News Sources: Kosovo Declares Independence

Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia has led to dancing in the streets in that country, but is causing some stress in other countries' global relationships. President Bush promptly recognized the new country, while Russia and Serbia will contest the declaration before the United Nations Security Council, saying it would set a troubling precedent. Britain, Italy, France and Germany are expected to recognize Kosovo, while Spain and Cyprus expected to oppose recognition. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges and universities, including the following (click on name for contact information):

Thomas Emmert - Professor of History, Gustavus Adolphus College - Emmert is an expert on the history of Kosovo, Serbia, the Balkan states, and Russia. He has written The Battle of Kosovo: Early Reports of Victory and Defeat and The Kosovo Legacy. He teaches the European history survey, as well as courses on both Imperial and modern Russia, the Ottoman Empire, 19th century European intellectual and cultural movements, and Balkan nationalism.

Dr. Andrew A. Michta - Professor of International Studies, Rhodes College - Michta's books include The Government and Politics of Postcommunist Europe. In addition, he has been a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C. as well as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.

William M. Rose - Professor of Government, Connecticut College - Professor Rose teaches courses on international relations, U.S. foreign policy, international terrorism, civil wars, and United Nations peacekeeping. During the Cold War, he specialized in U.S.-Soviet arms control negotiations.

News Sources: Shooting Down a Satellite

The military will try to shoot down a crippled spy satellite in the next two weeks, senior officials said Thursday. The officials laid out a high-tech plan to intercept the satellite over the Pacific just before it tumbles uncontrollably to Earth carrying toxic fuel. The ramifications of the operation are diplomatic, as well as military and scientific, in part because the United States criticized China last year when Beijing tested an antisatellite system with an old weather satellite as a target and in part because of renewed Russian concerns about "star wars" technology. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges and universities, including the following (click on names for contact information):

George E. Hudson - Professor of Political Science, Wittenberg University - Hudson is an authority on the former Soviet Union and modern Russia and use of military as an instrument of foreign policy. He was an adviser to Department of Defense and consultant to National Security Council. Was member of U.S. team which negotiated with Soviets for convential arms reductions in 1979.

Douglas Stuart - Professor of Political Science, Dickinson College - Stuart is an adjunct professor at the U.S. Army War College. His areas of research specialization include U.S. European security relations, and Asian security and arms control.

Bin Yu - Assistant Professor of Political Science, Wittenberg University - Bin is president of Chinese Scholars of Political Science and International Studies and a MacArthur fellow at the Center of International Security and Arms Control and research fellow at Center of International Studies, Beijing.

News Sources: Putin Goes from Prez to Prime Minister

Vladimir Putin told delegates at the pro-Kremlin United Russia party's convention that he will serve as prime minister if his longtime aide Dmitri Medvedev is elected to replace him as president next March. Some fear such an arrangement may be fundamentally unstable, as a strong figure in that post may create tensions which have already buffeted Russia in its brief democratic history. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Larry Caldwell - Gamble Professor of Political Science, Occidental College - A former visiting professor at the National War College, scholar-in-residence in the CIA's Office of Soviet Analysis, and RAND consultant, Caldwell is an expert on Russian-American relations, Russian politics and military, and arms control who has testified before Senate and House committees.

Michael Hamm - Boles Professor of History, Centre College - Hamm is the author of books on the history of Ukraine and Russia, and he has been a guest scholar in Russia and a university lecturer in Kazakstan. His work has been honored with Fulbright and IREX fellowships.

George E. Hudson - Professor of Political Science, Wittenberg University - Hudson is a Fulbright Scholar, an authority on the former Soviet Union and modern Russia and the use of the military as an instrument of foreign policy. An adviser to the Department of Defense and a consultant to the National Security Council, he was a member of the U.S. team which negotiated with Soviets for convential arms reductions in 1979.

News Sources: European-Russian Summit

Facing international pressure over human rights problems and restrictions of free speech in Russia, Russian president, Vladimir Putin has challenged Europeans to set up a new joint human rights institute to improve dialogue. Putin made the proposal at his last scheduled summit meeting with the European Union leaders as Russian president, as part of an attempt to lower the temperature in a range of disputes with Europe. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org

Andrew A. Michta – Professor of International Studies, Rhodes College - Professor Michta's books include America's New Allies: Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic in NATO and The Government and Politics of Postcommunist Europe. He has been a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C. as well as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.

Nick Hayes - Professor of History, Saint John's University - Hayes holds a doctorate in Russian and European history. He has published widely in the academic press and appeared in popular press, including “ABC Nightline” and “CBS Sunday Morning.” He won an Emmy in 1991 for his work on Russia.

Roy Ginsberg - Director of International Affairs Program, Skidmore College - An expert on international relations and specifically, the European Community, Ginsberg believes the EC represents the model for post-Cold War Western Europe, and possibly Central and Eastern Europe. He is founder and former chair of the European Community Studies Association.

News Sources: Russia Plants Flag at North Pole

The United States and Canada have scoffed at a Russian submarine expedition that planted a Russian flag on the seabed under the North Pole. The recent dive by two small submarines was partly a scientific expedition. But it could mark the start of a fierce legal scramble for control of the seabed and what could be vast energy reserves beneath among nations that border the Arctic, including Russia, the U.S., Canada, Norway and Denmark, through its territory Greenland. Reporters looking for sources to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading lberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Nick Hayes - Professor of History, Saint John's University - Hayes, who holds a doctorate in Russian and European history, won an Emmy in 1991 for his work on Russia. He has published widely in the academic press and appeared in popular press, including ABC "Nightline" and CBS "Sunday Morning."

Larry Caldwell - Gamble Professor of Political Science, Occidental College - A former visiting professor at the National War College, scholar-in-residence in the CIA's Office of Soviet Analysis, and RAND consultant, Caldwell is an expert on Russian-American relations, Russian politics and military, and arms control who has testified before Senate and House committees.

Michael T. Klare - Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, Hampshire College - Hayes is the author of Resource Wars and Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum. He is director of the Five College (Hampshire, Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke Colleges and the University of Massachusetts) Program in Peace and World Security Studies. Hayes testifies regularly on arms issues before international organizations, including the United Nations, and is on the Committee on International Security Studies, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.