Since 2004, Tirman has been executive director and principal research scientist at the MIT Center for International Studies.
There he heads the Persian Gulf Initiative, which has conducted work on Iraq war mortality and U.S.-Iran relations, as well as other projects.
He is author or coauthor of 13 books on international affairs, many of them exploring and advocating the “human security” paradigm in global affairs, and is a frequent contributor to AlterNet, The Huffington Post, and The Boston Globe.