Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics and chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.  He serves as Middle East editor for the Foreign Policy in Focus Project, as a foreign affairs columnist for the National Catholic Reporter and as a regular contributor to the Common Dreams website.  He is the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003) as well as scores of articles for scholarly and general readership on Middle Eastern politics, U.S. foreign policy, international terrorism, social movements, and human rights.