Today (Monday, Sept. 25), North Korea's foreign minister said that President Donald Trump has "declared war" on his country and that Kim Jong Un's regime would consider shooting down American bombers. The following University of North Texas faculty members are available to discuss topics related to this evolving story. Contact the UNT News Service at 940-565-2108 to reach them:
John Ishiyama is a University Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Political Science who specifically researches Russia and North Korea. He has expertise on internal North Korean politics and military preparation and has written several research articles on these topics. He is the author or editor of seven books and 130 academic journal articles in the American Political Science Review, Science, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, and Political Research Quarterly and Party Politics, among other publications. He is also the former editor of the American Political Science Review, which is the world's leading political science journal, and the current director of the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates on Conflict Management and Peace Science.
Ishiyama is leaving the U.S. Wednesday (Sept. 27) to travel in Britain, but will do Skype interviews until he returns to the U.S. Sunday (Oct. 1).
James Meernik, professor of political science, directs UNT's Castleberry Peace Institute. He is the author of The Political Use of Military Force in U.S. Foreign Policy and U.S. Foreign Policy and Regime Instability and co-editor of Conflict Prevention and Peace Building in Post-War Societies: Sustaining the Peace. Meernik is a former associate editor of International Studies Quarterly and has published extensively in that journal and in Foreign Policy Analysis, Journal of Conflict Resolution and other professional journals.
Harold Tanner is the chair of the UNT Department of History and director of the Asia Studies program. He has extensive knowledge on the People's Republic of China and is the author of a number of books and articles on Chinese policing, criminal justice and modern Chinese military history. He will discuss the U.S.-North Korea crisis in general, the U.S. attempt to enlist China to counter North Korea, historical background of the present impasse with North Korea and U.S. policy in East Asia, particularly China.
Geoffrey Wawro is the director of UNT's Military History Center and a professor of history. He will address any questions on U.S. defense and national security and has written about those topics for The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast. Wawro is a former anchor and host of several History Channel programs and a former professor of strategic studies at the U.S. Naval War College.