Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program

Abstract

The Security Studies Program (SSP) is a graduate level research and educational program based at the MIT Center for International Studies. It traces its origins to two initiatives. One is the teaching on international security topics, and most particularly on defense budgeting, that Professor William Kaufman began in the 1960s at the MIT Political Science Department. The other is the MIT-wide seminars on nuclear weapons and arms control policy that Professors Jack Ruina and George Rathjens began in the mid-1970s. The Program's teaching ties are primarily with MIT's Political Science Department, and courses offered emphasize grand strategy, causes of conflict, military technology, bureaucratic politics, and budgetary issues. The SSP senior research and teaching staff includes social and natural scientists and policy analysts. A special feature of the program is the integration of technical and political analyses in studies of international security problems. Several of the SSP faculty have had extensive government experience. They and the other Program faculty advise or comment frequently on current policy problems. But the Program's prime task is educating those young men and women who will be the next generation of scholars and practitioners in international security policy making. The Program's research and public service activities necessarily complement that effort. The Center for International Studies is a major unit of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT and seeks to encourage the analysis of issues of continuing public concern.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA456068

Entities

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Civil War
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Foreign Relations
  • Geography
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Law
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Recreation
  • Sociopolitics
  • Treaties
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • STEM Education
  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Technical Research and Report Writing.