Earlier this semester, a project led by Ph.D. candidates Phil Baxter and Tarun Chaudhary was awarded a large research grant to investigate the phenomenon of escalation during a national response to a large-scale cyber attack.. Supported by principal investigators Dr. Mike Salomone and Dr. Jenna Jordan, $485,000 grant to the Nunn School was generously awarded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The project will focus on a scenario-based examination of the dynamics of command, control and coordination in escalating cyber-conflict. Read more about it here!

The full video of our faculty panel on the Iran Nuclear Deal is now online. Be sure to watch their compelling discussion of one of the biggest accords in recent diplomatic history.

The Sam Nunn Security Program (SNSP) visited the CDC for briefings on the Global Health Security Agenda, the CDC’s role in the response to the Ebola outbreak, the global polio eradication programs, and public health policy. The SNSP brings doctoral students in engineering, the sciences, and computing to the Nunn School each year to learn about science and technology in policy and security. Learn more about our SNSP fellows here!

The Sam Nunn School would also like to thank Rickey Bevington from Georgia Public Broadcasting for coming to INTA Hour to speak about media coverage and public debate in European politics. Ms. Bevington spoke about her experience as a German Marshall Fund Marshall Memorial Fellow in Europe in the spring, urging students to travel in order to gain insight into where they are from. The talk was hosted by Georgia Tech’s Jean Monnet Center of Excellence and the International Affairs Graduate Organization.

The International Affairs Graduate Organization's INTA Hour series for international affairs students, faculty and staff is presented every Thursday from 11-noon in Habersham, featuring guest speakers and fostering discussion on international issues.

Exciting times on Planet Earth: two Georgia Tech Ph.D. students spearheaded the study that led to NASA's recent announcement confirming the presence of water on Mars.

In Georgia Tech's feature article on the discovery and its implications, our Dr. Mariel John Borowitz discusses the possibility of human travel to Mars from an international relations standpoint:

"International cooperation is essential for such an expensive and complicated mission. The good news is that almost every major spacefaring nation agrees that putting humans on Mars is the long-term goal. The bad news is that they disagree on the intermediate missions that can and should be undertaken between now and then."

Click through to catch Dr. Borowitz's projection for when we'll set foot on the Red Planet.

On October 28th, Gérard Araud, Ambassador of France to the United States, spoke to a standing-room only audience of 200 at Georgia Tech. The Ambassador spoke about the importance of the climate change summit in Paris at the end of the year, the terrorist threat in Europe, and the refugee crisis before taking questions on a wide range of topics, from the conflict in Syria to Europe’s economic malaise. The event was co-sponsored by the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, the Consulate General of France in Atlanta and the Atlanta Council on International Relations.

While most GT students were on vacationover Fall Break, the members of the Georgia Tech Model United Nations Program were busy hosting their their annual GTMUN High School Conference. Over 70 country delegations made up of nearly 1,000 students from schools located all around the Southeast and the Dominican Republic were present. These young delegates descended on the Scheller College of Business building to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise in debate of international issues.

A very big congratulations and thank you is in order for the Georgia Tech students who organized and ran this event. After a long year of planning, the conference was a resounding success due to your hard work and dedication. We are looking forward to next year!

Georgia Trend magazine recognized Sam Nunn in its “30 Years of Influence” feature, which spotlights 30 of Georgia’s most influential leaders in business, government, nonprofit work, philanthropy, education, and the arts.

Nunn, a distinguished professor in the Nunn School, was praised in the feature for “embracing a solidly bipartisan approach to politics” and being a “respected authority on foreign policy and defense.”