Militant Clergy—the Future of Shia Islam?

by Saeid Golkar Mohammad Aqamiri might be the first-ever Shia cleric from Iran who martyred himself in Syria after the Syrian uprising. While studying and teaching at Qom Seminary in 2013, Aqamiri enlisted in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and died defending the holy shrine… Continue Reading

Lessons from America’s Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East

by Chas W. Freeman Twenty-six years ago, when the elder President Bush asked me to be his ambassador to Saudi Arabia, he assured me that “nothing much ever happens in Arabia.”  That had been the case for quite a while. … Continue Reading

Don’t Ally with Saudi Arabia against Russia

by Eldar Mamedov While the usual suspects flood the US media with ideas on how to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin over his audacious move in Syria, the European Parliament adopted a new resolution on October 8 on the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia.… Continue Reading

Where Hope Becomes Desperation

by Henry Precht Katmandu, Baltimore, the Mediterranean Sea, Yemen, Syria—it has been a grim week of news from around the globe. If we looked a bit further back for the same kind of dark headlines, we could add the migration of… Continue Reading

Obama to the GCC: Getting the Message Right

by Robert E. Hunter On May 13-14, President Barack Obama will host leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at the White House and Camp David. Ostensibly, the meeting is to try convincing these intense skeptics of nuclear negotiations with… Continue Reading