JOHN TIRMAN is the Executive Director and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Center for International Studies.

A political scientist, Tirman is author, or coauthor and editor, of ten books on international affairs, including The Fallacy of Star Wars (1984), the first important critique of strategic defense, and Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America's Arms Trade (1997). In addition, he has published more than 100 articles in periodicals such as the New York Times, Washington Post, World Policy Journal, The Nation, Wall Street Journal, and International Herald Tribune. (For a list and archive of articles, see www.johntirman.com.) Before coming to MIT in 2004, he was program director of the Social Science Research Council. From 1986 to 1999, Tirman was executive director of the Winston Foundation for World Peace, a leading funder of work to prevent nuclear war and promote non-violent resolution of conflict. In 1999-2000, Tirman was Fulbright Senior Scholar in Cyprus and produced an educational Web site on the conflict.