April 10 Talk to Focus on Non-Violence and Middle East Policy
Peace studies scholar and political scientist Stephen Zunes will speak at New Garden Friends Meeting on Thursday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. His talk, “Nonviolent Action, U.S. Foreign Policy and the Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East and Beyond,” is part of Guilford College’s annual Quaker Festival Week.
Zunes, a North Carolina-born Quaker, is a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern studies. He has been a prominent critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, speaking out against the proposed war on a visit to Guilford in fall 2002.
Zunes is the author of four books and more than 300 major articles for scholarly and general readership on Middle Eastern politics, U.S. foreign policy, nonviolence and human rights. He serves as an advisory committee member and writer for the Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies, an associate editor of Peace Review and chair of the board of academic advisors for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
He 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 and has co-led seminars on strategic nonviolent conflict for pro-democracy activists on four continents.In 2002, he won recognition from the Peace and Justice Studies Association as Peace Scholar of the Year.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Guilford College Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, the Office of Campus Ministries and Friends Center. For more information contact Vernie Davis at 336-316-2222.
April 10, 2008