by Eldar Mamedov On June 5-7, a cross-party group of members of the European Parliament visited Iran as a confidence-building measure ahead of the June 30 deadline for a final deal on Iran´s nuclear program. The fact that both sides took this… Continue Reading
by Henry Johnson In an impressively detailed report on the president’s budget request for FY2016, experts at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) make it clear that President Obama has prioritized the security of authoritarian regimes in the Middle… Continue Reading
by Emile Nakleh In the early morning of Wednesday April 29, the Saudi King Salman issued 25 royal decrees announcing major succession and other personnel changes that created shockwaves in Saudi Arabia and across the Arab world. These decrees were… Continue Reading
by Eldar Mamedov One advantage of inter-parliamentary exchanges is that MPs have much more leeway than diplomats to speak their minds. When MPs represent authoritarian states, they can be counted on to candidly reflect the official position—otherwise they would not… Continue Reading
by Paul R. Pillar A strong Manichean streak runs through American perceptions of the outside world. That streak involves a habit of seeing all conflict and instability in binomial terms, a presumption that one of the perceived two sides is… Continue Reading