Expert Alert: Barnes available to comment on Malaysian Airlines Flight 17

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Rice’s Barnes available to comment on Malaysian Airlines Flight 17

HOUSTON – (July 18, 2014) – With several different government sources now stating that Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was brought down with a surface-to-air missile, much investigative work needs to be done to determine the missile’s origin.

Joe Barnes, the Bonner Means Baker Fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is a geopolitics expert and is available to comment throughout the investigation and political fallout.

“Much remains unknown about the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, including the definitive identification of the guilty party,” Barnes said. “But its ramifications are likely to be significant, particularly if – as seems likely – pro-Russian Ukrainian militants were responsible. Russian President Putin is likely to see increased pressure from the United States and the European Union to stop his support for insurgents in Eastern Ukraine.”

Barnes has written a commentary about the incident on the Baker Institute’s Houston Chronicle blog. Read “Malaysian Airlines 17: The Diplomatic Aftermath” here.

Prior to coming to Rice, Barnes was a career diplomat with the U.S. State Department from 1979 to 1993 and served in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. His last assignment in the State Department was with the Policy Planning Staff. Barnes is a graduate of Princeton University.

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Barnes’ biography is available at http://bakerinstitute.org/experts/joe-barnes.

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