Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: Iran

Candid Discussions: Mark Dubowitz on Iranian Nuclear Negotiations

Candid Discussions: Mark Dubowitz on Iranian Nuclear Negotiations

Mark Dubowitz is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan policy institute, where he leads projects on Iran, sanctions, nonproliferation, and countering electronic repression.

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Candid Discussions: Reza Marashi on U.S.-Iran Relations and Regional Dynamics

Candid Discussions: Reza Marashi on U.S.-Iran Relations and Regional Dynamics

  Reza Marashi is Research Director at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).  Prior to NIAC, Mr. Marashi worked in the Office of Iranian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.  He was also a political analyst at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), covering China-Middle East issues, and previously a consultant at a Tehran-based […]

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Candid Discussions: Noura Erakat on the Conflict in Gaza

Candid Discussions: Noura Erakat on the Conflict in Gaza

  Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney, activist, educator, and an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in the Middle East. She is an Assistant Professor at George Mason University, teaching international human rights law in the Middle East. She is also a co-editor of Jadaliyya, an online magazine focused on the Middle East produced by the Arab Studies Institute […]

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The Arab World and the Security Crisis in Syria and Iraq

The Arab World and the Security Crisis in Syria and Iraq

Karen Elliot House, Bessma Momani, Kamran Bokhari and Ayham Kamel joined Reza Akhlaghi of the Foreign Policy Association to discuss the growing regional instability, Arab policy, and the breakdown of security structure in Iraq and Syria.

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Candid Discussions: Marc Schulman of the Times of Israel on Israel and Gaza

Candid Discussions: Marc Schulman of the Times of Israel on Israel and Gaza

    Marc Schulman is an app developer and contributing writer for the Times of Israel. His articles have most recently appeared in Newsweek. He is the editor of Historycentral.com and author a series of Multimedia History Apps and a biography of John F. Kennedy Jr.  He currently lives in Tel Aviv. Mr. Schulman spoke with Allison […]

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Candid Discussions: Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi on the EU Sanctions against Iran

Candid Discussions: Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi on the EU Sanctions against Iran

Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi is a Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and the author, most recently, of “The EU’s sanction regime against Iran in the aftermath of the JPA.” Ms. Bassiri is a PhD candidate at King’s College London, where her research deals with the E3-EU diplomatic initiative on the Iranian nuclear […]

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A Candid Discussion with Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute

A Candid Discussion with Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute

Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute. Dr. Cagaptay has written extensively on U.S.-Turkish relations, Turkish domestic politics, and Turkish nationalism, publishing in scholarly journals as well as key American and Turkish media outlets. He writes regularly as a columnist for Hürriyet Daily News, Turkey’s oldest and […]

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Obama’s tough choice on Iraq: cooperation with Iran

Obama’s tough choice on Iraq: cooperation with Iran

Yesterday President Barack Obama spoke to media in the White House briefing room in order to provide an update on his government’s approach to the situation in Iraq. The Commander-in-Chief, looking visibly tired, told reporters that under his direction the U.S. has increased its intelligence capabilities in Iraq; will continue to support Iraqi security forces […]

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Saudi-Iranian Face-Off in Iraq

Saudi-Iranian Face-Off in Iraq

I have been recently asked by LinkedIn to contribute writing for the professional social networking site. So, for my first piece I decided to write the following on the worsening situation in Iraq. The piece can be accessed in its entirety here. The crumbling of government authority in Sunni-dominated areas of Iraq under the alarming onslaught […]

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Book Review: Iran’s Historic Distrust of Foreign Powers

Book Review: Iran’s Historic Distrust of Foreign Powers

  Editor’s Note: The following is a book review by Reza Varjavand, associate professor of economics and finance at the Graham School of management, Saint Xavier University by Reza Varjavand Even though we still do not know for sure how we got to be on this planet, we have a long history of living on […]

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A Candid Discussion with Ayatollah Abdolhamid Masoumi-Tehrani

A Candid Discussion with Ayatollah Abdolhamid Masoumi-Tehrani

  Abdolhamid Masoumi-Tehrani is an Iranian Ayatollah based in Tehran, Iran. He is also a calligrapher and painter, who uses his art works to challenge openly Iran’s ruling clergy and power elite to adopt a more tolerant social and political order. A recent calligraphic art work by Ayatollah Masoumi-Tehrani sent shock waves through Iran’s ruling […]

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Inter-factional Rivalry and Iran’s Strategic Interests

Inter-factional Rivalry and Iran’s Strategic Interests

As Iran and the United States, a key member of the P5+1 world powers, inch toward deicing their 35-year-old frosty and at times traumatic relations, jockeying from all sides of political spectrum target the direction of this process and whether the icy relations should ever start to melt. Regional opponents of improved ties between Iran […]

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Is the GCC a Toothless Organization?

Is the GCC a Toothless Organization?

The [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is comprised of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. According to the GCC’s Charter, what unites these countries are their “special relations, common characteristics and similar systems founded on the creed of Islam.” “Their […]

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The Political Economy of Oil Income in Iran

The Political Economy of Oil Income in Iran

Editor’s Note: The following is a contributing guest piece. Saeed Ghasseminejad is the cofounder of the Iranian Liberal students and Graduates (ILSG) and the International Center for Liberalism Studies (ICLS). His work on economy and politics of Iran and the Middle East and has been published in CNBC, The Weekly Standard, National Post, International Business […]

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Funding Security Through Radars, Drones and Missile Systems

Funding Security Through Radars, Drones and Missile Systems

The Economist released an interesting chart on global military spending this week showing the increased spending on military assets by countries that have been considered in the past to not be pro-Western or an ally of the United States or EU. The largest spending boom was made by China. China has openly shown the People’s […]

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