Tag Archives: Iran

Tony Walker, La Trobe University The 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington carries with it two punctuation marks. The first are the attacks themselves on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. These shocked a country that was both psychologically and physically unprepared for such a brazen assault on American soil. The second …

Mourners at the funeral for Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani burn Israeli and U.S. flags. Hamid Vakili/NurPhoto via Getty Images Bear F. Braumoeller, The Ohio State University Despite the claims of optimists, the odds that an international conflict will snowball into a bloody war haven’t gone down significantly since the end of World War II. Trump administration officials’ confidence that the …

Jacqueline L. Hazelton, US Naval War College How do you feel about drone strikes? Chances are you have an opinion – or at least a gut reaction. Years of debate on the issue show that many Americans have reservations. People are concerned that drone strikes devalue non-American lives, dangerously expand executive power, and drive terrorism and anti-Americanism. Yet do we …

Every soldier has a different story. Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images Marian Eide, Texas A&M University Military service members returning from America’s “forever” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have often faced deeply personal questions about their experience. As one veteran explained to me: “I’ve been asked, ‘Have you ever killed anyone in war? Are you messed up at all?’” “I …

Christoph Bluth, University of Bradford The likelihood of Iran imminently developing a nuclear arsenal has been the subject of a great deal of speculation recently after Israeli defence minister, Benny Gantz, told the UN Security Council on August 4 that “Iran … is only around ten weeks away from acquiring weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon”. “Now is the …

Scott Lucas, University of Birmingham All the standard public relations ploys were in evidence for the recent meeting between Syria’s leader Bashar al-Assad and Russian envoy Alexander Lavrentiev in Damascus. More than 230 officials from 30 federal executive bodies, five Russian regions, and the Russian defence ministry had trekked to the Syrian capital. There were 15 agreements and memorandums on …

Ebrahim Raisi, seen here during a 2017 rally, is expected to win Iran’s presidential election. AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi Nader Habibi, Brandeis University Iran’s conservative rulers’ effort to orchestrate the outcome of the June 18 presidential election triggered a voter boycott – but the result may still bode well for ongoing negotiations over the lapsed 2015 nuclear deal. Iran’s Interior Ministry …

A poster of Ebrahim Raisi, the conservative head of the judiciary, who is frontrunner to be Iran’s next president. Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA Pooyan Tamimi Arab, Utrecht University and Ammar Maleki, Tilburg University The Islamic Republic of Iran has never organised free and fair elections since its establishment in 1979. By definition, the combination of modern totalitarianism and Iran’s Islamic theocracy, with …

Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Gemma Ware, The Conversation In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, ahead of Iran’s presidential elections later this month, we look at why so many Iranians are planning not to vote. And why light pollution is ruining the romantic mood for fireflies – and how you can help. Iranians are about to get the chance …

Regional powerplay: the nuclear deal has complex implications for the regin. Dilok Klaisataporn via Shutterstock Ali Bilgic, Loughborough University As Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, speculation was rife that one of the first things his administration would do would be to seek re-entry to the Iran nuclear deal that had been quit …