Middle East

The Soft Side of Regime Change

On Trita Parsi’s A Single Roll of the Dice.

  • Flynt Leverett
  • Hillary Mann Leverett

Outing Iran

Publishing news of discrimination against homosexuals in Iran.

  • David William Turner

Poetry Fights Back

Modern Pashtun poetry is a poetry of resistance.

  • Shaheen Buneri

Politics by Other Means

The Egyptian uprising has been rightly celebrated as a momentous event.

  • Mona El-Ghobashy

What State? Whose Authority?

Palestinians are ambivalent about statehood bid.

  • Mya Guarnieri

Regime Change Doesn’t Work

History shows that forcing rulers from power rarely works. Even apparently successful regime changes often leads to bitter civil war.

  • Alexander B. Downes
with responses from
  • Greg Grandin
  • Neta C. Crawford
  • James D. Fearon
  • Mary Kaldor
  • John Tirman
  • Tod Lindberg
  • Joanne Landy

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End of the Road

News of Osama bin Laden’s killing by U.S. special forces has sunk in. News of al Qaeda’s demise has not.

  • Fawaz A. Gerges

Underground In Beirut

A Syrian activist continues the fight from Lebanon.

  • Josh Wood

A Beautiful Place

I was fifteen when we left Palestine in the summer of 2000, just a few months before the al Aqsa Intifada.

  • Ahmed Moor

A Too-Modest Proposal

A Palestinian peacemaker gives up on politics.

  • Avner Inbar
  • Assaf Sharon

In Tahrir

The Egyptian revolution, viewed from the center of Cairo.

  • Ahmed Moor

Sturdy Green Thread

Yearning for democracy in Iran

  • Sara Irani

The Miners

Kept underground in Evin Prison. 

  • Sara Irani

The Gentleman Thief

A short story by the 2009 Bita Prize winner.

  • Goli Taraghi

Between Two Worlds

Goli Taraghi accepts the Bita Prize.

  • Goli Taraghi

Dreaming of a Free Iran

Akbar Ganji accepts the Friedman Prize.

  • Akbar Ganji
  • Hamid Dabashi

Beating Bad Karma

Iran’s crisis offers an opportunity for real change.

  • Abbas Milani

Common Cause

Real help for Iranian democrats.

  • Abbas Milani

Al Qaeda in Lebanon

The Iraq War spreads.

  • Nir Rosen

Pious Populist

Understanding the rise of Iran’s president.

  • Abbas Milani

Half a Man

Gender apartheid in Iran.

  • Akbar Ganji

The View from Tehran

Changing Iran from within.

  • Akbar Ganji

Nuclear Freeze

The Middle East and global arms control.

  • Hans Blix

Carrots and Sticks

Remarks from the U.S. Under Secretary of State.

  • R. Nicholas Burns
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