Tip Sheet
| Not for publication |
June 30, 2004 -- No. 343
|
UNC faculty experts can help reporters explore current situation in Iraq
Note to editors: Please use the table of contents below to reach sources on
the desired topic.
1. Military issues and national security
2. National political issues
3. Human rights and ethical issues of war
4. Rebuilding Iraq, impact on other countries in the region,
implications for U.S. foreign policy
5. Historical contexts, the Middle East, the various faces
of Islam
6. Public health implications
7. Impact of conflict on families, children
8. Psychological issues and anxiety disorders
9. Economic ramifications
10. Role of public opinion, media in decision-making
11. Patriotism and other popular culture topics
Military issues and national security
- Dr. Richard Kohn, (919) 962-9700, (919) 419-0323 (home), or rhkohn@unc.edu,
a history professor and chair of the curriculum in peace, war and defense
in the College of Arts and Sciences, is an expert on topics including American
military policy, strategy, war-making, presidential war leadership and civil-military
relations. He is at work on "The President at War: Presidential War Leadership
from George Washington to George Bush," a book analyzing the challenges
of successful war leadership by presidents of the United States over the course
of American history. Kohn also is co-directing a major research project on
the gap between the military and American society today - whether it exists
and, if so, its nature, and whether a gap could harm military effectiveness
and/or civil-military cooperation. For more information about Kohn, please
visit http://www.unc.edu/news/newstips/2003/kohn022803.html
- Dr. Mark Crescenzi (cre-SIN-zi), (919) 962-0401 or
crescenzi@unc.edu, assistant professor of political science in the
College of Arts and Sciences, is an expert on international conflict and war.
He can discuss political options the United States faces in the international
arena. He also specializes in links between international economic interdependence
and conflict.
- Dr. Michael Hunt, (919) 962-2384 or mhhunt@email.unc.edu,
professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences, is an expert on
U.S. foreign relations in a global environment, and is the author of a 2003
history text, "The World Transformed 1945 to Present." He has served
as a consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the State Department,
university and commercial presses, foundations, research centers, film projects,
and the editors of professional journals. He has also received major research
and conference grants from the Committee for International Relations Study
with the People's Republic of China, Harvard's Fairbank Center for East Asian
Studies, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National
Program for Advanced Study and Research in China, and the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
- Dr. H. Douglas Robertson, (919) 962-8703 or doug_robertson@unc.edu,
director of the UNC Highway Safety Research Center and research associate
professor in the department of health behavior and health education in the
School of Public Health, retired after a 37-year career as a Major General
in the U.S. Army Reserve, relinquishing command of the 108th Training Division
headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. He served as an infantry adviser in Vietnam
and was with the 3rd Infantry Division early in his career. He is knowledgeable
in the areas of Army training, leadership, military operations and strategy,
support for soldiers' families, and the role of the Army Reserve.
National political issues
- Dr. Terry Sullivan, (919) 962-0413, (919) 593-2124 (cell), or sullivan@metalab.unc.edu,
associate professor of political science in the College of Arts and Sciences,
is an expert on the presidency and White House operations. He can comment
on presidential leadership in a crisis and explain the likely pressures of
the situation in Iraq on various offices and staff members within the administration.
Sullivan was associate director of the nonpartisan White House 2001 Project
(http://www.whitehouse2001.org/), which created the first blueprints and descriptions
ever of jobs and operations that are unique to the White House, including
interviews with former administration officials and a book, "The White
House World," which addresses the dynamics of White House operations
and the functions of critical White House offices.
- Dr. William E. Leuchtenburg, (919) 967-1257, one of the nation's
top experts on the U.S. presidency and a UNC professor emeritus of history
in the College of Arts and Sciences, commented for national networks during
George Bush's inauguration in 1989, for PBS, and Ronald Reagan's second inauguration
in 1985, for CBS. Leuchtenburg, whose books include "In the Shadow of
FDR: From Harry Truman to Bill Clinton" and "The FDR Years,"
was an expert commentator for C-SPAN during Clinton's second inauguration
in January 1997 and for CBS during Clinton's first inauguration, with Dan
Rather and the late Charles Kuralt. A past president of the American Historical
Association, Leuchtenburg joined UNC's faculty in 1982.
- Dr. Thad L. Beyle, (919) 962-0404, (919) 942-1281 (home). Beyle,
professor of political science in the College of Arts and Sciences, is widely
referred to as "Mr. North Carolina Politics." He and his students
have been keeping up with, analyzing and commenting on politics across the
state and the South for decades, and he's also an expert on the national presidential
picture at any given time.
Human rights and ethical issues of war
- Dr. Douglas MacLean, (919) 843-4500 or maclean@unc.edu,
professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, is an expert
on human rights and U.S. foreign policy, also on ethics, morality and rationale
for war.
Rebuilding Iraq, impact on other countries in the region, implications for
U.S. foreign policy
- Jennifer Bremer, (202) 289-6671 or jbremer@kenan.org,
a professor of public policy in the College of Arts and Sciences, is director
of the Washington office of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. Bremer,
who has previously lived in the Middle East and has worked there extensively
over the past 25 years, has expertise in international trade and development,
emerging markets, sustainable enterprise and government-business relations.
She and Kenan Institute Director Jack Kasarda wrote a paper for the Milken
Institute Review, "The Origins of Terror: Implications for U.S. Foreign
Policy." (For more information on the paper, please visit http://www.milkeninstitute.org/newsroom/newsroom.taf?cat=press&function=detail&level1=new&ID=31)
Through its Washington office, the Kenan Institute, part of the Kenan-Flagler
Business School, builds bridges between business and other parts of society.
It pursues this mandate through "research in action," integrating
cutting-edge research with innovative, partnership-building programs around
the world.
Historical contexts, the Middle East, the various faces of Islam
- Dr. Sarah Shields, (919) 962-8078, (919) 843-5797, (919) 933-0187 (home)
or sshields@email.unc.edu,
associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences, teaches
courses on the modern Middle East. She is a specialist on historical contexts
and ideologies of the people and interest groups of the region. For more on
Shields, please visit http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep01/shields091301.htm
or
- Dr. Carl Ernst, (919) 962-3924 or cernst@email.unc.edu,
professor and former department chair of religious studies in the College
of Arts and Sciences, is a specialist in Islamic studies. He has a new (2003)
book on understanding Islam in the new world, "Following Muhammad: Rethinking
Islam in the Contemporary World" which has been awarded the 2004 Bashrahil
Prize for Outstanding Cultural Achievement. He has done research tours in
India, Pakistan and Turkey and has also visited Iran and Uzbekistan.
- Dr. Thomas Tweed, (919) 843-7773, (919) 962-3934 or tatweed@email.unc.edu,
a professor of religious studies in the College of Arts and Sciences,
is concerned about potential "misrepresentations of Islam." His
expertise concerns American representations of Islam and Islam as part of
the fabric of religion in America. His essay on how to teach Islam, written
for high school teachers, is posted on the Web site of the National Humanities
Center at: http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/islam.htm.
- Dr. Edward E. Curtis IV (919) 962-3925, or ecurtis@email.unc.edu,
assistant professor of religious studies in the College of Arts and Sciences,
specializes in the history of Islam in the United States, especially among
African-Americans. He can comment on reactions among Muslims to the U.S. actions
in Iraq, particularly in this country, and his concern about possible backlash
and hate crimes against U.S. Muslims. Curtis fears two possible adverse effects
of the war: one, that some Muslims might perceive the attack as part of a
larger crusade against them; and two, that radicals such as Osama bin Laden
might use the war to strengthen their message that Christians and Muslims
cannot get along, and therefore a clash of civilizations is inevitable. "My
fear is that this plays right into the hands of people like Osama bin Laden,"
Curtis said.
- Dr. Charles Kurzman, (919) 962-1241 or kurzman@unc.edu,
is associate professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences and
associate director of the Carolina Center for Middle East Studies. He studies
the modern history of Iran, with a special focus on the 1979 revolution that
ousted the monarchy and brought the Islamic Republic to power. His book on
this subject, The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran, was published in April 2004
by Harvard University Press (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/KURUNT.html).
He also researches liberal and modernist Islamic trends worldwide, which were
the subject of his two anthologies, Liberal Islam (Oxford University Press,
1998), and Modernist Islam, 1840-1940 (Oxford University Press, 2002). He
can comment on the popularity of these trends, and which is greater than that
of the radical Islamic fringe.
Public health implications
- Dr. Bill Roper, william_roper@med.unc.edu,
vice chancellor for medical affairs, dean of the School of Medicine and
CEO of the UNC Health Care System, is a former director of the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and former senior White House policy adviser
who served on U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson's
bioterrorism advisory council until earlier this year. He can provide an overview
on health effects, governmental mobilization in time of crisis, public health
preparedness and readiness to deal with bioterrorist attack or other crises,
what's being done in North Carolina and nationally to ready the public health
work force. Stephanie Crayton-Robinson, (919) 966-2860, scrayton@unch.unc.edu,
in the School of Medicine and UNC Hospitals, can assist with arranging interview
requests.
- Dr. David Weber, (919) 216-1817 (pager) or dweber@unch.unc.edu,
is an infectious disease expert and professor of epidemiology in the School
of Public Health and of pediatrics and medicine in the School of Medicine.
He has been actively involved in preparedness efforts at UNC Hospitals, where
he is a clinician and also associate director of the Statewide Program in
Infection Control and Epidemiology. Weber can also readily discuss biological
terror agents and tools for physicians and other health workers faced with
identifying their symptoms and treating their victims.
- Dr. Peter H. Gilligan, pgilliga@unch.unc.edu,
is the director of the Clinical Microbiology-Immunology Laboratories and professor
of microbiology-immunology and pathology laboratory medicine at the School
of Medicine. He is an expert in the diagnosis of infectious diseases including
emerging infectious diseases and agents of bioterrorism. He has been involved
at the state and national level in training laboratory scientists to recognize
potential agent of bioterrorism.
- Dr. Bruce Cairns, (919) 966-3693 or bruce_cairns@med.unc.edu,
is a trauma and burn surgeon and associate director of the N.C. Jaycee Burn
Center at UNC Hospitals. Cairns is a veteran of the U.S. Navy's medical corps.
While stationed in Guam, he directed the care of burn patients injured in
the crash of Korean Air flight 801 on Aug. 5, 1997. At UNC Hospitals, he played
an active role in the care of burn patients injured in a collision between
an F-16D fighter and a C-130 transport at Pope Air Force Base on March 23,
1994, and survivors of an explosion at the West Pharmaceuticals plant in Kinston,
N.C., on Jan. 29, 2003.
- Dr. Mark Sobsey, (919) 966-7303 or mark_sobsey@unc.edu,
is a professor of environmental sciences and engineering in the School of
Public Health. He can address issues related to environmental health microbiology
and infectious diseases, waterborne, foodborne and airborne microbial disease
risks, and water treatment and food safety. He recently was an advisor to
the World Health Organization on scientific and technical matters concerning
water, sanitation and health, with a focus on drinking water and on the SARS
coronavirus in environmental media.
- Dr. David Leith, (919) 966-3851 or david_leith@unc.edu,
is a professor of environmental sciences and engineering in the School of
Public Health. His expertise is in aerosol physics and the control of airborne
contaminants. He can speak to the effects of dust and smoke on a population's
health, as well as to general air-related health effects and air dispersion
methods.
- Dr. Pia MacDonald, (919) 843-3415 or pia@email.unc.edu,
is project director for the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness
and a research assistant professor in the School of Public Health's department
of epidemiology. Her areas of expertise include applied epidemiology (epidemiology
applied to the state and local health departments), outbreak investigation
and surveillance, public health workforce development and Geographic Information
Systems and its use in public health including outbreak investigation and
surveillance.
- For other experts or questions related to health and bioterrorism, please
contact Emily Smith, (919) 966-8498, emilysmith@unc.edu,
in the School of Public Health, or Stephanie Crayton-Robinson, (919) 966-2860,
scrayton@unch.unc.edu, in the
School of Medicine and UNC Hospitals.
Impact of conflict on families, children
- Dr. Dennis Orthner, (919) 962-6512 or orthner@email.unc.edu,
a professor at the UNC School of Social Work and associate director for policy
development and analysis of the school's Jordan Institute for Families, has
worked with all four branches of the military for the past 25 years. He consults
with the military regarding the types and levels of services provided to military
families, and policies related to military families. He is now working with
the U.S. Army and Air Force to evaluate the levels and effectiveness of services
to families. \
- Dr. Gary Bowen, (919) 962-6542 or glbowen@email.unc.edu,
William R. Kenan Jr. distinguished professor at the UNC School of Social Work,
has worked with all four branches of the military for the past 25 years. He
has worked closely with Dr. Dennis Orthner to assist the armed forces in improving
the support services offered to military families. Currently he is working
with the U.S. Air Force to improve support services to families through community
building.
- Joanne Caye, (919) 962-3598 or jscaye@email.unc.edu,
a clinical instructor in the UNC School of Social Work, has done extensive
research and taught classes on managing the effects of disasters on families
and children. She, along with colleagues, conducted several workshops in eastern
North Carolina after Hurricane Floyd on how families cope with disasters and
tragedy. She also teaches students who plan to go into social work after they
graduate how to help families and children deal with disasters and conflicts.
- Dr. Thomas M. Haizlip, (919) 733-5344, adjunct professor in the
division of child and adolescent psychiatry of the School of Medicine, also
directs the child mental health training program at Dorothea Dix Hospital,
a state psychiatric facility. One of his areas of expertise is on how to help
families and children handle disaster and conflict situations. Haizlip said
certain symptoms may be expected in children who are grappling with the situation
in Iraq: unusual fears and anxieties, sleep disturbances and reluctance to
attend schools. Haizlip also could speak to the most effective ways that parents
and educators can encourage children to talk about their feelings - as well
as the most effective ways these adults can reinforce to children that their
world is safe. Another faculty member with expertise in talking with children
about traumatic events: Dr. Andrea Hussong, (919) 962-3989, hussong@unc.edu,
assistant professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences.
- Dr. Patrick Akos, (919) 843-4758, assistant professor of school
counseling in the School of Education, was formerly a school counselor and
has had extensive experience in counseling students (and teachers) after crisis
situations. He can address the most effective ways of counseling students
- as well as the importance of making sure the adults who teach them are getting
the counseling assistance they need.
Psychological issues and anxiety disorders
- Dr. Erica H. Wise, (919) 962-5432, (919) 962-5034 (voicemail), or ewise@email.unc.edu,
clinical associate professor of psychology in the College of Arts and
Sciences, directs the department's training clinic for graduate students.
Previously in UNC's Student Health Service for 18 years, she has counseled
clients who have experienced trauma and trained in the American Red Cross
model for critical incident stress debriefing. The latter involves counseling
emergency services personnel who have combated disaster on the front lines,
but it also is adaptable for helping survivors and people experiencing "vicarious
trauma," a term for distress about a massive tragedy even when one was
not directly involved.
- Dr. David S. Janowsky, (919) 966-3365 or david_janowsky@med.unc.edu,
is professor and former chair of psychiatry in the School of Medicine, a fellow
in the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and a distinguished life
fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Specializing in the biology
of mood disorders, including mania and depression, he has sought to understand
the brain and mood-depressing effects of an overabundance of the neurotransmitter
acetylcholine in the brain. That interest has led him to study the brain effects
of nerve agents, which kill or injure by increasing brain and body acetylcholine.
Along with his colleague Dr. David Overstreet, he is now developing antidotes
to the brain effects of nerve agents. Janowsky believes potentially more effective
ways of treating nerve agent poisoning exist, such as through common medications
including the anti-nausea agent scopolamine. Gulf War syndrome, he thinks,
might be due to an overabundance of acetylcholine caused by nerve agent release.
- Dr. Margaret Miles, (919) 966-3620 or mmiles@email.unc.edu,
is a professor in the School of Nursing with a background in pediatric nursing
and counseling. Miles was the founding president of the Society of Pediatric
Nurses (http://www.pedsnurses.org/).
One of her areas of expertise is grief, particularly the grief of parents.
She also has had experience in dealing with survivors of two disasters: the
Hyatt hotel walkway collapse in Kansas City in 1981 and Hurricane Floyd in
North Carolina in 1999. She can speak about grief, the phases in response
to disaster -- pre-impact, impact and post-impact -- and how to help survivors
cope with their resulting psychological reaction, including euphoria in having
survived, disillusionment in having lost a sense of innocence and an old way
of life and reconstruction in going forward with life.
Economic ramifications
- Dr. James F. Smith, (919) 968-9995 (home), (919) 962-3176 (office),
(919) 593-0308 (cell), or smith.jf@mindspring.com,
finance professor in the Kenan-Flagler Business School, can share his opinions
about the economic impact on the national and state economies from his perspective
as the nation's most accurate economic forecaster - a title The Wall Street
Journal has given him three times in the past five years. Smith can also share
an eyewitness account of the destruction and death he saw on Sept. 11, 2001,
in New York City from his hotel room across the street from the World Trade
Center.
- Dr. Stanley W. Black III, (919) 966-5926, (919) 967-6059 (home), or
sblack@unc.edu, Lurcy Distinguished
professor of economics in the College of Arts and Sciences and former chairman
of the economics department, can discuss international monetary issues and
the likely effects of the situation in Iraq on the U.S. economy. He was senior
policy adviser at the Institute of the International Monetary Fund during
2000-2001 in Washington, D.C., and has much experience with national and world
economic issues.
- Dr. Michael Salemi, (919) 966-5391, (919) 929-9504 (home), or Michael_Salemi@unc.edu,
professor of economics in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a macroeconomist
who can talk about potential threats to the U.S. economy, both direct and
indirect. He also can discuss world and national financial markets. He recently
spent time in Geneva as a visiting professor at the Graduate Institute of
International Studies.
- Dr. Patrick J. Conway, (919) 966-5376, (919) 967-4009 (home), or patrick_conway@unc.edu,
professor of economics in the College of Arts and Sciences, is an international
economist. He has worked at or with the World Bank, the International Monetary
Fund and the U.S. State Department..
- Dr. Jennifer Conrad, (919) 962-3132 or conradj@kenan-flagler.unc.edu,
Dalton McMichael Sr. distinguished professor of finance, has expertise
in investments and the stock market. She is chair of the business school's
finance department and the MBA investment management concentration. Her research
is focused in the investments area, where she has analyzed patterns in returns
and their potential applications, such as contrarian investment strategies,
and studied the ability of asset pricing models to explain predictable patterns
in returns.
- For other experts or questions on the affects of war on the economy and
business sectors, please contact Kim Spurr, spurrk@bschool.unc.edu
or (919) 962-8951 at the Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Impact of public opinion, media on decisions
- Dr. Michael B. MacKuen, (919) 962-0421, (919) 960-0934 (home),
is a political science professor in the College of Arts and Sciences who specializes
in public opinion -- how citizens gather and digest information about politics
and what factors connect citizens, politicians and public policy. He co-wrote
the book "Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment" (University
of Chicago Press, 2000); contributed a chapter on citizens and political psychology
to "Emotions and Politics: The Dynamic Functions of Emotionality"
(Cambridge University Press, 2001); and has written numerous scholarly articles
on public opinion, measuring the popularity of presidents and the effects
of politics on attitude change.
- Dr. Cori Dauber, (919) 962-4938, (919) 967-4419 (home), or cdauber@email.unc.edu,
an associate professor of communication studies in the College of Arts and
Sciences, specializes in the influence of argument and rhetoric on decision-making
in defense policy. She analyzes how policy decisions are influenced by public
opinion and by the media, including visual imagery. Dauber is finishing a
book on the role that argument and rhetoric have played in national decisions
to intervene with military force since Operation Desert Storm. The book will
address why the United States intervened abroad when it did (Kosovo) and why
in other instances it did not (Rwanda). Dauber served on the Defense Advisory
Committee on Women in the Services from 1997-99, and on its executive committee
from 1998-99. Her work has been published in journals including Armed Forces
and Society, Security Studies, and Defense Analysis. She also teaches in UNC's
curriculum in peace, war and defense and has received grants and awards from
the Military History Institute of the U.S. Army War College, the Naval History
Center and the Air Force Historical Research Agency. Dauber chooses to work
only with print media and radio.
Patriotism and other popular culture topics
- Dr. Lawrence Grossberg, (919) 969 8586 or docrock@email.unc.edu,
a professor of communication studies in the College of Arts and Sciences,
can comment on the increase of patriotism and showing the flag, media coverage,
cultural and symbolic dimensions of the situation in Iraq.
- Dr. Maha Alattar, (919) 966-2860 or scrayton@unch.unc.edu,
an assistant professor of neurology in the School of Medicine, is a native
of Iraq who is available to share insights on the transfer of power in her
native country. Alattar and her family were forced to flee Iraq in 1983 to
escape Saddam Hussein's persecution of Shi'a Muslims. She is active in an
organization called Women for a Free Iraq and has testified before Congress
on events in Iraq.
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College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339, deereid@unc.edu
School of Public Health contact: Emily Smith, (919) 966-8498, emilysmith@unc.edu
School of Medicine contact: Stephanie Crayton-Robinson, (919) 966-2860,
scrayton@unch.unc.edu
Kenan-Flagler Business School contact: Kim Spurr, (919) 962-8951, spurrk@bschool.unc.edu
News Services contact: news@unc.edu,
(919) 962-2091 (during normal business hours). Evenings and weekends, please
contact the emergency pager at (919) 216-2584.
