Now available via streaming audio at the KBOO Community Radio website:
Leading authority on Middle
East politics, Dr. Jamal R. Nassar and Professor of International
Politics and Middle East Studies, Steve Niva, talk about the propects
for peace and changes in US policy towards Palestine-Israel.
Jamal R. Nassar is Dean, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at California State University, San Bernardino. Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, professor Nassar earned a B.A. from Jacksonville University in 1972, an M.A. from the University of South Florida in 1974 and a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 1978. Prior to joining California State University, Dean Nassar was professor and chair at the Department of Politics and Government at Illinois State University. Professor Nassar has established himself as a leading authority on the politics of the Middle East. His many publications include such books as Globalization and Terrorism: The Migration of Dreams and Nightmares, Politics and Culture in the Developing World, Intifada: Palestine at the Crossroads, The Palestine Liberation Organization: From Armed Struggle to the Declaration of Independence, and Change Without Borders: The Third World at the End of the Twentieth Century. Many of his articles, chapters and reviews have appeared in highly rated publications and have been translated to about a dozen other languages. Dr. Nassar has chaired a number of national and international conferences on the Middle East. In 1987, professor Nassar was awarded a Senior Fulbright Fellowship to teach on the West Bank. Between 1991 and 1995, he served as editor of Arab Studies Quarterly and he currently serves on its editorial board as he does on the boards of other distinguished journals on the Middle East region. Dr. Nassar shares his knowledge of the region's politics through speeches and interviews. He has addressed the United Nations as an expert on the Question of Palestine, and was consulted or has appeared as an expert witness on the area in highly visible court cases in the United States and Canada.
Steve Niva is a Professor of International Politics and Middle East Studies at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. His primary areas of research and writing include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East; Islamist movements; and Asymmetrical and Insurgent Warfare. He has written for and served on the editorial board of Middle East Report magazine (www.merip.org), and his recent writings have also appeared in Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF.org), Peace Review, Middle East International, Al-Ahram Weekly, The Seattle Times, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Open Democracy, Z Magazine, Common Dreams, and Counterpunch, among others. He is currently finishing a book on the history of Palestinian suicide bombings and their relationship to Israeli military violence, particularly, Israel's assassination policy. He is also writing a book on counterinsurgency and insurgent warfare, with a focus on Israeli and U.S. military strategies in Palestine and Iraq.