Experts in the media: University of Connecticut experts weigh in on the assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani
The killing of Iranian military leader Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani by an American ordered drone strike has put the world is on edge. As leaders call for calm, hundreds of thousands are protesting across the Middle East and war seems almost inevitable.
As news broke of the attack late last week, media were scrambling to find experts to lend their perspective, opinions and expertise about what’s next. That’s where the University of Connecticut’s Director of Middle East Studies Jeremy Pressman was able to help. Pressman said it’s “too early to say” what kind of repercussions the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani will have in Iran, Iraq or in other countries like Saudi Arabia or Lebanon, in part because it’s not known yet how much planning went into the decision. “The Trump administration is an administration that, on foreign policy, has not demonstrated that it usually plans much in advance,” he said. “You want to have thought what ways Iran could respond, and how you are going to defend yourselves in those situations and respond to those situations.” January 03 – Middletown Press If you are a reporter covering this ongoing and progressing situation – the let our experts help with any of your questions or stories moving forward. Jeremy Pressman (MIT, PhD) studies international relations, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Middle East politics, and U.S. foreign policy. He is the Director of Middle East Studies at the University of Connecticut and is available to speak with media, simply click on his icon to arrange an interview today.
Biography
Jeremy Pressman (MIT, PhD) studies international relations, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Middle East politics, and U.S. foreign policy. He is writing a book on force and diplomacy in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Pressman has held fellowships at Harvard University, the University of Sydney, and the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut. Pressman previously worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Areas of Expertise
Political Protests
Middle East Peace Process
Arab-Israeli Conflict
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ph.D.
Political Science
2002
Brandeis University
B.A.
Politics and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
1991
Accomplishments
Alan Bennett Award
Awarded by the Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut.
Connecticut residents in Israel and Iran shoulder fear and uncertainty as missiles fall
Hartford Courant print
2025-06-18
Jeremy Pressman, professor of political science at UConn, said what strikes him is a high level of uncertainty in the conflict.
“I think there is uncertainty how far the government of Israel wants to carry this and whether they want to topple the Iranian government,” he said. “The U.S. has kept a distance and has not directly engaged in a military attack. If the U.S. moves in a different direction that is where you would start to see a backlash against the U.S. or military force in the region.”
Pressman continued, “We have to remind ourselves that war goes in unexpected directions. It can result in different outcomes than we expect.”
How resistance to Trump may look different in his second administration
The Washington Post print
2025-01-17
Jeremy Pressman, a political science professor of the University of Connecticut, said there is a split among activists over how best to speak up about Trump’s presidency.
Some believe marches haven’t accomplished enough and want to work on new tactics, like investing more in grassroots political organizations. Others believe large-scale demonstrations are still effective because they bring together veteran organizers and newcomers to a movement.
Column: What Trump's crowd obsession says about him — and the race for the White House
Los Angeles Times print
2024-08-14
“Crowd size can tell us something about enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is important for things like donations and volunteers,” said Jeremy Pressman, a University of Connecticut political science professor and co-director of the Crowd Counting Consortium, a joint project of the university and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
“But it’s important to remember what it doesn’t tell us,” he went on. “It doesn’t tell us who’s ahead. It doesn’t tell us who’s winning. It doesn’t necessarily predict who’s going to win at the end of the day.”
Israel/Palestine & the Myths and Realities of the 2000 Camp David Summit
Parallax Views Podcast online
2024-05-20
On this edition of Parallax Views, the University of Connecticut's Prof. Jeremy Pressman, Director of Middle East Studies at UConn and author of The Sword is Not Enough: Arabs, Israelis, and the Limits of Military Force, joins the show to discuss the myths of the 2000 Camp David Summit and Taba talks. During recent appearances in media programs such as Morning Joe w/ Joe Scarborough, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton brought up the old trope that "the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" that is often invoked when discussing PLO leader Yasser Arafat and the 2000 Camp David Summit. This is used to say that Arafat failed the Palestinian people and "rejected an offer". It's also a talking point used to justify use of military force rather than pursuing a political solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. It forecloses on the possibility of a diplomatic solution or peace being achieved by saying the Palestinians are "not ready" for peace.
Prof. Jeremy Pressman wrote a researched, footnoted piece entitled "Visions in Collision: What Happened at Camp David and Taba?" that pushes back on this oversimplified narrative of the Clinton-era diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Palestinians.
As campus protests linger, parents anxiously watch from afar
The Boston Globe print
2024-05-11
Opposition to the Israel-Hamas war, of course, goes beyond college students. About 75 percent of protests in the United States against it occurred away from academic institutions, said Jeremy Pressman, a political science professor at the University of Connecticut. But since April 15, more than half of the protests have been tied to colleges and universities, according to a project jointly run by Harvard Kennedy School and UConn.
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Calls on Israel to Hold New Elections
Voice of America online
2024-03-15
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling on Israel to hold new elections and for Israel must make "significant course corrections" to achieve lasting peace with the Palestinians, criticizing the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. International Edition host Steve Miller speaks with Jeremy Pressman, political science professor and director of Middle East Studies at the University of Connecticut about the remarks, possible implications for US-Israeli ties, and the war.
Why the Gaza Strip is at the centre of the Israel-Hamas war
CBC Kids News online
2023-11-07
At the centre of the war between Israel and Hamas is a place called the Gaza Strip.
Hamas runs the government in Gaza. They also operate a militant wing.
Militants are groups of people who often use aggressive or violent actions in support of a cause.
Hamas militants launched a brutal attack from Gaza on Oct. 7. That attack killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, according to the Israeli government.
EXPLAINER: Why Israel Is Facing a Democratic Crisis
U.S. News and World Report online
2023-03-30
But while the situation has calmed – for now – some predict the people of Israel are likely to stay on edge due to broader concerns about the state of the country’s democracy.
“There’s an overwhelming amount of pressure in Israeli society,” says Jeremy Pressman, a professor of political science at the University of Connecticut and expert on subjects including protests and Middle East politics.
Sen. Chris Murphy makes bipartisan plea for a ceasefire in the Middle East as others, including President Biden, join call to stop bloodshed
Hartford Courant print
2021-05-17
The increasingly vocal advocacy on behalf of the Palestinians reflects a growing schism within the Democratic Party over Israel, said Jeremy Pressman, an associate professor of political science and director of Middle East studies at the University of Connecticut.
“Some people in the Democratic Party are much more open to the Palestinian position and focusing on Palestinian rights than was true maybe 10 years ago ... but definitely going back 20-30 years,” Pressman said.
A Washington Post study examined 7,305 racial justice protests that occurred across the U.S. from May to June of 2020. It found low levels of violence and property destruction across all the protests.
"Most of the violence that did take place was, in fact, directed against the BLM protesters [by police and counter-protesters]," the study's authors, Erica Chenoweth and Jeremy Pressman wrote. "Our data suggest that 96.3 percent of events involved no property damage or police injuries, and in 97.7 percent of events, no injuries were reported among participants, bystanders or police."
Debate rages over whether race had role in police response to Capitol riot
ABC News Radio online
2021-02-23
Critics contend the stark contrast between the massive law enforcement response to recent BLM protests in Washington, D.C., and its weak performance during the Capitol riots is evidence of the double standard they allege can be found not just in the nation's capital but in police agencies across the country.
"To see the police response against Black Lives Matter protesters over the late spring and summer with a very different response on January 6, was quite striking," Jeremy Pressman, an associate professor of political science and director of Middle East Studies at the University of Connecticut, told ABC News. "And certainly one of the explanations for that was the different racial composition of the crowds at those two protests and the different particular aims and grievances of those crowds."
Foreign Policy Gets Little Attention but Still Looms Over the Election
Courthouse News Service online
2020-10-31
It’s not solely Afghanistan and Iran, vestiges of America’s War on Terror, which has receded into the background, according to foreign policy experts.
“In some of the recent elections, foreign policy was so central to the debates because ongoing wars were so central at the time,” said Jeremy Pressman, a foreign policy expert at the University of Connecticut.
The demonstrations after the killing of George Floyd have seen millions of Americans take to the streets on bicycles, horses, surfboards and boats, skateboards, in cars or on foot. It is the largest sustained mobilization in the United States in our lifetimes.
Data from the Crowd Counting Consortium gives a sense of the scale of these protests. So far, we’ve counted 5,000 individual anti-racism/anti-police-brutality protests nationwide since the end of May, involving millions of participants. In fact, data from Pennsylvania (which we have studied most intensively) suggest that our national count still underestimates the number of protests in small cities and towns. The real national total may be as high as 8,000. Here are some key findings so far.
Tracking Protests: UConn Professor Analyzing Data on Nationwide Protests
NBC Connecticut tv
2020-06-11
"We are seeing something unusual in U.S. protests, which is the combination of sustained protests with large protests," explained Jeremy Pressman, co-director of the Crowd Counting Consortium and an associate professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut.
Pressman, along with his colleagues, have been tracking the nationwide protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed Black man who died after pleading for air as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd's neck for several minutes.
Researchers asked hundreds of George Floyd protesters about the 2020 election. All said they'd vote for Biden over Trump or anyone else.
Business Insider online
2020-06-09
University of Connecticut political scientist Jeremy Pressman and his colleague Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard, have been tracking protests in the Trump era and documenting their size and scope.
Pressman told Insider the US was experiencing a "watershed moment."
Women’s March Connecticut to hold press conferences instead of a march this year
Hartford Courant print
2020-01-17
Jeremy Pressman, a professor of political science at the University of Connecticut who studies social movements and tracks crowd size, said that the massive 2017 Women’s March rallies have already had a lasting impact.
The 2017 demonstrations signified “the single largest day of protests in history" and engaged tens of thousands of women who were not deeply involved in politics, he said.
‘Nobody needs another pink hat’: Why the Women’s March is struggling for relevance
Washington Post print
2020-01-12
“Burnout is real,” said Jeremy Pressman, a political science professor at the University of Connecticut and co-creator of the Crowd Counting Consortium, which tracks attendance at large-scale protests. “Yes, there is protest fatigue, but it’s also incredibly hard for people to sustain high levels of engagement with a polarized, 24/7 news environment for years at a time. You see more and more activists who are opting to do other things: donating, volunteering, running for their local school board or city council.”
Pressman said it’s “too early to say” what kind of repercussions the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani will have in Iran, Iraq or in other countries like Saudi Arabia or Lebanon, in part because it’s not known yet how much planning went into the decision.
“The Trump administration is an administration that, on foreign policy, has not demonstrated that it usually plans much in advance,” he said. “You want to have thought what ways Iran could respond, and how you are going to defend yourselves in those situations and respond to those situations.”
After rush-hour traffic disruptions, D.C. protesters look to escalate tactics
Washington Post print
2019-10-24
“One thing to consider with protests is who is the intended audience? Who are the protesters trying to reach?” said Jeremy Pressman, a political science professor at the University of Connecticut and co-founder of the Crowd Counting Consortium, which tracks protests. “Under President Trump, there have been a fair number of big-issue protests where lots of people got arrested. But most of the ones we’ve seen were directed at lawmakers — people being arrested at the Capitol or inside federal buildings. And that’s a different audience than when you’re standing in traffic, messing up people’s rush hour. You’re taking your issue directly to the people.”
The anti-Trump ‘Lights for Liberty’ events might be the most significant protests you’ve never heard of.
Washington Post online
2019-07-31
Two weeks ago, “Lights for Liberty” protests were held throughout the country. Their purpose, according to the protest organizers’ main website, was “to protest the inhumane conditions faced by migrants” detained by the United States at the southern border. These protests received limited national media attention, certainly less than the Women’s March. But a careful look at the data shows these protests may be more significant than one might assume.
Turnout at last weekend’s impeachment marches was modest. Why?
Washington Post online
2019-06-24
After more than two years of counting political crowds daily, we can conclude that protest mobilization in the United States remains a powerful mode of political participation. For instance, we’re still tallying events from the March 14 Climate Strike, which appears to have drawn 1 million to 2 million participants worldwide, including 40,000 to 50,000 people in the United States. But the demonstrations at the impeachment rallies, held June 14 to 16 in at least 139 locations through the United States, seemed relatively modest. We’ve found local news coverage for 20 percent of the protests and crowd size estimates for only about 40 percent. With fewer than 3,000 participants counted, it appears as though the rallies drew much smaller crowds than, say, the Women’s Marches, the Climate Strikes, the March for Our Lives or various other large demonstrations since President Trump’s inauguration.
Trump’s Golan Heights tweet disregards decades of U.S. commitment to U.N. resolutions
Washington Post online
2019-03-22
On Thursday, President Trump tweeted that “it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights.” That U.S. move is fully in line with the Trump administration’s close embrace of Israel’s right-wing government but breaks with decades of U.S. policy and United Nations resolutions.
After two years of counting political crowds in the United States, we find that public demonstrations remain a powerful medium for people who wish to be involved politically. A significant proportion of the country’s population continues to reject President Trump’s agenda — and to put feet to pavement to make that point visible.
3 ways to look at August’s protests — and 2 charts showing all protests since January 2017
Washington Post online
2018-11-12
For August, we tallied 573 protests, demonstrations, strikes, marches, sit-ins, rallies and walkouts in the United States, with at least one in every state and the District. This is a modest decline in the average number of events since Donald Trump took office.
Tens of thousands of people protested in April and May — on topics like gun violence, labor rights and science
Washington Post online
2018-08-01
For April, we tallied 3,773 protests, demonstrations, strikes, marches, sit-ins, rallies and walkouts in the United States, with at least one in every state and the District. For May, we tallied 1,030 such events. Our conservative guess is that between 342,319 and 353,403 people showed up at political gatherings in April, and between 97,738 and 102,188 showed up in May, although it is likely there were more participants in both months.
Did you attend the March for Our Lives? Here’s what it looked like nationwide.
Washington Post online
2018-04-13
On March 24, Parkland, Fla., high school students — in coalition with people nationwide — organized massive public rallies to support gun regulation, safer schools and safer communities. By our count, the March for Our Lives event brought out 1,380,666 to 2,181,886 people at 763 locations — making it the third-largest day of demonstrations since President Trump’s inauguration launched an extraordinary period of national political mobilization. As The Washington Post reported recently, nearly 1 in 5 Americans says they have attended a rally or protest since the beginning of 2016.
January’s Women’s March brought out more than a million people — and many more also protested during the month
Washington Post online
2018-02-26
For January 2018, we tallied 1,040 protests, demonstrations, strikes, marches, sit-ins and rallies in the United States, with at least one in every state and the District. Our conservative guess is that between 2,441,891 and 3,384,073 people showed up at these political gatherings, although it is likely there were more participants. Because mainstream media often neglect to report nonviolent actions — especially small ones — it is probable that we did not record every event that took place. For 21 percent of the events we listed this month, we lacked an estimate of the size of the crowd.
One year after the Women's March on Washington, people are still protesting en masse. A lot. We've counted.
Washington Post online
2018-01-23
The Crowd Counting Consortium is one year old. Since the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21, 2017, we have recorded more than 8,700 protests in the United States through Dec. 31, 2017. This map gives a sense of the geographic and ideological distribution of the crowds. About 74 percent of those protests were either against Trump administration policy or on issues that conflicted with the president’s viewpoint, such as protests against specific police shootings of black people.
Trump’s rhetoric on Jerusalem tells us a lot about what kind of Israeli-Palestinian proposal he’ll deliver
Washington Post print
2017-12-08
This week, President Trump declared that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. As expected, the move drew praise from Israel’s right-wing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and condemnation from a variety of Arab and Palestinian leaders. What will this decision mean for the possibility that the United States could lead negotiations toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Three things to know about Trump’s Jerusalem gambit.
Diplomat in chief: How did Trump do on his first Middle East visit?
The Conversation print
2017-03-26
As an expert on U.S. policy in the Middle East and on Arab-Israeli relations, I think it is clear that Trump’s hopes for regional stability or an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement – outcomes that require detailed policy – rest on shaky ground. Will he go beyond merely meeting Israeli and Saudi demands for positive public images and the exchange of kind words?
The Exhausting Work of Tallying America's Largest Protest
The Atlantic print
2017-01-23
A pair of political science professors are combing through news stories and individual reports to estimate the number of people who demonstrated on Saturday.
Women’s March On Washington Sets US Protest Record As Estimated 3.6-4.5 Million Marched
PoliticusUSA online
2017-01-22
"According to UConn Professor Jeremy Pressman’s Google document of crowd estimates the low-end estimate is 3.66 million marchers. The high-end estimate is 4.57 million. Whether it is the low or high estimate that is accurate the Women’s March On Washington shattered the previous record for the largest one-day protest in the United States..."
Millions rally against authoritarianism, while the White House portrays protests as threats – a political scientist explains
The Conversation
2025-06-15
At the end of a week when President Donald Trump sent Marines and the California National Guard to Los Angeles to quell protests, Americans across the country turned out in huge numbers to protest Trump’s attempts to expand his power. In rallies on June 14, 2025, organized under the banner “No Kings,” millions of protesters decried Trump’s immigration roundups, cuts to government programs and what many described as his growing authoritarianism.
The protests were largely peaceful, with relatively few incidents of violence.
The resistance is alive and well – and our research shows it
The Guardian
Erica Chenoweth, Jeremy Pressman and Soha Hammam
2025-03-28
“Where is the resistance?” is a common refrain. Our research affirms that resistance is alive and well.
Many underestimate resistance to the current Republican administration because they view resistance through a narrow lens. The 2017 Women’s March in particular – immediate in its response, massive in its scope and size – may inform collective imaginations about what the beginning of a resistance movement should look like during Trump 2.0.
In fact, our research shows that street protests today are far more numerous and frequent than skeptics might suggest.
The Trump administration’s freeze on federal aid is an attack on our state and local community.
It will harm all of us in crucial ways if it is not stopped immediately. It will harm people from every state, whether blue, red, or purple. Yes, a judge has blocked the move, but that is only temporarily.
Throwing Stones in Social Science: Nonviolence, Unarmed Violence, and the First Intifada
Cooperation & Conflict
2017
Social scientists treat stone-throwing as a non-violent act or argue that protest movements may be primarily non-violent despite stone-throwing. However, this study of an iconic example, the first intifada (Palestinian uprising, 1987–1993), demonstrates that stone-throwing is better characterized as unarmed violence. Definitions of violence underscore that throwing rocks is a violent act. Moreover, informed observers and data collected on stone-induced injuries during four years of the intifada illustrate the bodily harm caused by stones. The throwing of stones was central to the intifada and its identity and definition. Stone-throwing was the most visible tactic Palestinians used in the first intifada. Lastly, most scholars emphasize the protestors’ perceptions when it might be that the targets’ perceptions matter more for understanding definitions of (non-)violence and subsequent policy changes. These findings challenge important social science work and the mainstream Israeli and Palestinian narratives about the first intifada.
American Engagement and the Pathways to Arab–Israeli Peace
Cooperation and Conflict
2014
This close empirical study of decades of US efforts to bring peace between Arab states and Israel helps reflect on Arild Underdal and Oran R. Young’s leadership typologies. Distinguishing between coercive leadership based on the incentives and sanctions that robust capabilities make possible and instrumental leadership focused more on talking, skilled mediation, and policy innovation is useful...
Explaining the Carter Administration’s Israeli–Palestinian Solution*
Diplomatic History
2013
This article challenges critics of the Camp David accords who acknowledge only limited accomplishments or contend the United States was covering for Israeli settlement expansion while seeking to thwart Palestinian self-determination. President Jimmy Carter and his administration sought to create a new pathway toward peace given the unwillingness of Israel’s right-wing government under ...
Negotiating the Promised Land: The End of Innocence?
Israeli Studies Review
2010
How to address the Arab-Israeli conflict has become a central focus of every American president since Richard Nixon. As the decades pass, the direct search for a solution has been paralleled by repeated self-scrutiny by US participants and scholars. Beyond recording the flow of events, such works have themselves pored over the historical record in an effort to understand both past failings (and avoid ...
Power Without Influence: The Bush Administration's Foreign Policy Failure in the Middle East
International Security
2009
The administration of President George W. Bush was deeply involved in the Middle East, but its efforts did not advance U.S. national security. In the realms of counterterrorism, democracy promotion, and nonconventional proliferation, the Bush administration failed to achieve its objectives. Although the United States did not suffer a second direct attack after September 11, 2001, the terrorism ...
The Arab–Israeli Conflict and the Case of The Lemon Tree
International Studies Perspectives
2008
This article uses the The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan (2006) to demonstrate how one type of book, a literary non-fiction book written for popular audiences, can be used in a political science course such as one on the Arab–Israeli conflict. The book concisely presents multiple Arab–Israeli perspectives and enlivens the history and infuses it with both broader and deeper meaning. After a brief ...
