In the absence of genuine democratic institutions, a set of common economic grievances is galvanizing the Arab Street against a diverse host of unaccountable regimes across the Arab world. However, deep and structural economic problems also characterize much of the Middle East, including non-Arab Iran. Recognizing the depth and gravity of the country’s economic challenges, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamanei has declared 2011 as the year of “economic jihad.”
Has Iran’s President Ahmadinejad Become a Sympathetic Figure?
Is Supreme Leader Khameini’s assertion of his will over President Ahmadinejad the step back that it seems for Iran?
Iran’s Turmoil at the Top
There is a struggle between Ahmadinejad and the clerics around Khamenei. Although it may play out in arguments over obscure religious issues — one critic of the president accused him of recruiting an army of genies – at its heart the fight is over political and economic power: who wields it and to what purpose? Some of the players, like the president and the supreme leader, perform in the spotlight. Others, like the powerful Revolutionary Guard and an increasingly restive population hammered by economic difficulties, operate in the wings.
Is It Time to Worry About Ahmadinejad’s Apparent Fanaticism?
How would we feel about Iran President Ahmadinejad’s extremism if he usurped Supreme Leader Khameini in power?
Disingenuousness Rules the Nuclear Roost
Iran doesn’t understand how its caginess about its nuclear program compares with Israel’s deceptions about its full-blown nuclear-weapons program.
Ahmadinejad’s Apocalypse-Soon Proclamations: For Real or a Joke?
Do conservatives have any justification for clinging to the belief that Iran’s President Ahmadinejad is an end-timer?
Would MLK Back Iran’s Protesters?
Combine Iran’s post-election turmoil with the controversy over the nation’s nuclear advances, and few Americans are likely to be unsympathetic toward the opposition movement there. Some bloggers have even suggested that the reformist-led protests are inspired by the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Several commentators have referred to the wave of anti-theocracy rallies as Iran’s "civil rights movement, perhaps implying that the social conservatives who rule the country resemble Mississippi fundamentalists.
Iran: Code Orange?
"Iran is now on the verge of an Orange-style Revolution." This statement is likely to elicit enthusiasm from those working tirelessly to promote democracy in Iran.
Maintaining Distance from Iran
As the Islamic Republic of Iran veers closer to outright insurrection and the competing factions of Mir Hossain Mousavi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei engage in a game of high-stakes political brinksmanship, should the United States play a more active role in Iranian affairs? Those in power must chart a careful course, for the same thorny question toppled the legacy of another Democratic president 30 years ago.
Managing the Iranian Challenge
Skill, patience, consistency, logic, and understanding go a long way toward the design of an effective foreign policy. These attributes — perhaps obvious but frequently in short supply among foreign policy decision-makers — build a much firmer policy foundation than rude and emotional outbursts, erratic challenges, public bullying, contemptuous disdain, or efforts to isolate and demonize. With a new administration in place, now is the time to ask if U.S. policy toward Iraq can shift from viewing Iran as an "ultra-nationalistic, theologically conservative, politically radical, or Shi’ite" state and instead design a foreign policy based on skill, patience, consistency, logic, and understanding.