The Politics of Hostage-Taking in Iran

by Mansour Farhang The day that Iranian students attacked the U. S. embassy in Tehran— November 4, 1979—marks a durably contentious date in US–Iranian relations. Henry Kissinger once described Iran under the late Shah as “that rarest of things in international… Continue Reading

Kissinger on the Middle East: Old Wine in Old Bottles

by Robert E. Hunter Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger last held political office 39 years ago. Yet he remains foreign policy’s pundit primus inter pares in the United States if not also the world. Like the old E. F.… Continue Reading

Is Putin Really as Foolish as We Are?

by John Feffer Nixon lied. Surely this is not a shocker. But what’s interesting about the latest revelation concerning Nixon and Vietnam is that the most duplicitous president in U.S. history actually knew that the U.S. air war in Southeast… Continue Reading

Henry of Arabia

by Greg Grandin The only person Henry Kissinger flattered more than President Richard Nixon was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. In the early 1970s, the Shah, sitting atop an enormous reserve of increasingly expensive oil and a key… Continue Reading

Washington’s Great Game and Why It’s Failing

by Alfred McCoy For even the greatest of empires, geography is often destiny. You wouldn’t know it in Washington, though. America’s political, national security, and foreign policy elites continue to ignore the basics of geopolitics that have shaped the fate… Continue Reading