The following UC Davis faculty members are available to comment on aspects of the Iraqi war.

War and politics

• Options for the future
• Blood and public opinion
• Parallels to the Vietnam War
• Wartime lies and conspiracies
• Security issues

Governance and economy

• The next crisis: Iraq's refugees
• Democracy and economics
• Economics in the Middle East

Legal issues

• International criminal law, human rights
• Guantanamo Bay
• Women's human rights

Media and culture

• Media coverage
• Impact of the war on Iraq's cultural heritage

WAR AND POLITICS

Options for the future

Miroslav Nincic, professor of political science, can discuss the successes and failures of U.S. policies in Iraq and Afghanistan and talk about where we need to go from here. Nincic is an international relations scholar who studies war, U.S. foreign policy, national security, the arms race and public attitudes toward war. In his 2006 book, "Renegade Regimes: Confronting Deviant Behavior in World Politics," Nincic profiles the major shift in international relations in the past several years. Contact: Miroslav Nincic, Political Science, (530) 752-2262, mnincic@ucdavis.edu.

Blood and public opinion

Public support for the war will continue to diminish if American deaths in Iraq continue to climb, predicts Scott Sigmund Gartner, associate professor of political science at UC Davis. Gartner can explain how sharp declines in public support for the Bush administration's effort are related to low public expectations of casualties and disinterest in the American occupation. Gartner is an expert in the political relationship of war and casualties, wartime military decision-making, military strategy and measuring progress in war. He wrote "Strategic Assessment of War," which studies how military progress is evaluated in wartime, and has published many articles on war, strategy, the impact of casualties on public opinion and politics, and U.S. foreign policy. Contact: Scott Gartner, Political Science, (530) 752-3065, ssgartner@ucdavis.edu.

Parallels to the Vietnam War

Larry Berman, professor of political science and interim director of the UC Davis Washington Program, can talk about parallels between the Iraq and Vietnam wars. Known for his scholarship on the modern presidency as well as the Vietnam conflict, Berman is author of the "Perfect Spy, The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter & Vietnamese Communist Agent," released in April 2007. He also wrote "No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger and Betrayal in Vietnam" (2001) and co-wrote "Foreign Military Intervention: The Dynamics of Protracted Conflict." Contact: Larry Berman, Political Science, (530) 752-3076 (UC Davis), (202) 974-6352 (Washington Center) or lsberman@ucdavis.edu.

Wartime lies and conspiracies

Kathryn Olmsted, professor of history, is versed in the conspiracy theories and wartime lies that have proliferated since the U.S. first invaded Iraq. She draws parallels from these to the conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination. Olmsted, who wrote "Challenging the Secret Government" in 1996, is at work on a book regarding conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. Contact: Kathryn Olmsted, History, (530) 752-2118, ksolmsted@ucdavis.edu.

Security issues

Zeev Maoz, political science professor at UC Davis, is an expert on Middle East security, including politics, economics and strategic military issues. He can talk about domestic instability in the Middle East as a result of the war and about more general Middle Eastern political problems. The former director of Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Maoz wrote "Defending the Holy Land?" (2006). Contact: Zeev Maoz, Political Science, (530) 752-1989, zmaoz@ucdavis.edu.

GOVERNANCE AND ECONOMY

The next crisis: Iraq's refugees

Historian Keith Watenpaugh, associate professor of modern Islam, human rights and peace, can speak on a wide variety of topics regarding the Iraq War, including the looming refugee crisis. He can also discuss Iraq, its history and prospects for peace. Watenpaugh is one of the only American academics to have conducted research in Iraq. He has written and spoken on campuses around the country on issues raised by the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, in particular the challenges facing Iraq's intellectuals and college and threats to cultural heritage. He is the author of "Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism and the Arab Middle Class" (2006). He is currently editing the volume "The Arab Intellectual and the Question of Modernity" and finishing a second book, "The Middle East and Human Rights." Contact: Keith Watenpaugh, Religious Studies, (530) 752-8348 or (530) 313-5115, kwatenpaugh@ucdavis.edu.

Democracy and economics

Iraq will need sustainable democratic political and economic institutions as well as a well-coordinated international aid program to restructure its economy, says Hossein Farzin, a UC Davis professor of agricultural and resource economics who specializes in the Middle East. A former economist and consultant for the World Bank, Farzin has advised Kuwait, Iran and the United Arab Emirates on their economies. He can talk about how Iraq's recovery will depend on a stable democratic government, in tandem with economic planning. "It is, however, important to note that building democratic institutions does not take place overnight; it requires patient and steady work at the very grass root of a society," he says. "Nor can it be imposed from outside in a straight-jacket model, without careful attention to the each society's historical, geographical, social, and economic background." Contact: Hossein Farzin, Agricultural and Resource Economics, (530) 752-7610, farzin@primal.ucdavis.edu.

Economics in the Middle East

Elias Tuma, UC Davis professor emeritus of economics, can talk about the challenges of rebuilding Iraq and economic development and political stability in the Middle East. A specialist in Middle East political economies, Tuma has written about food and population; economics and political change; the economics of Middle East peace; and poverty, unemployment and inequity in the Arab world. Tuma has served as consultant for the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He teaches a class on political economy in the Middle East. Contact: Elias Tuma, Economics, (530) 889-1991 home, tuma@vfr.net.

LEGAL ISSUES

International criminal law, human rights

Professor Diane Marie Amann of the UC Davis School of Law is an expert in international criminal law, human rights and constitutional law. A member of the board of advisers of the National Institute of Military Justice, she can offer comment on military justice, the Haditha affair, the Saddam Hussein trial and the detention of alleged terrorists. She is author of "Military and Civilian Justice in the United States and the Post-September 11 Military Commissions," part of "The Changing Faces of Military Justice and Special Tribunals as They Confront International Law," a 16-country research project of the Mixed Comparative Law Research Unit of Paris. She has also written about the U.N. Committee Against Torture's position urging an end to Guantanamo detention for the American Society of International Law. Her other writings, including "Abu Ghraib," in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review in 2005, and "Guantanamo," published in 2004 in the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, have examined legal issues related to the U.S. war on terrorism. Contact: Diane Marie Amann, School of Law, (530) 754-9099, dmamann@ucdavis.edu.

Guantanamo Bay

Professor Anupam Chander of the UC Davis School of Law says "the legal black hole of Guantanamo Bay" must be closed decisively by transferring the land to a trusteeship for the Cuban people and yielding control over the harbor to an international body. The professor, who studies international law, says a legal trick -- in which the United States exercises absolute control and concedes that another nation has sovereignty -- has allowed the U.S. government to detain people in Guantanamo without giving them access to lawyers or courts. Quitting Guantanamo, he says, will help demonstrate the United States' commitment to not be an imperial power. Among the courses Chander teaches is one on public international law. Contact: Anupam Chander, School of Law, (530) 754-5304, achander@ucdaivs.edu.

Women's human rights

Professor Madhavi Sunder of the UC Davis School of Law is an expert on women's human rights in Muslim countries and communities. With law and culture as the focus of her scholarship, Sunder says international human rights law often fails to address women's rights under even the most oppressive regimes because such law is reticent to interfere with religion and culture. A 2006 Carnegie scholar, she is researching and writing a book about activists working for the reform of women's rights in Muslim countries. Sunder published a leading article on women's rights activism in the Muslim world, titled "Piercing the Veil," in the Yale Law Journal in 2003. Her related article on dissent within cultural groups was published in the Stanford Law Review in 2001. Contact: Madhavi Sunder, School of Law, (530) 752-2896, msunder@ucdavis.edu.

MEDIA AND CULTURE

Media coverage

The longer the Iraq War lasts, the more challenging it will be for media to cover the ongoing insurgency, says John Theobald, a lecturer in the UC Davis Department of Communication. He can comment on how the public is affected by media coverage of the war as well as the politics that print and broadcast media encounter in attempting to communicate war news to the public. Television reporters, in particular, are having a difficult time covering Iraq, Theobald says, because wars are generalized and have spread-out activities. "TV lends itself to covering localized events: 9/11 lent itself to TV, as Pearl Harbor would have, but the Iraq War doesn't, as WW II wouldn't have," he explains. A former television news producer, Theobald teaches "The Media Industry," "Media Analysis" and "News Policies and Practices." Contact: John Theobald, Communication, (530) 752-4916 office, (707) 322-6340 cell, theobald@att.net.

Impact of the war on Iraq's cultural heritage

Lynn Roller, professor of art history, can speak about the impact of looting in Iraq's museums and consequences for scholarship. She is knowledgeable about historic monuments and urban centers in what was once Mesopotamia and is now Iraq and southeastern Turkey. Roller also can talk about the art and archaeological monuments of the ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece and Rome. An archaeologist with many years of research experience in Turkey, Roller recently won the Wiseman Prize, given by the Archaeological Institute of America, for the outstanding book of the year in classical archaeology for her book, "In Search of God the Mother: The Cult of Anatolian Cybele" (1999). Contact: Lynn Roller, Art History, (530) 754-8723, leroller@ucdavis.edu.