UC Davis experts: Military, intelligence, war

The following University of California, Davis, faculty are available to comment on aspects of national politics and policy.

• National security and military affairs
• Intelligence history and spying
• Politicians' accountability during occupation
• Immigration, racial profiling, civil liberties
• Peace movements

National security and military affairs

Emily O. Goldman, a UC Davis political science associate professor, can provide comment on the threats to and vulnerabilities of U.S. security today. She is a consultant and researcher for the U.S. Department of Defense, analyzing the ways in which innovations in information technology will change how nations wage war. Goldman says our military and intelligence systems are set up to deal with threats like the Soviet Union. There is a real competition between the hierarchical way the military is organized and the non-hierarchical way terrorist networks work internally and with each other. Contact: Emily O. Goldman, Political Science and UC Davis Washington Program, (202) 974-6352, eogoldman@ucdavis.edu.

Intelligence history and spying

In fall 2002, assistant history professor Kathryn Olmsted published "Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley," in which she details the history of America's most important Soviet spy as well as her role in triggering the Red Scare in the late 1940s. Olmsted can also talk about how English spy Kim Philby neutralized Bentley's importance to the FBI as a counterspy because of his close ties to the U.S. intelligence. Olmsted is a scholar of 20th century American intelligence history. She can talk about intelligence issues behind the Pearl Harbor attack, why the Watergate break-in and its aftermath was a constitutional crisis, and the history of the CIA and FBI. Contact: Kathryn Olmsted, History, (530) 752-2118, ksolmsted@ucdavis.edu.

Politicians' accountability during occupation

Increasing numbers of American deaths in Iraq can be expected to lose political support for the occupation as U.S. public opinion changes, says Scott Sigmund Gartner, associate professor of political science at UC Davis. "In the war on Iraq, Americans thought it would be costly but worthwhile," Gartner says. "When the actual US casualties experienced were lower than expected, public support for the conflict and President Bush soared." Gartner can explain how now the sharp declines in public support for the Bush effort are related to current low public expectations of casualties and disinterest in the American occupation. Gartner is an expert in the political relationship of war and casualties, wartime military decision making, military strategy, and measuring progress in war. He wrote Strategic Assessment of War, which studies how military progress is evaluated in wartime, and has published many articles on war, strategy, the impact of casualties on public opinion and politics, and U.S. foreign policy. Contact: Scott Gartner, Political Science, (530) 752-3065, ssgartner@ucdavis.edu.

Immigration, racial profiling, civil liberties

Possible legal fallout from a war against terrorism include reforms to immigration laws and cutbacks on civil liberties protections, says Kevin Johnson of the School of Law at UC Davis. A specialist in immigration and civil rights law, Johnson can provide comment on these and other issues such as race profiling in screening for terrorists and the civil rights implications of this practice, as well as hate crimes against "foreign"-appearing people. Also associate dean for academic affairs at the law school, Johnson is vice president and director of Legal Services of Northern California and has just completed a term with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights for the San Francisco Bay Area. Contact: Kevin Johnson, School of Law, (530) 752-0243, krjohnson@ucdavis.edu.

Peace movements

The growing peace movement promises to be more sophisticated than any of the past because it has learned from mistakes committed during the Vietnam and Gulf wars, says a 20th century American studies professor at UC Davis. Michael Smith, professor of American studies, says peace movements have changed from simply avoiding organized violence to seeking a more nuanced discussion in the public arena about alternatives to war. "The discussion of how to balance security and civil liberties always comes up in war times, and it's especially acute with cross-cultural misperceptions," Smith says. Contact: Michael Smith, American Studies, (530) 752-7196 or (530) 752-3377, mlsmith@ucdavis.edu.

Media contacts

• Claudia Morain, News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu

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