UC Davis Home Page

News and Information

UC Davis experts: Intelligence, war, civil liberties

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

Intelligence history and spying

In 2008, history professor Kathryn Olmsted published “Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11,” in which she details crimes commited by the U.S. government. 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 Bay of Pigs, 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, professor of political science and chair of the International Relations Program at UC Davis. Gartner can explain how now the sharp declines in public support for war are related to 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, dean and a civil rights authority at 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. Johnson is president of Legal Services of Northern California and former member of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights for the San Francisco Bay Area. Contact: Kevin Johnson, School of Law, (530) 752-0243, krjohnson@ucdavis.edu.

Media contacts

Top of pageTop of page

Last updated Dec. 11, 2009