Steve Niva teaches International Politics and Middle East Studies at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. His primary areas of research and writing include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East; Islamist movements; political, economic and cultural globalization; and critical sovereignty studies. He has written for and served on the editorial board of Middle East Report magazine (www.merip.org), and his recent writings have also appeared in Peace Review, Middle East International, Al-Ahram Weekly, The Seattle Times, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Open Democracy, Z Magazine, Common Dreams, and Counterpunch, among others.
Current Teaching
Fall/Winter/Spring 2006-2007
From Bosphorus to Suez: Cultural and Political Landscapes of the Eastern Mediterranean (includes a four week study-tour to Egypt and Turkey in the Spring Quarter)
Spring 2006
The Vietnam and Iraq Wars: Uncomfortable Parallels?
Fall/Winter 2005-2006
Alternatives to Globalization
Current Research
I am currently writing a book on the history and strategy of Palestinian suicide bombings and their relationship to Israeli military violence. While suicide bombings are often portrayed as individual and random acts of fanaticism or desperation, leading to an excessive focus on the “mind of the suicide bomber,” my research has found that suicide bombings are highly organized and patterned and typically use Israeli acts of violence such as assassinations or civilian massacres as a trigger for their murderous attacks. For more information, see Research Page on this website.
I have also been working on a research project that examines the nature and impact of contemporary globalization on the Middle East. I am looking at how the Middle East has been incorporated into the neo-liberal trading and investment order and how International Financial Institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO and “free-trade zones” are institutionalizing a new regime of political and economic governance in the region. I am also looking at the emergence of organized opposition to these developments and their relationship to the international global justice movement.
