Israel Can’t Substitute for the U.S. in the Middle East
The Jewish state can protect its neighborhood, but the Persian Gulf needs a superpower’s attention.
Persians
FDD Identifies 19 Websites as Part of an Iranian Global Influence Operation
FDD researchers have uncovered the Iranian role in creating a network of at least 19 websites that present themselves as independent sources of opinion and analysis for audiences across the globe. Other...
Policy Briefs
The Azerbaijanis, Not the Azeris, Are Hosting COP29
The Republic of Azerbaijan will host the annual UN Climate Change Conference known as COP29 in November 2024. For many who will attend COP29 and follow the process, this will be their first...
Op-eds
Iran’s Slow Boil
The clerical regime in Tehran has held the streets. It remains to be seen, however, if the strategies employed to keep the ayatollahs afloat will prevail. When Mahsa Amini, a young Sunni Kurdish-Iranian girl, died on September 16 in the custody of the morality police, nationwide demonstrations erupted, often with young women and girls on the frontlines.
Op-eds
The Iranian theocracy’s downfall is a goal worth working toward
Fate is sometimes kind to America. Such merciful intervention happened last summer when Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, rejected the Biden administration’s effort to revive former President Barack...
Op-eds
Iran’s policy toward the Caucasus and Central Asia
Excerpt Much of the analysis on Iranian foreign policy focuses on both Iran’s positonality in relation to the Middle East, and its claim to the mantle of Shia Islamic leadership. However, a more detailed...
Op-eds
Tehran, the Day After
What might happen in Iran if America or Israel bombed the nuclear sites?
Op-eds
The Israeli Moment
If anyone is going to derail the Islamic Republic’s regional ambitions, Israel is really the only local counterweight that counts.
Op-eds
An Iraqi Perspective on Israel
Growing up in Iraq, my curriculum in Baghdad’s elementary school included a “nationalism class” and required that we read a text by the Governor of Baghdad and Saddam Hussein’s maternal uncle, Khairallah...
Op-eds
Biden Looks Away While Iranian Protesters Call for the Regime’s Overthrow
In Iran, nationwide protests are calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. The unrest started in the water-deprived province of Khuzistan but has spread to neighboring provinces and major cities,...
Op-eds
The Impact of the Ahwaz protests in Iran
Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority on July 7 launched extensive anti-regime protests centered in the country’s western Khuzestan Province. Extreme water shortages affecting the Ahwaz were the catalyst for...
Policy Briefs
Iran Conducts Major Wave of Executions and Shootings of Ethnic Minorities
Tehran has killed dozens of members of Iran’s ethnic minorities in recent weeks, especially among Iran’s Baluch and Ahwazi Arab communities. Ethnic minorities are increasingly conducting anti-regime...
Policy Briefs
The forgotten refugees of the Middle East
Jews who were forced to flee from their homes in Arab lands
Op-eds
Iran’s Multiethnic Society Explains Why Tehran Fears Democracy
Iran faces the democracy conundrum: in multi-ethnic states where one non-majority group prevails over others, democratization entails risk of loss of empire.
Op-eds
Iran stokes antisemitism about ‘Esther, The Girl who became Queen’
“A Zionist hero has infiltrated our streaming services” in Iran
Op-eds
Covid-19 And Middle Eastern Tyranny
In the democratic West, many expect there to be a post–Covid-19 reckoning. That politicians who did poorly in handling the pandemic will fall from office. There isn’t a clear understanding of what...
Op-eds
Iran’s Theocracy Is on the Brink
Iran has a peculiar habit of surprising Americans. It has done so again with the protests engulfing its major cities. The demonstrations began over economic grievances and quickly transformed int...
Op-eds
The Kurdish test
In a just world, the Kurds would have a state of their own. Their culture is ancient. They speak a distinctive language. They have a homeland, Kurdistan, ruled for centuries by Arabs, Turks and P...
Op-eds
Trump throws a Hail Mary pass against Iran
President Trump has finally decertified his predecessor's nuclear agreement with Iran. Twice before, in April and July, Trump certified, per the requirement in the 2015 Iran Nuclear Review A...
Op-eds
Perfect Partners
When he won the election, Donald Trump—along with his national security adviser Michael Flynn, his all-purpose counselor Stephen Bannon, and, perhaps, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner—wa...