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002). Chapter contribution.
• “How the Cold War Ended,” Global Dialogue (Winter, 2001-02)
• “Unintended Consequences,” AlterNet (October 2001). Reprinted in After 9/11: Solutions for a Saner World, D. Hazen et al, eds. (San Francisco: IMI, 2002)
• “Nationalism in Exile,” Boston Review (Summer 2001)
• “International Mediators Should Forget Cyprus,” Wall Street Journal Europe (Aug. 4, 2000)
• “How We Ended the Cold War,” The Nation (Nov. 1, 1999). Reprinted in After the Fall: 1989 and the Future of Freedom, G. Kastsiaficas, ed. (N.Y.: Routledge, 2001)
• “No Arming of Freedom Fighters in Kosovo,” Insight (May 3, 1999)
• “Forces of Civility: The NGO Revolution and the Search for Peace,” Boston Review (December ’98-January ’99)
• “The Ankara-Jerusalem Nexis,” The Nation (January 4, 1999)
• “Improving Turkey’s ‘Bad Neighborhood,’” World Policy Journal (Spring 1998)
• “Who Needs Weapons?” Boston Sunday Globe (January 4, 1998)
• “Ataturk’s Children,” Boston Review (December 1997)
•  "Habitat for Inhumanity," The Nation (June 24, 1996)
•  "Beyond the Cold War," Boston Sunday Globe (April 2, 1995)
•  “Les is More,” Boston Sunday Globe (May 9, 1993) Aspin at the Pentagon
•  "Shifting Balances Point to New Spurs for War," Boston Sunday Globe  (Dec. 21, 1991)
•  "A Second Nuclear Age," Boston Sunday Globe (January 20, 1991)

3. Short articles, opinion pieces, etc. selected list (since 2000)

•  What the Women Say: Participation and UNSCR 1325 – A Case Study Assessment (MIT-CIS and ICAN, 2010), editor
•  A New Approach to Iran (White paper, New Ideas Fund, 2009)
•  The Human Cost of the War in Iraq: A Mortality Study (MIT and Johns Hopkins U., 2006), editor
•  “Iraq: The Human Cost,” MIT Web site, http://mit.edu/humancostiraq; 2007-present; editor
•  The Crisis of Governance in the Gulf: Legitimacy and Stability in a Dark Time (MIT, 2006), report based on three research    workshops
•  "The Cyprus Conflict," educational Web site, <www.cyprus-conflict.net> Editor and contributor.
•  Exhibit, “Work in Transit,” on Cyprus. Multimedia. Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Contributor.