Stephen Zunes

Born 1956, Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies. A native of North Carolina, Professor Zunes received his PhD. from Cornell University, his M.A. from Temple University and his B.A. from Oberlin College. He has previously served on the faculty of Ithaca College, the University of Puget Sound, and Whitman College. 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, and chair of the academic advisory committee for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.

Professor Zunes is the author of scores of articles for scholarly and general readership on Middle Eastern politics, U.S. foreign policy, international terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation, strategic nonviolent action, and human rights. He is the principal editor of Nonviolent Social Movements (Blackwell Publishers, 1999), the author of the highly-acclaimed Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003) and co-author (with Jacob Mundy) of the forthcoming Western Sahara: Nationalism, Conflict, and International Accountability (Syracuse University Press.)

He has been a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship on Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies at Dartmouth College and a Human Rights Fellowship at the Center for Law and Global Justice at the University of San Francisco. He has also served as a research associate for the Center for Global, International and Regional Studies at the University of California--Santa Cruz. He has been a recipient of a Joseph J. Malone Fellowship in Arab and Islamic Studies as well as research grants through the Institute for Global Security Studies, the United States Institute of Peace, and the International Resource Center. In the early 1990s, Dr, Zunes served as founding director of the Institute for a New Middle East Policy in Seattle. In 2002, he won recognition from the Peace and Justice Studies Association as Peace Scholar of the Year.

Dr. Zunes has made frequent visits to the Middle East and other conflict regions, where he has met with top government officials, academics, journalists and opposition leaders.

Dr. Zunes is a foreign affairs columnist for the National Catholic Reporter and a regular contributor to the Common Dreams website and Tikkun magazine. His op-ed columns have appeared in major daily newspapers throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. In addition, he has spoken at over 80 colleges and universities and scores of community groups and is a frequent guest on National Public Radio, Pacifica Radio, PBS, BBC, MSNBC and other media outlets for analysis on breaking world events. He serves as a consultant and board member for a number of peace and human rights organizations in both the United States and overseas.

More about Stephen Zunes here.

Stephen Zunes became TFF Associate in November 2009.

Articles by Stephen Zunes

Zunes' own list

On TFF, the most recent on top

Stephen Zunes, January 7, 2012
The Iraq War - Remembering those responsible

Stephen Zunes, December 6, 2011
Arab revoluions and the power of nonviolent action

Stephen Zunes, November 15, 2011
Iran threat reduction act actually enhances threat of war

Stephen Zunes, October 5, 2011
Answering Obama's UN address

Stephen Zunes, September 10, 2011
The legacy of 9/11 and the war on intellectuals

Stephen Zunes, July 5, 2011
Ship to Gaza: Washington Okays attack on unarmed U.S. ship

Stephen Zunes, June 4, 2011
Netanyahu's speech and congressional democrats' embrace of extremism

Stephen Zunes, May 25, 2011
Obama's Mideast speech: Two steps back, one step forward

Stephen Zunes, May 18, 2011
Why did George Mitchell, Obama's Envoy on Arab-Israeli affairs resign?

Stephen Zunes, May 16, 2011
Yemen on the edge

Stephen Zunes, May 14, 2011
The killing of Bin Laden and the threat of Al Queda

Stephen Zunes, March 29, 2011
Intervention in Libya: Was it really the only option?

Stephen Zunes, March 22, 2011
Obama's veto on Israeli settlements demonstrates contempt for international humanitarian law

Stephen Zunes, March 9, 2011
Pro-democracy protests spread to Oman

Stephen Zunes, March 4, 20011
America blows it on Bahrein
If you only read one article about this country and its protesters, this should be it!

Stephen Zunes, February 25, 2011
Libya, the United States and the anti-Gaddafi revolt

Stephen Zunes, February 21, 2011
Credit the Egyptian people for the Eyptian revolution

Stephen Zunes, 11/2
Why Egypt will not turn into another Iran after Mubarak

Stephen Zunes, February 10, 2011
Egypt's pro-democracy movement: The struggle continues
On the strength and weaknesses of non-violence.

Stephen Zunes, February 1, 2011
EGYPT: Obama's shift on Egypt this past weekend

Stephen Zunes, February 1, 2011
EGYPT: Your questions answered
Clarifying in the midst of chaos

Stephen Zunes, January 28, 2011
The U.S. continues to back the Mubarak dictatorship in the face of pro-democracy uprising

Stephen Zunes, January 26, 2011
Does military education threatening academic freedom?

Stephen Zunes, January 21, 2011
Tunesia's non-violent, democratic revolution

Stephen Zunes, January 21, 2011
Pro-democracy uprising fails to keep Washington from backing Tunesian dictatorship

Stephen Zunes, December 25, 2010
Democrats push through yet another anti-Palestinian resolution

Stephen Zunes, December 15, 2010
Richard Holbrooke represented the worst side of the U.S. foreign policy establishment

Stephen Zunes, December 12, 2010
Fraudulent Egyptian elections

Stephen Zunes, November 28, 2010
Upsurge in repression challenges non-violent resistance in Western Sahara

Stephen Zunes, November 3, 2010
My support for Ralph Nader ten years later: Lessons to be learnt
And a few memories of who Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore really used to be...

Stephen Zunes, October 20, 2010
A "Progressive Hero"? Time to think outside the Boxer - Barbara Boxer

Stephen Zunes, October 15, 2010
Senate again undermines Obama's Middle East peace efforts

Stephen Zunes, October 14, 2010
Arming the Saudis
The largest arms deal of its kind in human history...60 billion dollars!

Stephen Zunes, October 5, 2010
Senate again undermines Obama's Middle East peace efforts

Stephen Zunes, September 22, 2010
The other oil spil
Israel's 2006 attack on Lebanon's fuel tanks. And guess who supported Israel...

Stephen Zunes, September 21, 2010
Iraq: The Democrats' war
Acknowledge the forces that got the U.S. into this tragedy. And it was not only George W. Bush!

Stephen Zunes' new book, September 21, 2010
Western Sahara. War, Nation and Conflict Resolution

Stephen Zunes, September 7, 2010
Harry Reid's Anti-Islamic agenda
Shocking analysis of the U.S. Senate majority leader and of the total moral bankruptcy of the Democratic Party. (Interestingly, the first-ever article by Zunes to be refused by the Huffington Post!)

Stephen Zunes, August 31, 2010
Three American hikers seized by Iran for more than a year
Did you hear about them? Hardly! All three are progressive, anti-imperialist activists, which not only makes the charges against them particularly absurd, but also may explain why the Obama administration and the media have done so little for them.

Stephen Zunes, July 9, 2010
Pavlovian U.S. Congress jumps to Israel's 'Self' defence

Stephen Zunes, July 9, 2010
Israel's dubious investigation of flotilla attack

Stephen Zunes, June 16, 2010
U.S. Democratic Party defends Israel's attack on the ship to Gaza
A series of mind-boggling statements...

Stephen Zunes, June 8, 2010
Will the Flotilla attack be our "Kent State" moment?

Stephen Zunes, June 4, 2010
Israel's latest violation - and the U.S. support for it

Stephen Zunes, April 13, 2010
U.S. lawmakers support Morocco's illegal annexation of Western Sahara

Stephen Zunes, March 15 ,2010
Obama's denial of the genocide on the Armenians
This is how and why the administration is joining the group of genovide/Holocaust deniers

Stephen Zunes, March 10, 2010
John Hall, the story of a sad development of a Democract
Hall is a former musician and supporter of progressive causes. Since he was elected to Congress, he's become a shameless defender of Israel's crimes.

Stephen Zunes, March 10, 2010
Obama stumbles on human rights in Israel and Egypt

Stephen Zunes, February 9, 2010
Obama's human rights record is a disappointment

Stephen Zunes, February 5, 2010
Obama's State of the union

Stephen Zunes, January 11, 2010
Yemen - latest U.S. battleground?
It could have dangerous consequences if the U.S. overreacts and learns nothing from Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

Stephen Zunes, December 10, 2009
Reagan did not end the Cold War - Leftist intellectuals did

Stephen Zunes, December 10, 2009 - Human Rights Day
The tale of two human rights awardees

Stephen Zunes, December 10, 2009
The power of nonviolent action in Honduras

Stephen Zunes, November 27, 2009
Weapons of Mass Democracy
Nonviolent resistance is the most powerful tactic against repressive regimes