Faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill can provide expert assessments of President Obama’s performance during his first 100 days in office, a milestone to be reached on Wednesday, April 29.
Faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill can provide expert assessments of President Obama’s performance during his first 100 days in office, a milestone to be reached on Wednesday, April 29.
The Carolina News Studio is available for live and/or pre-recorded television interviews with our economics experts. We are also equipped with ISDN connectivity for radio interviews.
For help in reaching any UNC experts or to schedule studio time, please contact News Services:
Melissa Sowry
Studio Manager
(919) 360-2425
melissa_sowry@unc.edu
A list of experts alphabetically by topic follows.
Afghanistan and Iraq
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| Andrew Reynolds, Ph.D. |
Andrew Reynolds, Ph.D.
Associate professor of political science
College of Arts and Sciences
Office: (919) 962-0403
Other: (919) 563-3224
Cell: (919) 423-6591
asreynol@email.unc.edu
Online bio: https://s4.its.unc.edu/UNCExperts/
uncexperts/getperson?ID=RFSRTXVFT
Reynolds can comment on Obama’s policies toward Iraq and Afghanistan. “I am generally supportive of the president’s approach but have problems with some of the reformed Afghan strategy,” he said.
Reynolds’ research and teaching focus on democratization, constitutional design and electoral politics. He has worked for agencies including the United Nations, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the United Kingdom Department for International Development and the U.S. State Department.
He has been an elections adviser in countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Burma, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Yemen, and Zimbabwe, most recently in Kabul reporting on election preparations in Afghanistan.
Cuba, foreign policy
Lars Schoultz, Ph.D.
William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of Political Science
College of Arts and Sciences
Home: (919) 929-6087
schoultz@unc.edu
Schoultz can comment on Obama’s relaxation of travel restrictions between the United States and Cuba and other policy steps on Latin America.
“Despite the headlines about a new approach to Cuba, the core belief underlying U.S. policy has not changed in over a century,” he said. “It is a belief that the United States should help Cubans. As President Obama said last weekend in Trinidad, ‘the Cuban people are not free. And that’s our lodestone, our North Star, when it comes to our policy in Cuba.’ It is revealing that the President has so far selected no such lodestone for his policy toward, say, China or Saudi Arabia.”
Schoultz’s new book is “That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution” (University of North Carolina Press, April 2009). He also wrote “Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy Toward Latin America” (Harvard University Press, 1998).
Global business
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Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, Ph.D. |
Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, Ph.D.
Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs
Kay and Van Weatherspoon Distinguished Professor of Operations, Technology and Innovation Management
Kenan-Flagler Business School
Office: (919) 843-8341
msj@unc.edu
Online bio:
http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/
faculty/search/detail.cfm?person_id=77
Swaminathan specializes in international business, including global supply chain management and the global economy. He is the author of the new book “Indian Economic Superpower: Fiction or Future?” released in Bangalore, India. He can discuss U.S. trade relationships with China and India.
“I believe the highlight of President Obama’s first 100 days was the G20 and his follow-up visits to several European countries, including Turkey,” Swaminathan said. “That was a great image booster for the United States and has brought America back as a powerful and inclusive leader in international politics and economics.
“President Obama’s toughest international challenge is going to be the United States’ relationship with India because of the complicated relationships between India, Pakistan and China.”
Global economy
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| Layna Mosley, Ph.D. |
Layna Mosley, Ph.D.
Associate professor of political science
College of Arts and Sciences
Cell: (919) 623-5097
Mosley@unc.edu
Online bio: http://www.unc.edu/depts/polisci/faculty_pages/mosley.html
Mosley researches the role of the private sector in the global governance of financial markets and the impact of foreign direct investors on workers’ rights in developing nations. She wrote “Global Capital and National Governments” (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
In her view, key issues now are how the U.S. recession is affecting U.S. trade policies, and how the administration’s desire to focus on the consequences of trade for the environment and for U.S. workers may lead to increases in trade barriers. “While the desire to protect U.S. jobs and industries is a very understandable one, trade barriers are not the right answer,” she said. “The experience of the 1930s suggests that raising trade barriers in one country leads to growing protection in other countries, harming U.S. exporters and delaying economic recovery.”
National security
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| Mark Crescenzi, Ph.D. |
Mark Crescenzi, Ph.D.
Associate professor of political science
College of Arts and Sciences
Office: (919) 966-0401
Crescenzi@unc.edu
Online bio:
https://s4.its.unc.edu/UNCExperts/
uncexperts/getperson?ID=RSXRTVWFC
Crescenzi specializes in international conflict and national security. He can discuss whether Obama has made us safer or not by releasing information about former interrogation techniques that he has denounced. Crescenzi can comment on charges by former Vice President Dick Cheney that Obama is putting the U.S. at risk. Instead, Crescenzi said, “He’s trying to send a signal to his voters and to the international community that he disapproves of the use of harsh interrogation methods.”
Crescenzi applauds Obama’s high level of activity in the international community. “He’s trying to start conversations, and it’s a good thing, but it’s important not to expect too much.” Although an Obama video presentation to the Iranian public began to thaw U.S. relations with that country, Crescenzi said, “my expectation is that we will continue to have a tense relationship with Iran for the foreseeable future.”
Overall assessment
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| Richard H. Kohn, Ph.D. |
Richard H. Kohn, Ph.D.
Professor of history and of peace, war and defense
College of Arts and Sciences
Office: (919) 962-9700
Other: (919) 419-0323
rhkohn@unc.edu
Online bio: https://s4.its.unc.edu/UNCExperts/
uncexperts/getperson?ID=RRWSRDRFE
Kohn has positive impressions about the administration so far, as well as Obama’s strategies. “I would point out that neither the opposition nor the press seems to have assessed Obama accurately – his goals, his motivation, his political style and modus operandi, and what he calls his persistence, which in reality is his insistence.” Although Kohn supported the president in the election, he can assess Obama from a scholarly point of view.
Kohn is an expert on American military policy and strategy, presidential war leadership and civil-military relations. He also can discuss homeland security. He has taught at the National War College, the Army War College and been chief historian of the U.S. Air Force.
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| Terry Sullivan, Ph.D. |
Terry Sullivan, Ph.D.
Associate professor of political science
College of Arts and Sciences
Office: (919) 962-0413
Cell: (919) 593-2124
Sullivan@email.unc.edu
Online bio: https://s4.its.unc.edu/UNCExperts/
uncexperts/getperson?ID=RWSVFDXFE
Sullivan is executive director of the White House Transition Project, whose Web site sports two new reports on judging presidential 100 days and the work routines of presidents during their first 100 days (http://whitehousetransitionproject.org) An expert on White House operations, Sullivan can assess the effectiveness of the new administration.
“The 100 days experience for new presidents and their staffs are about getting their feet under them – dealing with what they must deal with and finding time to deal with what they came to office to do,” Sullivan said. “The 100 days is about learning to balance the constitutional duties of the office against the president’s agenda. The Obama White House seems to have struggled with this reality of shifting from the demands to the ambitions, but they have also excelled at many things in this transition.”
Sullivan is past-president of the Presidency Research Group, an international association of scholars interested in the American Presidency. His main research interest is the nature of presidential leadership. His most recent books are “Nerve Center: Lessons on Governing from the White House Chiefs of Staff” and “White House World: Transitions, Organization, and Office Operations,” both from Texas A&M University Press.
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| Leroy Towns |
Leroy Towns
Professor
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Cell: (919) 843-5388
Other: (919) 969-9489
dltowns@email.unc.edu
Towns said that Obama’s first 100 days have been marked by a clash of cultures. “Obama’s campaign-style approach has run headlong into the Washington establishment,” he said. “It’s hard to implement new media social networking in a bureaucratic world. It’s just as hard to keep campaign promises on, say, lobbying, when Washington values access and when information is power. The honeymoon may still be in the blushing stage, but it won’t be long before the Obama administration and the Washington establishment will have to decide how to squeeze the toothpaste.”
The South
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| Ferrel Guillory |
Ferrel Guillory
Director, The Program on Public Life
Lecturer
School of Journalism and Mass Communication/College of Arts and Sciences
Office: (919) 962-5936
Other: (919) 782-6798
Cell: (919) 259-2708
guillory@unc.edu
Online bio: https://s4.its.unc.edu/UNCExperts/
uncexperts/getperson?ID=RCEDWDXFE
Guillory, a specialist on the South, said, “From my work through the UNC Program on Public Life, I’ve especially followed President Obama’s relationship with the states in the South. He won three states in the region; it was important in both historic and contemporary political terms that our nation’s first black president carried three former slave-holding states. In particular, I find his education policy crucial, for it contains not only economic stimulus, but also educational stimulus. It contains money that would provide incentives to states to upgrade teaching and curriculum in public schools across the region.”
Guillory founded the Program on Public Life to connect the academic resources at UNC-Chapel Hill with the governmental, journalism and civic leaders of North Carolina and the South. He publishes “South Now,” a biweekly electronic publication tracking a wide range of Southern and North Carolina trends. http://www.southnow.org. Guillory spent more than 20 years as a reporter, Washington correspondent, editorial page editor and columnist for The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.
News Services contacts: Melissa Sowry, (919) 360-2425, melissa_sowry@unc.edu
LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu