Audits of Conventional Wisdom by MIT's Center for International Studies

In a ongoing series of “audits,” MIT’s Center for International Studies plans to "tour the horizon of conventional wisdoms that animate U.S. foreign policy, and then put them to the test of data and history." The Series producers promise to "provide the scrutiny that unchallenged ideas deserve—especially those inform policy choice without examination—and ... explore their manifold effects on American policy." The aim of the Audit of Conventional Wisdom series, according to the Series Introduction is straightforward:  "by subjecting particularly well-accepted ideas to close scrutiny, [the series producers] hope to start an argument, or to re-engage policy and opinion leaders, on topics that are too easily passing such scrutiny.

Hat tip to Ron Jones (Cincinnati) for calling this to my attention.

Started last year, here are links to all currently available audits:

• The War on Terror and the Cold War: They're Not the Same (pdf, 4p)
  John Tirman
  April 2006

• We Can Live With a Nuclear Iran (pdf, 4p)
  Barry R. Posen
  March 2006

• Remittances: Latin America's Faulty Lifeline (pdf, 4p)
  Catherine Elton
  March 2006

• Japan-China Relations: Four Fallacies Masquerading as Common Sense (pdf, 4p)
  Kazuo Ogoura
  March 2006

• A Better Strategy Against Narcoterrorism (pdf, 4p)
  Vanda Felbab-Brown
  January 2006

• Is Iran's Reform Movement Dead? (pdf, 4p)
  Fatemeh Haghighatjoo
  January 2006

• Why Intelligence Isn't to Blame for 9/11 (pdf, 4p)
  Joshua Rovner
  November 2005

• The Hidden Cost of Homeland Defense (pdf, 4p)
  Benjamin Friedman
  November 2005

• Iran: Rogue State? (pdf, 4p)
  Ali Mostashari
  September 2005

• Who Needs the U.N.? (pdf, 4p)
  Gary G. Troeller
  September 2005

• The Mirage of a United Europe (pdf, 222KB, 4p)
  Robert Vickers
  September 2005

• All Weapons of Mass Destruction Are Not Equal (pdf, 6p)
  Allison Macfarlane
  July 2005

• The Iraq War: Do Civilian Casualties Matter? (pdf, 4p)
  Les Roberts
  July 2005

• Filling the Army's Ranks for the Iraq War (pdf, 6p)
  Cindy Williams
  July 2005

• Why U.S. National Security Requires Mideast Peace (pdf, 8p)
  Stephen Van Evera
  April 2005

• Raising the Salience of Mexico and Canada (pdf, 4p)
  Chappell Lawson
  April 2005

• U.S. Military Power: Strong Enough to Deter all Challenges? (pdf, 6p)
  Barry R. Posen
  April 2005

• The United States as an Asian Power: Realism or Conceit? (pdf, 6p)
  M. Taylor Fravel and Richard J. Samuels
  April 2005

• Introducing a Series (pdf, 167KB, 4p)
  April 2005