Stephen Zunes
Encyclopedia
Stephen Zunes is an international relations
scholar specializing in the Middle East
specializing in Middle Eastern politics, U.S. foreign policy, and strategic nonviolent action. He is known internationally as a leading critic of United States policy in the Middle East, particularly under the George W. Bush
Administration, and an analyst of nonviolent civil insurrections against autocratic regimes.
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
.
, 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.
dictatorships and the Israel
i 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 Israeli forces from Palestinian and Syria
n territories, an end to terrorism, and security guarantees for Israel and its neighbors.
Zunes has stated that the Israel's government "engages in a pattern of gross and systematic human rights violations and blatantly violates a series of UN Security Council resolutions and other international legal principles." Zunes has written that "support for Israel's ongoing occupation and repression is not unlike U.S. support for Indonesia's 24-year occupation of and repression in East Timor or Morocco's ongoing occupation of and repression in Western Sahara." He has also written that "widespread racism toward Arabs and Muslims [is] so prevalent in American society" and that many Americans identify with Zionism because it is "a reflection of our own historic experience as pioneers in North America, building a nation based upon noble, idealistic values while simultaneously suppressing and expelling the indigenous population." Regarding the views of the "far left" on Israel, Zunes has written that that many far left organizations have taken "a stridently anti-Israel position that did not just challenge Israeli policies but also questioned Israel's very right to exist" and that this "severely damag[ed] their credibility."
Zunes is the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003). He is the principal editor of Nonviolent Social Movements (Blackwell Publishers, 1999). With Jacob Mundy, he wrote Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press, 2010). Zunes' books are largely self-publlished.
Zunes is a regular contributor to the Common Dreams, Truthout, and Alternet websites. He has written for The Nation, Tikkun, The Progressive, In These Times, Yes!, and other magazines, and his op-ed columns 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.
In September 2007, Zunes was among a group of American religious leaders and scholars who met with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a subsequent article, Zunes stated that:
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.
community in Santa Cruz, California
with his spouse 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). Zunes is a folk musician and enjoys the outdoors.
Zunes was born in Salisbury, NC, the only child of Helen Karnes Zunes and the Rev. John Zunes, an Episcopal priest. Both parents were active in civil rights, nuclear disarmament, anti-Vietnam War and pro-Palestinian causes. He grew up in the university town of Chapel Hill, attending public and Quaker schools, and spent most summers as well as his early adolescence in the Celo community in the mountains of western North Carolina. After attending college in Ohio and living in Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston, he married his former college sweetheart, Nanlouise Wolfe (b. 1957) in 1987 while in grad school in Ithaca, NY.
Zunes, S. & Mundy, J. (2010). Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution. New York: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0815632193
Zunes, S. & McNair, R. (eds.) (2008). Consistently Opposing Killing: From Abortion to Assisted Suicide, the Death Penalty, and War. California: Praeger Press. ISBN 031335278X
Zunes, S. (2002). Tinderbox: U.S. foreign policy and the roots of terrorism. Common Courage Press. ISBN 1-56751-226-7 / ISBN 1-84277-259-7
Zunes, S., Kurtz, L. & Asher, S. (eds.) (1999). Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective. 1999. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-57718-075-5
Articles
Zunes, S. (2011). The U.S. Blows it on Bahrain http://www.fpif.org/articles/america_blows_it_on_bahrain
Zunes, S. (2011) http://www.mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/gaza-war-congress-and-international-humanitarian-law
Stringfellow, T. (2011) http://www.narconews.com/Issue67/article4432.html
Zunes, S. (2009) http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/learn-as-you-go/weapons-of-mass-democracy
Zunes, S. (2009). The war on Yugoslavia: 10 years later http://www.fpif.org/articles/the_war_on_yugoslavia_10_years_later
Zunes, S. (2008). The U.S. and Georgia http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-zunes/the-us-and-georgia_b_118994.html
Zunes, S. (2008). Nonviolent action and pro-democracy struggles. Washington, DC: Foreign Policy In Focus.
Zunes, S. (2007). The United States and the Kurds: A brief history http://stephenzunes.org/2007/10/25/the-united-states-and-the-kurds-a-brief-history/
Zunes, S. (2006) The United States and Lebanon: A meddlesome history http://www.fpif.org/articles/the_united_states_and_lebanon_a_meddlesome_history
Zunes, S. (2006). Western Sahara: The other occupation http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/Zunes-westernsahara-the-other-occupation
Zunes, S. (2006). U.S. has contributed to Iraq's sectarian strife. National Catholic Reporter.
Zunes, S. (2006). U.S. undermines Israeli doves in their quest for peace. National Catholic Reporter.
Zunes, S. (2005). How the hawk kills the dove: Western intervention keeps slamming the door on peace in Iraq. New Internationalist.
Zunes, S. (2002). Nonviolent resistance in the Islamic world. Nonviolent Activist.
Zunes, S. (2002). The case against war. The Nation.
Zunes, S. The strategic functions of U.S. aid to Israel http://www.eroj.org/Palestina/zunes.htm
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
scholar specializing in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
specializing in Middle Eastern politics, U.S. foreign policy, and strategic nonviolent action. He is known internationally as a leading critic of United States policy in the Middle East, particularly under the George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
Administration, and an analyst of nonviolent civil insurrections against autocratic regimes.
Current position and education
Stephen Zunes is a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco teaching courses on the politics of Middle East and other regions, U.S. foreign policy, nonviolence, conflict resolution, and globalization. He currently chairs USF’s Middle Eastern Studies Program. He serves as a senior policy analyst for the Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies, an associate editor of Peace Review, a contributing editor of Tikkun, and chair of the academic advisory committee for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. He received his B.A. from Oberlin CollegeOberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
in 1979, his M.A. from Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
in 1983, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 1990. Zunes also serves as an advisory board member for Foreign Policy In Focus
Foreign Policy In Focus
Foreign Policy In Focus is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. FPIF describes itself as a "Think Tank Without Walls" that brings together over 600 writers, scholars, academics, artists and activists seeking to make the United States a more responsible global...
, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies
Institute for Policy Studies
Institute for Policy Studies is a left-wing think tank based in Washington, D.C..It has been directed by John Cavanagh since 1998- History :...
.
Previous career
A native of North CarolinaNorth Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, Zunes previously served on the faculty of Ithaca College
Ithaca College
Ithaca College is a private college located on the South Hill of Ithaca, New York. The school was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music. The college has a strong liberal arts core, but also offers several pre-professional programs and some graduate programs. The college is...
, the University of Puget Sound
University of Puget Sound
The University of Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college located in the North End of Tacoma, Washington, in the United States...
, and Whitman College
Whitman College
Whitman College is a private, co-educational, non-sectarian, residential undergraduate liberal arts college located in Walla Walla, Washington. Initially founded as a seminary by a territorial legislative charter in 1859, the school became a four year degree granting institution in 1883...
. He was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship on Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
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
United States Institute of Peace
The United States Institute of Peace was created by Congress as a non-partisan, federal institution that works to prevent or end violent conflict around the world...
. In 2002, he won recognition from the Peace and Justice Studies Association as Peace Scholar of the Year.
Doubts over Iraq
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 a U.S. invasion and occupation could stir up 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."Views on the Middle East
Zunes has also been an outspoken opponent of U.S. backing of both ArabArab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
dictatorships and the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i 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 Israeli forces from Palestinian and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n territories, an end to terrorism, and security guarantees for Israel and its neighbors.
Zunes has stated that the Israel's government "engages in a pattern of gross and systematic human rights violations and blatantly violates a series of UN Security Council resolutions and other international legal principles." Zunes has written that "support for Israel's ongoing occupation and repression is not unlike U.S. support for Indonesia's 24-year occupation of and repression in East Timor or Morocco's ongoing occupation of and repression in Western Sahara." He has also written that "widespread racism toward Arabs and Muslims [is] so prevalent in American society" and that many Americans identify with Zionism because it is "a reflection of our own historic experience as pioneers in North America, building a nation based upon noble, idealistic values while simultaneously suppressing and expelling the indigenous population." Regarding the views of the "far left" on Israel, Zunes has written that that many far left organizations have taken "a stridently anti-Israel position that did not just challenge Israeli policies but also questioned Israel's very right to exist" and that this "severely damag[ed] their credibility."
Publications
Zunes is the author of scores of articles for scholarly and general readership on Middle Eastern politics, U.S. foreign policy, international terrorism, nonviolent action, international law, and human rights. More than 450 articles by Stephen Zunes are available on his personal website.Zunes is the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003). He is the principal editor of Nonviolent Social Movements (Blackwell Publishers, 1999). With Jacob Mundy, he wrote Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press, 2010). Zunes' books are largely self-publlished.
Zunes is a regular contributor to the Common Dreams, Truthout, and Alternet websites. He has written for The Nation, Tikkun, The Progressive, In These Times, Yes!, and other magazines, and his op-ed columns 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.
Travels
Zunes frequently visits the Middle East and other conflict regions, where he has met with top government officials, academics, journalists and opposition leaders. He has traveled to more than sixty countries and has accepted invitations to speak at venues in more than twenty.In September 2007, Zunes was among a group of American religious leaders and scholars who met with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a subsequent article, Zunes stated that:
[Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] was quite unimpressive. Indeed, with his ramblings and the superficiality of his analysis, he came across as more pathetic than evil... The Iranian president impressed me as someone sincerely devout in his religious faith, yet rather superficial in his understanding and inclined to twist his faith tradition in ways to correspond with his pre-conceived ideological positions.
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 the United States, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. During his twenties, he worked with Movement for a New SocietyMovement for a New Society
The Movement for a New Society was a U.S.-based network of social activists, committed to the principles of nonviolence, who played a key role in social movements of the 1970s and 80s....
and other groups advocating nonviolent direct action in opposition to nuclear power, the nuclear arms race
Nuclear arms race
The nuclear arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War...
, U.S. intervention in Central America, and foreign investment in apartheid South Africa.
Family life
Zunes lives in a cohousingCohousing
A cohousing community is a type of intentional community composed of private homes supplemented by shared facilities. The community is planned, owned and managed by the residents – who also share activities which may include cooking, dining, child care, gardening, and governance of the...
community in Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
with his spouse 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). Zunes is a folk musician and enjoys the outdoors.
Zunes was born in Salisbury, NC, the only child of Helen Karnes Zunes and the Rev. John Zunes, an Episcopal priest. Both parents were active in civil rights, nuclear disarmament, anti-Vietnam War and pro-Palestinian causes. He grew up in the university town of Chapel Hill, attending public and Quaker schools, and spent most summers as well as his early adolescence in the Celo community in the mountains of western North Carolina. After attending college in Ohio and living in Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston, he married his former college sweetheart, Nanlouise Wolfe (b. 1957) in 1987 while in grad school in Ithaca, NY.
Selected bibliography
BooksZunes, S. & Mundy, J. (2010). Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution. New York: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0815632193
Zunes, S. & McNair, R. (eds.) (2008). Consistently Opposing Killing: From Abortion to Assisted Suicide, the Death Penalty, and War. California: Praeger Press. ISBN 031335278X
Zunes, S. (2002). Tinderbox: U.S. foreign policy and the roots of terrorism. Common Courage Press. ISBN 1-56751-226-7 / ISBN 1-84277-259-7
Zunes, S., Kurtz, L. & Asher, S. (eds.) (1999). Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective. 1999. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-57718-075-5
Articles
Zunes, S. (2011). The U.S. Blows it on Bahrain http://www.fpif.org/articles/america_blows_it_on_bahrain
Zunes, S. (2011) http://www.mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/gaza-war-congress-and-international-humanitarian-law
Stringfellow, T. (2011) http://www.narconews.com/Issue67/article4432.html
Zunes, S. (2009) http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/learn-as-you-go/weapons-of-mass-democracy
Zunes, S. (2009). The war on Yugoslavia: 10 years later http://www.fpif.org/articles/the_war_on_yugoslavia_10_years_later
Zunes, S. (2008). The U.S. and Georgia http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-zunes/the-us-and-georgia_b_118994.html
Zunes, S. (2008). Nonviolent action and pro-democracy struggles. Washington, DC: Foreign Policy In Focus.
Zunes, S. (2007). The United States and the Kurds: A brief history http://stephenzunes.org/2007/10/25/the-united-states-and-the-kurds-a-brief-history/
Zunes, S. (2006) The United States and Lebanon: A meddlesome history http://www.fpif.org/articles/the_united_states_and_lebanon_a_meddlesome_history
Zunes, S. (2006). Western Sahara: The other occupation http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/Zunes-westernsahara-the-other-occupation
Zunes, S. (2006). U.S. has contributed to Iraq's sectarian strife. National Catholic Reporter.
Zunes, S. (2006). U.S. undermines Israeli doves in their quest for peace. National Catholic Reporter.
Zunes, S. (2005). How the hawk kills the dove: Western intervention keeps slamming the door on peace in Iraq. New Internationalist.
Zunes, S. (2002). Nonviolent resistance in the Islamic world. Nonviolent Activist.
Zunes, S. (2002). The case against war. The Nation.
Zunes, S. The strategic functions of U.S. aid to Israel http://www.eroj.org/Palestina/zunes.htm
External links
- http://stephenzunes.org/ Zunes' personal website
- http://stephenzunes.org/vitae/ Link to Zunes' Vitae
- Zunes biography page at USF
- Stephen Zunes speaks on alternatives to war at the University of Washington on November 2002