War with Iraq

Nezar Alsayyad
Chair of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Professor of architecture and planning
Expertise: War with Iraq; Arab-Iraqi relations; Middle East culture and politics, in particular Egypt and Saudia Arabia. Will not accept interviews to be the "voice" of Arab Americans.
Phone: (510) 642-8208

Tomas Aragon, M.D., DrPH
Tomas Aragon, M.D., DrPH Executive director of UC Berkeley's Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness
Expertise: Training the public health workforce to detect, investigate and respond to acute microbial threats, including bioterrorism. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, Aragon was the director of communicable disease control and deputy health officer for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
Phone: (510) 643-4935
E-mail: aragon@berkeley.edu
URL: http://www.idready.org

Hassan Astaneh
Professor of civil and environmental engineering, expert on the design of steel buildings and bridges
Expertise: Structural engineering, particularly of tall buildings and long span bridges; methods for making buildings resistant to earthquakes and bombs, including the use of a cable-based system to prevent floors from collapsing; investigations of building and bridge collapse
Phone: (510) 642-4528
E-mail: Astaneh@ce.berkeley.edu

Severin Borenstein
E.T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at Haas School of Business, Co-director of University of California Energy Institute
Expertise: Impact of war on oil and gas market prices.
Phone: (510) 642-3689 or (510) 642-5145
E-mail: borenste@haas.berkeley.edu

W. Thomas Boyce, M.D.
Professor of epidemiology and child development
Associate dean for academic affairs and research, School of Public Health
Expertise: How children respond to stress and adversity, both biologically and emotionally. Can discuss normal and abnormal ways children may cope with stress as well as suggest appropriate ways of preventing anxiety among children.
Office phone: (510) 642-2830

David Caron
C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law, School of Law (Boalt Hall)
Expertise: International law; powers of the United Nations; legal issues around United States' use of force against Iraq; extradition.
Office phone: (510) 642-7249, home: (510) 528-8957
E-mail: ddcaron@law.berkeley.edu

Jesse Choper
Earl Warren Professor of Public Law, School of Law (Boalt Hall)
Expertise: Potential restrictions on civil liberties that might arise out of war; the constitutional power of the government to act — such as passing laws, declaring war — in these circumstances.
Office phone: (510) 642-0339

Jack Citrin
Professor of political science
Expertise: U.S. politics; public opinion and elections.
Phone: (510) 642-4692, after 6 p.m. (510) 526-6412
E-mail: gojack@berkeley.edu

Mark Danner
Professor in the Graduate School of Journalism
Expertise: U.S. relations with European allies; history and evolution of U.S. foreign policy; the changing role of U.S. power; Middle East politics; press coverage of conflict with Iraq. As a journalist, he covered many wars, including those in Central America.
Phone: (510) 526-8062
E-mail: mark@markdanner.com

Beshara Doumani
Associate professor of history
Expertise: Teaches a class on history of the Middle East from 1750 to present. He travels extensively in the Middle East and writes for various publications on the history of political movements there as well as commentaries on the current struggles. He can address post-war regime building; the effects of a war with Iraq on the Middle East; U.S. policies in the Middle East; the conflict's link to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; the political economy of Iran and Iraq; and life in the region, including social and cultural issues. In addition he has edited a new book, "Academic Freedom after September 11," (Zone Books, 2006) a compendium of essays and case studies researched and written by legal scholars from universities including UC Berkeley, Stanford University and Yale law school.
Phone: (510) 643-3147
E-mail: bdoumani@berkeley.edu

David Dowall
Professor of city and regional planning
Expertise: Infrastructure services, planning and finance, and economic development. He's done research in Jordan, Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Office phone: (510) 642-2233.
E-mail: dowall@berkeley.edu

Marian Feldman
Assistant professor of Near Eastern studies
Expertise: Ancient and Near Eastern art and Eastern Mediterranean interconnections of the Late Bronze Age. Feldman, who has done field work in Turkey and Syria, says that practically every square inch of Iraq is archaeologically rich and at risk from war. The archaeological community has been trying to get the word out by lobbying Congress, writing to Pentagon officials and making the public more aware of the situation. Tensions in the region have forced many archaeologists to adjust their plans.
Phone: (510) 642-7793 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Richard Gilbert
Professor of economics, author of recent study on California's high gas prices, former deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust in the Clinton administration
Expertise: Impact of war on oil and gasoline prices.
Office phone: (510) 642-1507
E-mail: gilbert@econ.berkeley.edu

Jack Glaser
Assistant professor of public policy
Expertise: Relationship between recent terrorist incidents and their aftermath to hate crimes; stereotyping; prejudice and discrimination; racial profiling.
Phone: (510) 642-3047
E-mail: jackglaser@berkeley.edu

Amy Gurowitz
Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and the Peace & Conflict Studies Program, post-doctoral fellow in the Travers Program in Ethics and Politics
Expertise: International relations, foreign policy, and global opinion of the United States.
Phone: (510) 642-4691
E-mail: gurowitz@berkeley.edu

Stephen Hinshaw
Chair, Department of Psychology
Expertise: Behavioral and emotional disorders of childhood and adolescence, reactions to stress, assessment of disorders and knowing what's a "normal" reaction vs. an underlying disorder.
Phone: (510) 642-9035
E-mail: hinshaw@berkeley.edu

Dwight Jaffee
Willis Booth Professor of Banking, Finance and Real Estate, member of the Haas Real Estate Group and Haas Finance Group, co-Chair of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, director of the Berkeley-St. Petersburg School of Management Program
Expertise: Catastrophic insurance including terrorism insurance.
Phone: (510) 642-1273

Dacher Keltner
Professor of social psychology
Expertise: Emotions related to conflict and war (i.e. compassion, anger, anxiety); the strategic nature of conflict; psychological processes related to escalated conflict (i.e., stereotypes of opponents, attributions of extremism, misunderstanding of common ground). Can also talk about the politics of conflict.
Office phone: (510) 642-5368
E-mail: keltner@berkeley.edu

George Lakoff
Professor of linguistics and a senior fellow at the Rockridge Institute, a progressive think tank.
Expertise: Language and conceptual systems, research into metaphorical thought and how thought is embodied. He is author of "Moral Politics" and a paper circulated via the Internet on the eve of the 1991 Gulf War, called "Metaphor and War." He has written "Metaphor and War, Again" that can be found at http://www.AlterNet.org/story.html?StoryID=15414 or via http://www.alternet.org.
" Metaphors can kill," he writes in both pieces, which explore the use of metaphor by the major figures in these wars, and by media reporting on the conflicts.
E-mail: lakoff@cogsci.berkeley.edu.
Home phone(with answering machine): (510) 848-7465
Cell phone: (510) 910-3397

Robin Lakoff
Professor of linguistics
Expertise: Pragmatics and sociolinguistics. Her current research
includes an examination of the connections between the politics of language and the language of politics. Author of "The Language War" and "Talking Power," Lakoff can talk about the Bush administration's pro-active linguistic stance on the war and its assigning of upbeat names to the conflict and actions in it, and about equating opposition to the war with opposing the U.S. troops and being un-American. Phone: (510) 841-6269 or Mondays 10 a.m.- noon at (510) 643-7702.
E-mail: rlakoff@berkeley.edu

Thomas E. McKone
Adjunct professor of environmental health services, School of Public Health
Expertise: Measuring and characterizing human exposure to radiation and chemicals. How chemicals and radiation are distributed through the body and how this leads to health impacts. McKone was the lead investigator of a National Academy of Sciences study, "Strategies to Protect the Health of Deployed U.S. Forces," published in 2000. The study evaluated technologies for identifying, detecting and monitoring the harmful environmental agents that troops may encounter.
Phone: (510) 642-8771

Richard A. Muller
Professor of physics, faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, for 31 years a member of JASON, an elite group of some 50 scientists who advise the Department of Defense and the Pentagon and independently review classified military research.
Expertise: The technology of national security: intelligence information & surveillance; cutting edge technologies, including battlefield technology; terrorism; nuclear threats; dirty bombs. He can provide perspective on a range of security issues.
Office phone: (510) 486-7430
E-mail: ramuller@lbl.gov

Michael Nacht
Aaron Wildavsky Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy, professor of public policy
Expertise: International relations and public policy; national security policy; and national missile defense.
Office phone: (510) 642-5116, ask for Kate Anderson
Cell phone: (510) 917-4550
E-mail: mnacht@berkeley.edu

Michael Nagler
Professor of peace and conflict studies
Expertise: The peace movement, including peace education. Is teaching a class this semester on nonviolence.
Phone: (510) 642-4101
E-mail: mnagler@igc.org
Preferred availability: Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30-noon.

Mark Nicas
Adjunct associate professor of environmental health sciences at the School of Public Health
Expertise: Effectiveness of respirators in protecting against airborne pathogens such as anthrax spores. He co-authored the study, "Risk-Based Selection of Respirators Against Infectious Aerosols: Application to Anthrax Spores," published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in July 2000, and the study "A Risk Analysis Approach to Selecting Respiratory Protection against Airborne Pathogens Used for Bioterrorism," published in the American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal in January 2003.
Office phone: (510) 643-6914
E-mail: mnicas@berkeley.edu

Malcolm Potts, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of public health and family planning
Expertise: The biological underpinnings of war and male aggression; women's reproductive health and family planning. He teaches on evolutionary origins of sexuality; and with Thomas Barnes, professor of history and law, he teaches a course, "Understanding War." Trained as an obstetrician, Potts was the first medical director of the London-based International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Phone: (510) 642-4327
E-mail: pottsmalcolm@yahoo.com

Arthur Reingold, M.D.
Professor and head of the Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health
Expertise: Served on the Epidemiology Board of the U.S. Armed Services, a civilian advisory panel that advises the military on how to protect troops from environmental health risks. Heads the California Emerging Infections Program, a joint program with state and local health departments, and the CDC-funded Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness based at UC Berkeley. He has been appointed to the World Health Organization's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) committee advising on all key vaccine-related matters. Reingold can talk about all aspects of bioterrorism and infectious diseases: health risks, challenges of detecting outbreaks, and safety precautions. He says the current emphasis on bioterrorism preparedness may have a negative impact on public health policies.
Phone: (510) 642-0327
E-mail: reingold@berkeley.edu

Karlene Roberts
Professor at the Haas School of Business, member of the Haas School's Organizational Behavior & Industrial Relations Group
Expertise: The management of organizations and systems in which error can have catastrophic consequences. Results of this research have been applied in U.S. Navy aircraft carrier operations, the U.S. Coast Guard and the medical industry, among others.
Phone: (510) 642-5221

Andrew Rose
Bernard T. Rocca Jr. Professor of International Trade, member of the Haas School's Economic Analysis and Policy Group, director of the Haas School's Clausen Center for International Business and Policy
Expertise: The economic issues surrounding international trade and foreign exchange.
Phone: (510) 642-6609

Harry Scheiber
Stefan A. Reisenfeld Professor of Law & History, director of the Earl Warren Legal Institute, School of Law (Boalt Hall)
Expertise: Emergency powers and wartime restrictions on civil liberties. Has co-authored an upcoming book on martial law and World War II, "Bayonets in Paradise: Martial Law in Hawaii During World War II." Has authored a book on civil liberties and World War I, "The Wilson Administration and Civil Liberties 1917-1921."
Office phone: (510) 643-9788
Earl Warren Legal Institute: (510) 642-5125
E-mail: scheiber@law.berkeley.edu

Steven Weber
Professor of political science and director of UC Berkeley's Institute of International Studies
Expertise: U.S. foreign policy; strategic/ military consequences of the war; implications for relationships with allies.
Cell: (510) 928-0657
E-mail: steve_weber@berkeley.edu

Robb Willer
Assistant professor of sociology
Office phone: (607) 339-6466 (leave messages)
E-mail: willer@berkeley.edu
Interview topics: Impact of war on presidential popularity; support bases for war in Iraq, masculine overcompensation and political attitudes to the war.