An Interview with Gissou Nia, Executive Director of IHRDC To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the imprisonment of seven Baha’i Leaders in Iran, on Monday, May 6, the U.S. Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs is hosting an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. This event is part of the Baha’i International Community’s “Five […]
A defining moment for Mr. Obama’s foreign policy legacy is fast approaching From the Levant and the Persian Gulf to the Korean peninsula, events in recent weeks have offered a clinic in the difficulty of enforcing red lines on rogue regimes and their weapons of mass destruction, as well as how U.S. credibility suffers when […]
Trita Parsi on Sanctions and Iran’s Strategic Imperatives Trita Parsi is is the founder and president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a non-partisan, non-profit organization through which Iranian-Americans could participate in American civic life. Dr. Parsi is considered a leading analyst and observer of US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign politics, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He is […]
FPA event – “Iran and the U.S.: Endless Enemies?” Ambassador John W. Limbert joined the Foreign Policy Association at The Colony Club this past Wednesday, April 24 to discuss anything but the nuclear situation in Iran. Limbert’s lecture suggested that if the only topic of U.S.-Iranian relations continues to be nuclear weapons, we will never […]
Ramin Jahanbegloo on Iran’s Crises of Ethics and Institutionalized Violence Ramin Jahanbegloo is an internationally known Iranian-Canadian philosopher known for his intellectual work and efforts on fostering constructive dialogue among divergent cultures and for his advocacy to bring about social and political change based on principles of non-violence. He has written numerous books and articles in […]
Farideh Farhi on Iran’s Power Dynamics Farideh Farhi is an Independent Scholar and Affiliate Graduate Faculty at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Dr. Farhi is a regular contributor to Lobe Log Foreign Policy, the U.S. foreign policy blog of the Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS News), writing on U.S. and Iranian foreign policies and Iran’s internal […]
Mehdi Khalaji on Iran’s Crisis of State Ideology Mehdi Khalaji is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, focusing on the politics of Iran and the Middle East. Mr. Khalaji is considered one of the leading scholars on Islamic thought and Shiite Islam. He is also one of the pioneers […]
This Is Not a Film, the 2011 documentary by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, recently and belatedly worked its way to the top of my Netflix queue. The film was smuggled out of Iran for submission to the 2011 Cannes Film Festival before Panahi’s six-year prison sentence and 20-year ban from filmmaking was upheld late that […]
On August 6, 1945, President Truman announced the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He said: It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East. Before 1939, it was […]
As the Islamic Republic of Iran approaches its eleventh presidential elections in June 2013, ambiguity and uncertainty have clouded analyses and projections regarding its potential outcomes and implications. On one hand, Iran’s election should not be entirely unpredictable given its restricted democratic attributes that do not allow for free and fair elections. On the other hand, […]
Update to 26 of March entry, “Will a New Arms Trade Treaty Be Approved?”: On 2 April, the U.N. General Assembly passed the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) – the first binding international treaty designed to regulate the $70 billion cross-border conventional arms trade, and create a standard to protect peace and security. Countries will be […]
Anniversaries are dangerous days. There is often a flash of attention, lots of words and supposedly deep thought and meaningful promises. Then the sun goes down, and life goes on as before. The world often notes an anniversary without real thought or determination on how to take the steps needed to make it meaningful. As […]
From heading to the theater to see the newest release to watching Academy Awards that honor the year’s best pictures, many Americans enjoy the multifaceted components of the movie industry. For approximately two hours, people have the opportunity to experience fantasy worlds, the lives of fictitious characters overcoming obstacles, and occasionally learn something about […]
On March 22, 2013, WVUM, the student radio of the University of Miami, invited me into its station in order to discuss the mess taking place in Cyprus. Despite talking for almost 15 minutes on the roots of the crisis in Cyprus and the ECB’s ultimatum, I could not resist continuing the discussion on Iran, […]
Up until President Obama touched down in Tel Aviv earlier this week, the headlines roared for years about new tensions between the United States and Israel, not to mention the sour relationship between bout countries’ head of state. During the last U.S. election, Republicans and their sympathetic pundits branded the incumbent president as one of […]