Policy Analysis

It is far too early to draw any hard conclusions about the ongoing uprising in Iran, but one thing seems clear enough: Once again, Iran has confounded the expectations and assumptions of many a Western Iran expert when it comes to what Iranians want, what they are prepared to do

In response to growing international pressure since the September 11 attacks, al-Qaeda has increasingly relied on the internet to spread its message and gain support throughout the world. In addition, al-Qaeda has used the web's broad reach, timely efficiency, and certain degree of anonymity and security as a conduit for

Institute senior fellow Mehdi Khalaji and Ira Weiner fellow Michael Singh participated in a roundtable-style special hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the political crisis in Iran. Watch U.S. Senate video of this event (the hearing begins at 36:30).

At the end of June, Iraq is expected to award service contracts to international oil companies in an effort to boost production at six of the country's giant oil fields. The twenty-year contracts not only are part of a development program intended to nearly triple Iraq's oil production, they also

On June 18, 2009, David Crist and Steven Ward addressed a special Policy Forum at The Washington Institute to discuss the lessons that Iran and the United States drew from their military encounters in the 1980s. David Crist is senior historian for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

The growing number of weapons caches, bomb-making materiel, and rocket-launching facilities discovered by coalition forces in the Iraqi province of Maysan underscores the ongoing sophistication and scale of so-called "Special Groups." These groups consist of Shiite Arab militants who draw on Iranian cross-border logistical support, training, shelter, and funding to

Iran's fraudulent election and subsequent civil strife demonstrate that, whatever that country's people think about President Obama's desire for mutual respect, the Iranian government is determined to obstruct exactly that goal. Meanwhile, on the Arab side of the Gulf, President Obama's major address to the world's Muslims from Cairo and

On June 17, 2009, Rep. Howard Berman and David Makovsky addressed a special Policy Forum at The Washington Institute to mark the publication of Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East, coauthored by David Makovsky and Dennis Ross. Representative Berman (D-CA) is the

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's Friday sermon, which called for an end to mass protests contesting the outcome of last week's presidential elections and which carried an implicit threat of "bloodshed and chaos" if they continued, has raised the stakes in the ongoing standoff between the government and opposition in Iran. The

On On June 16, 2009, Mehdi Khalaji, Mohsen Sazegara, Patrick Clawson, and Michael Singh addressed a special Policy Forum at The Washington Institute to discuss the disputed reelection of Iran's incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad on June 12 amid a wave of mass protests and charges of vote rigging. Mehdi Khalaji

While the remarkable turmoil in the aftermath of Iran's presidential election has captured the world's attention, other news relating to Iran has slipped by relatively unnoticed. Last week, the head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency told Congress that Iran and North Korea were cooperating on ballistic missiles. Diplomats in

In order to force French government to lift objections to EU membership, Turkey must tackle a misperception among French citizens. The French equate Turkey to the Maghreb. There is anxiety among the French that bringing Turkey into the EU would be akin to bringing the Maghreb, a poor area rife

The New York Times convened an online panel of four Middle East experts to discuss the Obama administration's response to the landslide victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 Iranian presidential elections. The following is a contribution by Washington Institute senior fellow Mehdi Khalaji, who focuses on Iranian politics

With Iranians still blaming the U.S. for a coup in 1953, it might be understandable why President Obama has been low-key in dealing with the violence and disputed results of the Iranian election. He wants to deprive the mullahs of an enemy in their faceoff with hundreds of thousands of

Newsflash: Turkey has a pivotal opportunity in its battle against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, the kind that only occurs once every thousand years. Since the PKK's establishment in the 1970s, it has focused its operational strategy on Turkey, utilizing foreign countries and state sponsors of terror along

On March 24, 2009, the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, the U.S. Department of State's International Information Programs in Washington D.C., and the Public Affairs Office at the U.S. Embassy in Israel jointly held an international videoconference seminar focusing on reform and democracy in the Gulf States, featuring

In mid-June, a group of tourists visiting Yemen's tribal areas were brutally murdered by terrorists most likely connected to al-Qaeda. This tragic event underscores a particularly difficult challenge for the United States and its allies: as al-Qaeda's activities are undermined in one part of the world, it adapts and moves

On March 24, 2009, the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, the U.S. Department of State's International Information Programs in Washington D.C., and the Public Affairs Office at the U.S. Embassy in Israel jointly held an international videoconference seminar focusing on reform and democracy in the Gulf States, featuring

On June 7, Lebanon's pro-West March 14 coalition surprised the world by defeating the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance in parliamentary elections. Although March 14 was the incumbent, the coalition was widely seen as the underdog vis-a-vis its Iranian- and Syrian-backed opponents. The victory not only returns the March 14 coalition

Instead of choosing a leader who will coax it back to engagement with the world, the government in Tehran will be led for another four years by the small-minded Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. The brave protests by supporters of defeated electoral rival Mirhossein Mousavi could peter out soon. Ahmedinejad's thugs have few