Stephen Zunes

Stephen Zunes has been at USF since 1995, teaching courses on the politics of the Middle East and other regions, nonviolence, conflict resolution, U.S. foreign policy, globalization, and the politics of war and peace. He is the founding director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program.

A prominent specialist on U.S. Middle East policy, Professor Zunes has presented hundreds of public lectures and conference papers in both the United States and over a dozen foreign countries. He has traveled frequently to the Middle East and other conflict regions, meeting with prominent government officials, scholars, and dissidents. He has served as a political analyst for local, national, and international radio and television and as a columnist for several print and online publications, and has published hundreds of articles in academic journals, anthologies, magazines, and elsewhere on such topics as U.S. foreign policy, Middle Eastern politics, Latin American politics, African politics, human rights, arms control, social movements, international law, and nonviolent action. He has served as a writer and senior analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, an associate editor for Peace Review, and a contributing editor of Tikkun.

• Middle Eastern & North African Politics
• Peace Studies
• U.S. Foreign Policy
• Social Movements

• U.S. Middle East Policy
• Strategic Nonviolent Action
• Western Sahara
• Israel/Palestine
• Pro-Democracy Movements

• Torgny Segerstedt Visiting Research Professor, University of Gothenburg
• Chair, Middle Eastern Studies Committee

• PhD in Government, Cornell University, 1990
• MA in Government, Cornell University, 1986
• MA in Political Science, Temple University, 1983
• BA in Government, Oberlin College, 1980

• Assistant Professor in Politics, Ithaca College
• Assistant Professor in Politics, Whitman College
• Assistant Professor in Politics & Government, University of Puget Sound
• Visiting Professor, International Peace, Conflict and Development Studies, Universitat Jaume I
• Visiting Professor, National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago

• Post-Sabbatical Merit Award, University of San Francisco, 2017
• Dean’s Scholar Award, College of Arts & Sciences, University of San Francisco, 2014-2015
• College Media Award, College of Arts & Sciences, University of San Francisco, 2003-2004
• Peace Scholar of the Year, Peace and Justice Studies Association, 2002
• College Service Award, College of Arts & Sciences, University of San Francisco, 1999-2000

• Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution in Northwest Africa [with Jacob Mundy], Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2010 (second revised and expanded edition, 2021)
• Sudan's 2018-2019 Revolution: The Nonviolent Weapons Utilized and Lessons Learnt," ICNC Press, 2020
• “The Role of Civil Resistance in Bolivia’s 1977-1982 Pro-Democracy Struggle,” Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies, Vol. II, No. 1 (2018)
• Nonviolent Resistance to Military Coups, ICNC Press, 2017
• Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 2003