Dinner Table Discussion

Should an Early Warning Specialist Issue an International Alert If Their Own Country Is about to Start a War?

Michael Andregg

There has been a great deal of discussion lately on whether attacks may be made against Iran's nuclear facilities, by the United States or by Israel specifically, depending on Iran's response to various carrots and sticks. Some of these have been in the public domain, others not. This has led a number of early warners to issue alerts, some publicly, some not. Others hold opinions close. In an increasingly globalized world, where even information professionals share their opinions and data across country lines, this raises the question of whether and when warning alerts should be issued, and to whom. These questions are most acute when it may be your country that intends to initiate operations.

Michael Andregg received his Ph.D. in behavior genetics from the University of California at Davis in 1977 after completing a triple-major bachelors degree (in genetics, zoology and anthropology). He studied monkeys in Morocco between the bachelors and the Ph.D., and has had an interdisciplinary life ever since. After two years postdoctoral research on genetic diseases at the University of Minnesota, he focused on the causes of war since war is a much larger public health hazard than the rare diseases. He has taught at Macalester, and Gustavus Adolphus Colleges and is currently a professor in Justice and Peace at the University of St. Thomas and teaches in the University of Minnesota graduate school. He started an education non-profit called Ground Zero Minnesota in 1982, which has produced 56 television programs and sponsored several thousand educational programs in schools, churches, and civic groups. Dr. Andregg's book, "On the Causes of War" won the American National Peacewriting Award in 1999, has been reprinted twice, republished in Canada and has been translated into Italian. He is on the boards of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, the Hawkinson Foundation for Peace and Justice, and is involved with many academic associations. For the last several years he has studied spies focusing on issues of intelligence reform, has arranged over twenty panels for spy conferences in various parts of the world, and was recently selected to write the chapter on intelligence ethics for a textbook on Intelligence Studies.