Mr. Calm and Effective: Evaluating the Presidency of Barack Obama (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780983962618)

The author, political scientist Michael Haas, is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for his work on behalf of human rights. He has taught at Northwestern University, Purdue University, the University of California, the University of Hawai'i, the University of London, and six campuses of California State University. This is his 47th book. A common theme in his writing is the cultural context for politics. His most latest book, with a Foreword by Michael Dukakis, is "Barack Obama, The Aloha Zen President: How a Son of the 50th State May Revitalize America Based on 12 Multicultural Principles" (2011). Haas received his baccalaureate degree at Stanford University in 1959. Yale University awarded him a Master's Degree in 1960. He received his Ph.D. at Stanford in 1964. His Nobel Peace Prize nomination recognizes his role in promoting human rights--bringing affirmative action to Hawaii, providing a peaceful pathway for Korean reconciliation, stopping Washington from funding the Khmer Rouge during the 1980s, and protesting war crimes in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and Iraq. His role in Hawaii is reported in "Institutional Racism: The Case of Hawaii" (1992) and his recent "Looking for the Aloha Spirit: Promoting Ethnic Harmony" (2010). Both define the main social influences on Barack Obama during most of the first eighteen years of his life. His role in Korean politics was to bring together distinguished scholars to offer alternatives to Cold War policies in his book "Korean Reunification: Alternative Pathways" (1989). From 1977, he presented his own approach to Koreans in high government positions, and Korean policy changed in accordance with his recommendations, resulting in a detente on the peninsula between North and South. He has published three books on Cambodia and has given numerous talks around the world on the Cambodian peace process. The books are "Cambodia, Pol Pot, and the United States" (1992), "Genocide by Proxy: Cambodian Pawn on a Superpower Chessboard" (1992), and "Modern Cambodia's Emergence from the Killing Fields: What Hapened in the Critical Years?" (2011). He is also the author of "International Human Rights: A Comprehensive Introduction" (2008) and "George W. Bush, War Criminal? The Bush Administration's Liability for 269 War Crimes" (2009). He is currently President of the Political Film Society. His website (polfilms.com) contains reviews of films from a political standpoint and gives members a chance to vote on awards each year.