Stephen Zunes

Stephen Zunes (born 1956) is an international relations scholar specializing in the Middle East and a leading critic of the George W. Bush's administration's U.S. foreign policy.

Current position and education

He is a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco, where he chaired the Peace and Justice Studies program between 1998 and 2004. He received his B.A. from Oberlin College in 1979, his M.A. from Temple University in 1983, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1990. Zunes also serves as an advisory board member for Foreign Policy In Focus, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies.

Doubts over Iraq

An early and prescient critic of the Iraq War, Zunes publicly doubted prior to the March 2003 invasion that Iraq still had operational weapons of mass destruction and predicted that "sooner or later, the American public will realize that a U.S. invasion of Iraq has been a disaster" since "such efforts at hegemony inevitably spawn their own resistance." He also predicted that ethnic and sectarian conflict would make it "difficult to establish a widely accepted and stable regime" and that rather than transform the Middle East to be more stable and democratic, he warned that a U.S. invasion and occupation would increase terrorism and Islamic extremism and that it would "spawn more bitterness, hatred, and violence and will greatly retard economic development, political reform, and reconciliation in the resulting chaos and backlash that will likely follow."

Doubts over US policy over Arab states

Zunes has also been an outspoken opponent of U.S. backing of both Arab dictatorships and the Israeli occupation. He has called for an Israeli-Palestinian peace based upon international law which recognizes both Israeli security and Palestinian rights, including a withdrawal of what he calls Israeli occupation forces from Palestinian and Syrian territories, an end to terrorism, and security guarantees for Israel and its neighbors.

Previous career

A native of North Carolina, Zunes previously served on the faculty of Ithaca College, the University of Puget Sound, and Whitman College. He was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship on Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies at Dartmouth College and a Joseph J. Malone Fellowship in Arab and Islamic Studies. He also served as founding director of the Institute for a New Middle East Policy and as a research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, the Institute for Global Security Studies and the United States Institute of Peace. In 2002, he won recognition from the Peace and Justice Studies Association as Peace Scholar of the Year.

Publications

Zunes is the author of scores of articles for scholarly and general readership on Middle Eastern politics, U.S. foreign policy, international terrorism, social movements, and human rights. He is the principal editor of "Nonviolent Social Movements" (Blackwell Publishers, 1999) and the author of "Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism" (Common Courage Press, 2003) and the forthcoming "Western Sahara: Nationalism and Conflict in Northwest Africa" (Syracuse University Press.) With Rachel M. MacNair, he edited "Consistently Opposing Killing: From Abortion to Assisted Suicide, the Death Penalty, and War" (Praeger, 2008).

Travels

Zunes has made frequent visits to the Middle East and other conflict regions, where he has met with top government officials, academics, journalists and opposition leaders. Just recently (Sep 07), Zunes met with and spoke about his meeting with Iranian President Ahmadinejad (see works cited).

Non-violence work

A scholar and advocate of nonviolent people power movements, he has also served as a trainer and workshop leader for pro-democracy activists and community organizers in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. During his twenties, he worked with Movement for a New Society and other groups advocating nonviolent direct action in opposition to nuclear power, the nuclear arms race, U.S. intervention in Central America, and foreign investment in apartheid South Africa.

Journalism

Zunes is an associate editor of "Peace Review", a foreign affairs columnist for the "National Catholic Reporter" and a regular contributor to the Common Dreams website and "Tikkun" magazine. His op-ed columns have been circulated through Knight-Ridder and other wire services and have appeared in major daily newspapers throughout North America and Europe. He is also a frequent guest on National Public Radio, Pacifica Radio, PBS, BBC, MSNBC and other media outlets for analysis on breaking world events. He serves on the advisory committee of the Tikkun Community, as chair of the academic council of the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict and as a consultant for a number of peace and human rights organizations in both the United States and overseas.

Family life

Zunes lives in a cohousing community in Santa Cruz, California with his wife Nanlouise Wolfe (b. 1957), who serves on the staff of the Resource Center for Nonviolence, and their children Shanti (b. 1988), Kalila (b. 1990) and Tobin (b. 1993).

elected bibliography

* Zunes, Stephen. "Tinderbox: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Roots of Terrorism." 2002. Common Courage Press. ISBN 1-56751-226-7 / ISBN 1-84277-259-7
* Zunes, Stephen, Lester R. Kurtz, , Sarah B. Asher. "Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective." 1999. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-57718-075-5

Non-fiction articles

* Zunes, Stephen. " [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_25_42/ai_n16360292 Western Sahara's struggle for freedom] ." National Catholic Reporter. April 21 2006.
* Zunes, Stephen. "U.S. has contributed to Iraq's sectarian strife." National Catholic Reporter. March 17 2006.
* Zunes, Stephen. "U.S. undermines Israeli doves in their quest for peace." National Catholic Reporter. January 20 2006.
* Zunes, Stephen. " [http://www.newint.org/features/2005/08/01/political_economy/ How the hawk kills the dove: Western intervention keeps slamming the door on peace in Iraq] ." New Internationalist. August 1 2005.

References

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External links

* [http://www.usfca.edu/artsci/fac_staff/Z/zunes_stephen_.html Zunes biography page at USF]