Category: Blogs

Ahmadinejad Tried Making a Comeback—Until Iran’s Judiciary Stepped In

By Arash Azizi

As is the norm for most authoritarian regimes, fortunes rise and fall quickly for men of power in Iran. But the former chief of staff and vice president of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had it coming for a long time. As the closest confidante of the former president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei has long been despised by much […]

Tracking hurricane florence

Hurricane Florence, currently a Category 2 as it makes its final approach to the Carolina coastline, still has the potential to inflict severe damage.

In South Sudan, it’s déjà vu all over again

By Ashish Kumar Sen

In December of 2013, the world’s youngest nation was plunged back into a familiar cycle of violence after Kiir accused his vice president, Machar, of plotting to overthrow him.

The war for peace in Afghanistan

By Fatemeh Aman

An enduring peace in Afghanistan is only possible if it involves a deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and addresses the challenge posed by these other insurgent groups.

Why on Earth is former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tweeting?

By Holly Dagres

Over the past year and a half, the former Iranian president has been a social media enigma. All of Ahmadinejad’s tweets are in English—leading many to believe that he's not the author.

Trump’s election meddling sanctions will not deter Russia

By Brian O’Toole and David Mortlock

Strategically, it is hard to see how these sanctions would provide any more of a deterrent to Russia and others than what already exists, given that the determination to impose sanctions still rests at the administration’s discretion.

The Syrian detainee that saved a German journalist: The dangers of being a foreign correspondent in Syria

By Mansour Omari

Syria ranks as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with arrests, kidnappings, executions, bombings, and shelling the leading causes of death for journalists in the country. While local Syrian journalists bare the brunt of the regime’s violence, many foreign journalists are targeted by the regime while reporting during battles and otherwise due to their role in shaping international coverage of the conflict.

Putin critic Litvinenko’s widow says Russia using disinformation to discredit Skripal poisoning

By David Wemer

Russian authorities are now “trying to use a case of Alexander Litvinenko to destroy the future case of Yulia and Sergei Skripal,” Marina Litvinenko said.

Iran Through the Lens of al-Qaeda

By Nelly Lahoud

As the United States solemnly commemorates the seventeenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, questions about the relationship of Iran and al-Qaeda linger. Over the years, US courts have ruled that Iran provided al-Qaeda support to carry out its signature attacks, namely the 1998 East Africa bombings, the USS Cole in Yemen, and the […]

Can peace be won in Afghanistan?

By Omar Samad

How will key regional stakeholders—Pakistan, Russia, Iran, China, and India—manage shifting interests and threat perceptions at a time when the United States is pushing for a peace deal, and is there a contingency plan if talks fail?