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Homeland Security with MIT Associate Professor Chappell Lawson

National security in an age of massive movements of people across borders is a universal concern that involves complex issues. While borders have different characteristics and challenges, there are areas of commonality. Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of crossings are not problematic, but the ones that are raise concerns.

On Dec. 5, 2011, MIT Associate Professor of Political Science Chappell Lawson, who recently completed a two-year assignment as executive director and senior advisor to the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, offered his thoughts on homeland security and answered questions from the worldwide MIT alumni community. Watch the video then continue the discussion online by posting in the comments on the Slice of MIT blog.

About Chappell Lawson

Chappell Lawson

Chappell Lawson is an associate professor of political science at MIT, director of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI), and secretary of the faculty. His major research interests are Mexican politics, democratization, political communication, and voting.

From September 2009 through February 2011, he was on leave from MIT as a political appointee in the Obama Administration, serving as executive director and senior advisor to the commissioner at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Professor Lawson was a national fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University (2002-2003), and a visiting research fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies at the University of California, San Diego (1998-99). He earned his PhD from Stanford University in 1999. Before joining the MIT faculty, he served as a director of Inter-American Affairs on the National Security Council.

Learn more in this MIT News Office article—3 Questions: Chappell Lawson on border security.

Books

Consolidating Mexico's Democracy: The 2006 Presidential Campaign in Comparative Perspective (Johns Hopkins University Press, Forthcoming)

Building the Fourth Estate: Democratization and Media Opening in Mexico (University of California Press, 2002).

Mexico's Pivotal Democratic Election (Stanford University Press, 2003, coedited with Jorge Domínguez).