Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
Middle East & North Africa
The Courtship of Iran and Pakistan

The Courtship of Iran and Pakistan

by | Jul 25, 2011

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari paid a second visit to Tehran last weekend after having been there only three weeks ago. Official reports by Pakistani and Iranian sources broadly characterized the visit as “part of the ongoing process to strengthen bilateral ties, step up consultations with countries in the region for peace and stability at a time when tension was developing in some parts and for promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan and fighting militancy.” But this rationale hardly warrants two head-of-state level official visits in such a short span of time. After all, lower-level officials could have dealt with such concerns, as in the past.

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Bahrain and Human Rights

Bahrain and Human Rights

by | Jul 22, 2011

It is becoming painfully obvious that the United States is hostile to the “Arab Spring.” In Egypt, U.S. military aid programs remain in force, and in Yemen a “secret” U.S. war may be in the offing. In the United Arab Emirates plans may be afoot to develop a for-profit rapid reaction force (to crackdown, surely, on UAE citizens for “publicly insulting” their leader). The U.S. government continues to support the Israeli blockade of Gaza. But perhaps the quintessential example of U.S. reactionary policy is in the tiny Kingdom of Bahrain.

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Obama’s Bush-League World: Is the Obama National Security Team a Pilotless Drone?

by | Jul 19, 2011

Only recently, the Obama administration leaked news that it wasintensifying its military-run war against al-Qaeda in Yemen by bringing the CIA into the action.  The Agency is now to build a base for its drone air wing somewhere in the Middle East to hunt Yemeni terrorists (and assumedly those elsewhere in the region as well).  Yemen functionally has no government to cooperate with, but in pure Bushian fashion, who cares?

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Israel and the Futility of Attacking Iran: Interview with Abolghasem Bayyenat

by | Jul 19, 2011

Given the largely conflicting political identity of the two governments which in most contexts has defined conflicting foreign policy interests for the two countries , the United States views its relations with Iran as a zero-sum game and will thus struggle to contain Iran’s growing power and influence in the region, even if this would mean swimming against the tide and creating unnecessary costs for its foreign policy in the region.

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