Speakers on US Foreign Policy

Alexander Aviña, alexander.avina@asu.edu, is available to speak on immigration, US–Latin America relations.

He is an associate professor of history at Arizona State University. He researches social movements and state violence in 20th century Mexico, and his current research project explores the links between the political economy of narcotics, drug wars, and state violence in 1960s and 70s Mexico. He is the author of Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside (Oxford U. Press). (See: https://newsroom.asu.edu/expert/alexander-aviña; https://alexanderavina.com)

Joel Beinin, beinin@stanford.edu, is available to speak about Israel/Palestine, Egypt, and U.S. policy in the Middle East. 

Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University and a founding member of Jewish Voice for Peace. He has written or edited eleven books including Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2016) and Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa 2nd edition (Stanford University Press, 2013), co-edited with Frédéric Vairel.

Medea Benjamin, medea@codepink.org, is available to speak on resisting US militarism and interventions.

She is a co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and of the human rights group Global Exchange. She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 40 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed—and most effective—fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, and “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement” by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide. She is the author of nine books, including Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control and Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection, and her articles appear regularly in outlets such as the Huffington Post, CommonDreams, Alternet, The Other Words, and TeleSUR. (See https://www.codepink.org/medea_benjamin)

Phyllis Bennis, pbennis@ips-dc.org, is available to speak on Palestine-Israel US policy in the Middle East Including Yemen war, Syria, Gulf monarchies, Arab Spring, US-Iran conflict, US-UN relations.

She is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, where she directs the New Internationalism Project, and is a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She writes and speaks in a wide range of U.S. and international media, and her most recent books include Understanding ISIS & the New Global War on Terror and Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer. (See https://ips-dc.org/ips-authors/phyllis-bennis)

Horace Campbell, hgcampbe@syr.edu, is available to speak on issues of peace and reconstruction in the 21st century, including reparations and reparative claims; US militarism; US wars against liberation movements (especially in Africa); the lies of the Cold War.

Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University, he is a noted international peace and justice scholar and is a US rapporteur for the International Commission of Inquiry against Police Violence, which is compiling a comprehensive report on police killings and maimings in the United States. (See https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/psc/Campbell,_Horace_G_/)

Bill Fletcher Jr, billfletcherjr@gmail.com, is available to address U.S. foreign policy, electoral politics, labor and workers’ movements, and right-wing populism.

He is a syndicated columnist and a regular media commentator. “Bill Fletcher Jr has been an activist since his teen years. Upon graduating from college he went to work as a welder in a shipyard, thereby entering the labor movement. . . . Fletcher is the former president of TransAfrica Forum; a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies; an editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com; and in the leadership of several other projects.” (See: http://billfletcherjr.com/)

Irene Gendzier, gendzier@bu.edu, is available to speak on US relations in the Middle East).

She is a Professor Emerita at Boston University, where she was a long time member of the faculty, serving in the Departments of Political Science and History, as well as being a member of the African Studies Center. “Among Professor Gendzier’s many publications are . . . Dying to Forget: Oil, Power, Palestine, & the Foundations of U.S. Policy in the Middle East ( 2015); Crimes of War, co-editor with Richard Falk and Robert J. Lifton (2006); Notes From the Minefield: United States Intervention in Lebanon and the Middle East, 1945-1958 (2006).” (See https://www.bu.edu/polisci/people/faculty-emeriti/gendzier/)

Steven Hahn, steven.hahn@nyu.edu, is available to address political violence in American history, slavery and racism, the Confederacy and its legacies, American empire, the illiberal tradition in American history, the invention of the liberal tradition.

Professor of History at New York University, he is a specialist on the international history of slavery, emancipation, and race, on the construction of American empire, and on the social and political history of the “long nineteenth century” in the U.S. He has written for The Nation and other periodicals. He is author of The Roots of Southern Populism (winner of the Frederick Jackson Turner Award), A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize), and A Nation without Borders: The United States and Its World in an Age of Civil Wars, 1830-1910. (See https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/steven-hahn.html)

Michael Kazin, Michael.Kazin@Georgetown.edu, is available to speak about US peace movements–particularly those against World War I and the Vietnam War—and about social movements generally.

He is a Professor in the Department of History, Georgetown University. His most recent book is War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914–1918 (2017). Both that book and a previous one, American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation (2011), won numerous prizes.  He is currently writing a history of the Democratic Party. Additionally, he is co-editor of Dissent, a leading magazine of the American left since 1954. (See https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RfPKAA0/michael-kazin)

Rashid Khalidi, rik2101@columbia.edu, is available to speak on US Middle East Policy.

He is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. “[His research covers primarily the history of the modern Middle East. He focuses on the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, with an eye to the emergence of various national identities and the role played by external powers in their development. He also researches the impact of the press on forming new senses of community, the role of education in the construction of political identity, and the way narratives have developed over the past centuries in the region.” (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashid_Khalidi; https://history.columbia.edu/person/khalidi-rashid/)

Peter Kuznick, pkuznick@aol.com, is available to speak on nuclear weapons policy and contention.

He is a Professor of History, American University. “In 1995, he founded American University’s Nuclear Studies Institute. . . . [He] is author of Beyond the Laboratory: Scientists As Political Activists in 1930s, co-author with Akira Kimura of Rethinking the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Japanese and American Perspectives . . . [and several other works. . . . He and [filmmaker] Oliver Stone co-authored the 10 part Showtime documentary film series and book both titled The Untold History of the United States.” (See https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/kuznick.cfm)

Zachary Lockman, zl1@nyu.edu, is available to talk about issues related to Israel/Palestine, US policy in the Middle East, repression/human rights in Egypt, efforts to suppress BDS advocacy and advocacy of Palestinian rights.

He is a Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and History. “The main focus of my research and teaching has been the socioeconomic, cultural and political history of the modern Middle East. . . .” (See https://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/zachary-lockman.html)

Stephen Miles, stephen@winwithoutwar.org, is available to speak on US foreign policy, war powers and use of force, Pentagon/defense spending, endless wars.

Executive Director of Win Without War. “He previously worked for the global campaigning organization Avaaz, as well as on multiple federal, state, and local electoral campaigns, and as the Executive Director of the American Hellenic Council.” (See https://winwithoutwar.org/about/who-we-are/, https://www.thenation.com/authors/stephen-miles/)

Molly Nolan, mn4@nyu.edu, is available to speak on trans-Atlantic relations

Mary [Molly] Nolan was Professor of History at New York University from 1980 to 2018 and is now Professor Emeritus. She works on twentieth-century European-American relations, on German History, and most recently on social and economic human rights in the age of neoliberalism. She is the author of The Transatlantic Century: Europe and America, 1890-2010 and Visions of Modernity: American Business and the Modernization of Germany, which won the Beer Prize for European International History. (See: https://womenalsoknowhistory.com/individual-scholar-page/?pdb=1807; https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/mary-nolan.html)

Trita Parsi, media@quincyinst.org, is available to speak on issues of Iran, the Middle East, and the U.S.

He is Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “Trita Parsi is an award-winning author and the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign politics, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He has authored three books on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel. . . . Parsi’s latest book—Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy (Yale University Press, 2017)—reveals the behind the scenes story to the historic nuclear deal with Iran. (See https://quincyinst.org/author/tparsi/)

Daniel A. Sjursen, dannysjursen@hotmail.com, is available to speak on U.S. foreign and military policy post-9/11, reframing patriotism and dissent, antiwar veteran experience, American Empire, race/class/social justice links to U.S. militarism.

He is a U.S. Army major (retired); senior fellow at the Center for International Policy (CIP), director of the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN), and contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He describes himself as “just another exasperating, insufferable, self-centered Leo with a minor Messiah complex, born on August 5, 1983 . . .” He was recently selected as the 2019 Lannan Foundation cultural freedom fellow. He is the author of a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge.” (See https://skepticalvet.com/)

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