TORONTO, March 21, 2003 -- Scholars and researchers of international affairs, diplomacy, history, religion, culture and politics can offer comment and perspective on war in Iraq and the geopolitical and humanitarian repercussions.
International affairs, diplomacy and the Middle East
Thabit Abdullah, professor of history specializing in Islam, modern and early modern Iraq, and the Ottoman period. Prof. Abdullah is Iraqi by birth. He is currently conducting research in Damascus where he is in regular communication with individuals in Baghdad and Iraqis exiled in Syria. He can be reached in Damascus by telephone: 963-11-311-5007, and email: athabit@yorku.ca.
Stephen Brooke, professor of history specializing in British Labour Party and 20th century British politics can comment on Prime Minister Blair’s support of the US position on war with Iraq, the dissent within Labour and the effect on Blair’s future as leader. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 66982, home: 416-534-0902, email: sjbrooke@yorku.ca.
David Dewitt, professor of political science and director of the York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS), has written on regional conflict and security in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific regions, as well as in the areas of security cooperation, Canadian foreign, defence, and security policy, and broader issues of international security and diplomacy. Phone: 416-736-5156, email: ddewitt@yorku.ca.
Daniel Drache, professor of political science and director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York University, can comment on Canada’s official position on war and the domestic debate. He is currently writing a book with the working title, In Search of North America: Do Borders Matter? Phone: 416-736-5415, home: 416-921-3332, email: drache@yorku.ca.
Mohammed Hassan, professor of environmental studies and faculty associate at the York Centre for Refugee Studies, is currently conducting research on refugee movement in Kurdistan. He can discuss refugee issues throughout the region, including Northern Iraq, Iran, Syria and Afghanistan. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 20551, email: mkhassan@yorku.ca.
Engin Isin, professor of social science and Canada Research Chair in Citizenship Studies, can comment on the regional repercussions of war, particularly as they affect Turkey, and the effects of massive dislocation of the Iraqi population. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 20346, email: isin@yorku.ca.
Molly Ladd-Taylor, professor of history specializing in US domestic and foreign policy. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 30419, or 416-736-5123, email: mltaylor@yorku.ca.
James Laxer, professor of political science and author of Stalking the Elephant: My Discovery of America (Viking, 2000), specializes in Canada-US relations in trade and foreign policy, and is currently writing about Canada-US border security issues. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 66462, home: 416-544-9941, email: jlaxer@yorku.ca.
Sergei Plekhanov, professor of political science and coordinator of the post-communist studies program at the York Centre for International and Security Studies, specializes in Russia, Eurasia and Eastern Europe and can comment on Russia’s position at the United Nations and the regional repercussions of war in Iraq from Russia’s strategic vantage point. Phone: 416-736-5156, email: splekhan@yorku.ca.
Saeed Rahnema, professor of political science teaches on War and Peace in the Middle East and displaced communities of Islamic origin and does research on Islamic fundamentalism, Iran, Iraq, and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. His most recent books include Re-birth of Social Democracy in Iran, (Baran Books Verlag, Stockholm, 1996); Iran After the Revolution: The Crisis of an Islamic State, (co-authored and co-edited with Sohrab Behdad) London: I.B. Tauris, and New York: St Martin's Press, 1995, paperback 1996. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 66624, or 20486, home: 416-926-1336, email: srahnema@yorku.ca.
Adrian Shubert, professor of history specializing in continental Europe and Spain in particular can comment on Spain’s support of the US position on war and the historical dimensions of the differing positions in Europe. Phone: 416-736-5177, email: ashubert@yorku.ca.
Harvey Simmons, professor emeritus of political science specializes in West European politics, particularly French politics, and in the study of extreme right parties and movements in Europe. He has written frequently in the news media on European and US foreign policy relations and domestic European politics. Phone: 416-482-9790, home: 416-482-9790, email: hsimmons@yorku.ca.
Erich Weingartner, Human Security Research Fellow at the York Centre for International and Security Studies, is a political scientist specializing in North Korea. He can comment on Canadian and US relations with North Korea and recent instability on the Korean peninsula and how that affects decisions about war in Iraq. Phone: 416-736-5156, or 416-736-2100, ext. 46004, home: 705-752-2842, email: erichw@yorku.ca.
International legal issues
Michael Mandel is professor of law at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School and co-chair of Lawyers Against the War (LAW), an international group of jurists based in Canada with members in 11 countries. He specializes in international criminal law and humanitarian law and can comment on issues pertaining to the World Court treaty, which the US has not signed, and the legality of US foreign policy moves and aggression against Iraq. Phone: 416-736-5039, email: mmandel@yorku.ca.
Craig Scott, professor of international law, Osgoode Hall Law School at York, can comment on the international legal issues pertaining to war on Iraq. His recent writings on the UN Security Council and the use of force are: Interpreting Intervention, in the 2001 volume of the Canadian Yearbook of International Law; and Iraq and the Serious Consequences of Word Games: Language, Violence and Responsibility in the Security Council, in the Nov. 2002 edition of the GermanLawJournal.com. He served as co-counsel for Bosnia in the early 1990s, responsible for developing arguments on the legality of maintaining the Security Council’s arms embargo on Bosnia. He is currently preparing a collection of his work entitled, Interpreting Interventions: Essays on the Rhetorics of Law and War. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 55366, email: cmscott@yorku.ca.
Weapons
Stephen Endicott, senior scholar and professor emeritus of East Asian history, is co-author with Edward Hagerman of The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets from the Early Cold War and Korea (Indiana University Press, January 1999), a history of the US biological weapons program. He can comment on the historical context for the development and use of biological weaponry, and potential threats to Canada and other countries. Phone: 416-651-0985, email: sendicot@yorku.ca.
Peter Gizewski, an external associate of the York Centre for International and Security Studies, is a strategic analyst with the Department of National Defense based in Kingston, Ontario. He has recently completed studies for the Canadian government on biological weapons and catastrophic terrorism, and on deterrence in South Asia, and for the US Department of State on the causes of urban violence in the developing world. Phone: 613-541-5010, ext. 8718, home: 613-531-8129, email: Gizewski.PJG@forces.gc.ca.
Edward Hagerman, history professor and co-author with Stephen Endicott of The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets from the Early Cold War and Korea (Indiana University Press, January 1999), has published extensively on the origins of modern war and modern total war, and has contributed to textbooks for the US Military Academy at West Point, the US Army Command and General Staff College, the US Air Force Academy, and the Air College of the US Air Force. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 30287, email: hagerman@yorku.ca.
Martin Shadwick, political science professor and member of the York Centre for International and Security Studies, specializes in Canadian defence and security policy with a focus on defence industrial and defence management issues (alternative service delivery), the military and Canadian society, and strategic studies. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 40244, home: 416-494-5950, email: shadwick@yorku.ca.
Peace movements and social issues
David V.J. Bell, director of the York Centre for Applied Sustainability and professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies specializes in public education about environmental sustainability and its links to broader social and political issues, such as peace and security and the roots of terrorism. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 77095, email: dvjbell@yorku.ca.
Maynard Maidman, professor of ancient history has a first-hand understanding of the kinds of materials housed in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad and their significance. He has written on the social and economic history of northern Iraq 1500-1200 B.C. based on documents originally excavated near Kirkuk and later housed in the Iraq Museum. He has recently completed a book on 120 of those documents (CDL Press, forthcoming) and will soon finish a catalogue of 3,000 documents pertaining to loans, real estate contracts, court proceedings and other activities of daily life in that period. He also specializes in the history of Iraq, 3000-300 B.C. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 30430, email: mmaidman@yorku.ca.
James Porter, professor of sociology specializing in social movements, the culture of protest, anti-poverty and global justice movements. He can comment on the development and progress of the global anti-war movement. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 55015, home: 416-516-4836, email: jnporter@yorku.ca.
Arthur Siegel, professor in the division of social science, specializes in the role of media in crisis situations and their enhanced influence in shaping public attitudes. His book Radio Canada International (Mosaic Press, 1996) examines propaganda in the Second World War and the Cold War, and he is author of Politics and the Media in Canada (McGraw-Hill Ryerson Press, 1996). Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 33430, home: 416-495-0190, email: asiegel@yorku.ca.
Peter Timmerman, professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, was chair of a Canadian team of scholars and scientists who studied the environmental and social effects of the 1991 Gulf War and issued a report, Collateral Damage. He is general editor of the Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change, vol. 5 and does research in environmental ethics, environmental conflict, and coastal city management. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 33033, email: ptimmerman@ifias.ca.
Islam, racism, human rights
Enakshi Dua, professor of women’s studies, specializes in anti-racist feminist theory, and the historical construction of nation, race and gender in Canada. She can comment on issues of racism, racial profiling and perceptions of Islam in the West. She is co-editor of Scratching the Surface: Canadian Anti-Racist Feminist Thought, a book of essays that examine how race and gender interact to shape the lives of women of colour in Canada. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 20143, email: edua@yorku.ca.
Ian Greene, professor of political science is an expert in Canadian public law, the Charter of Rights, judicial administration, political ethics and Canadian government and can comment on human rights issues relative to war in Iraq and anti-terrorism laws. He is currently working on a new edition of The Charter of Rights, as well as a book about the courts and democracy for the Canadian Democratic Audit. Phone: 416-763-0766, email: igreene@yorku.ca.
Haideh Moghissi, professor of sociology has published widely on religion, gender and politics in the Middle East. specializing in the study of women in the Middle East and women in Islam. Her most recent award-winning book is Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism: the Limits of Post-modern Analysis (Zed Press, 1999, and Oxford U Press, 2000). She is currently directing a SSHRC-funded Major Collaborative Research Initiative on Diaspora, Islam and Gender: a Comparative Study of Four Displaced Communities from Islamic Cultures. Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 20224, email: moghissi@yorku.ca.
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For further information, please contact:
| Susan Bigelow | |
| Media Relations | |
| York University | |
| 416-736-2100, ext. 22091 | |
| sbigelow@yorku.ca | |
YU/032/03
