The study, which was controversial at the time because of its high estimates of total “excess deaths” attributable to the war (~650,000), was carried out by scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and in Iraq.
He convened conferences and published on the regional dimension of the Iraq War, the role of terrorism in upsetting diplomatic relations, and the challenges of political instability in the Gulf.
He brought to MIT such Iranian luminaries as President Mohammad Khatami, former deputy foreign minister Abbas Maleki, former reform parliamentarian Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, and dissident Akbar Ganji.
Tirman argued that social movements can and do have important impacts on international security, a view he published in a widely cited and reproduced essay in The Nation, "How We Ended the Cold War."
The argument he made was that the peace movement convinced the American public that the Cold War was dangerous and costly, giving Reagan “permission” to pursue détente with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
At SSRC, he explored how structural adjustment policies were a proximate cause of instability and conflict, convening a conference and publishing on the topic, notably in the journal, Development.
In this and in work with Chatham House and others, he provided sharp critiques of the treatment of Muslim immigrants and assailed the excesses of the “war on terrorism.” In 2009, he co-edited with Susan Martin, Women, Migration and Conflict: Breaking a Deadly Cycle (Springer), the result of an advisory project he convened on behalf of the U.N. Population Fund.
Tirman served as board co-chair of the Foundation for National Progress, which publishes Mother Jones magazine; U.S. chair of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting; and trustee of International Alert.