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Middle East

Global Justice

Mourning in Tehran

On Ashura, Shi’a Muslims grieve the Prophet’s grandson. But with Iran crippled by COVID-19 and U.S. sanctions, it was also an occasion this year to mourn the country’s deaths from disease and despair.

Nargol Aran

Global Justice, War & Security

The Beirut That Was

The explosion was only the latest tragedy in the city’s long decline.

Helena Cobban

Global Justice

Letter from Beirut

In the wake of the devastating explosion, civil society has shown the way forward—filling the void of a nonexistent and incapacitated state.

Joelle M. Abi-Rached

Global Justice, Politics

Sanctions Are Inhumane—Now, and Always

In a world imperiled by global pandemic, it is long past time to put an end to sanctions—including new ones against Iran—and to reconstruct U.S. foreign policy around international solidarity.

Aslı U. Bâli, Aziz Rana

Politics, War & Security

Rambo Politics from Reagan to Trump

In linking the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Trump invokes a fantasy of poetic justice—positioning himself as Rambo, the avenger of American humiliation abroad.

Bonnie Honig

War & Security

The Sanctions Game

Donald Trump's “maximum pressure” strategy is doomed to fail, especially as tensions rise between Iran and the United States.

Masoud Movahed

Politics

The Anti-Defamation League Is Not What It Seems

Under the guise of fighting hate speech, the ADL has a long history of wielding its moral authority to attack Arabs, blacks, and queers.

Emmaia Gelman

Politics

Two-State Head, One-State Heart

For a two-state solution to succeed, Israeli Jews must first forswear their righteous narrative of moral superiority.

Jeremy Pressman

War & Security

The U.S. Debt to Syria

With Assad preparing a major offensive on the last rebel stronghold, the United States must offer a path forward. 

Aslı U. Bâli, Aziz Rana

Politics

Erdogan’s Ottomania

In a bid to consolidate power, Erdoğan is reshaping Turkish politics in the image of the Ottoman past.

M. Hakan Yavuz

War & Security

Remember Syria?

As the Trump–Putin summit made clear, U.S. policy in Syria has always been about grand strategy—never about what would actually help the people on the ground.

Aslı U. Bâli, Aziz Rana

War & Security

A Kurdish Problem

Kurds—the largest stateless ethnic group in the world—can be found on all sides of an increasingly complex conflict that stretches across Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

Umar Farooq

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