Current Analysis Tehran, June 2009 The morning after Iran’s June 12 presidential election, Iranians booted up their computers to find Fars News, the online mouthpiece of the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus, heralding the dawn of a “third revolution.” Many an ordinary Iranian, and many a Western pundit, had already adopted such Kaveh Ehsani, Norma Claire Moruzzi, Arang Keshavarzian • 19 min read
Current Analysis An Artist as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran? Something’s happening here. In one of the largest street demonstrations in Tehran since the 1979 revolution, thousands filled Vali Asr Street (formerly known as Pahlavi Street) on Monday, forming a human chain nearly 12 miles long and stopping traffic for nearly five hours. They wore strips of green Shiva Balaghi • 7 min read
Current Analysis Old Wine in Older Skins On June 8, when all votes are cast and counted between the glitzy urban quarters of Beirut and the dusty hamlets of the Bekaa valley, the Lebanese elections will have produced one certain winner: the local advertising industry. Despite a newly imposed cap on campaign spending, candidates have been f Heiko Wimmen • 17 min read
Current Analysis The Shi‘a of Saudi Arabia at a Crossroads Deep in the morass of YouTube lies a disturbing video clip recorded in late February at the cemetery of al-Baqi‘ and on surrounding streets in Medina, Saudi Arabia. An initial caption promises images of “desecration of graves.” Al-Baqi‘, located next to the mosque of the prophet Muhammad in the seco Toby Matthiesen • 16 min read
Current Analysis Pakistan’s Troubled “Paradise on Earth” Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in areas of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as the army has launched ground operations and air raids to “eliminate and expel” the Islamist militant groups commonly known as the Tehreek-e Taliban or the Taliban in Pakistan (TIP). The ta Kamran Asdar Ali • 12 min read
Current Analysis Western Sahara Poser for UN Morocco serves as the backdrop for such Hollywood blockbusters as Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Body of Lies. The country’s breathtaking landscapes and gritty urban neighbourhoods are the perfect setting for Hollywood’s imagination. Unbeknown to most filmgoers, however, is that Morocco is embroile Jacob Mundy • 3 min read
Current Analysis The Reawakened Specter of Iraqi Civil War April has already been a cruel month in Iraq. A spate of bombings aimed at Shi‘i civilians in Baghdad has raised fears that the grim sectarian logic that led the capital to civil war in 2005-2007 will reassert itself. On April 6, a string of six car bombs killed at least 37 people; the next day, sho Michael Wahid Hanna • 12 min read
Current Analysis Bouteflika’s Triumph and Algeria’s Tragedy Shoes and pants soaked with rain, I tagged along with a journalist from the popular Arabic daily Echorouk—his paper my umbrella—while he visited polling stations in the Belcourt neighborhood of Algiers on the day of local elections in November 2007. At the first site, disgruntled party officials qui Jacob Mundy • 14 min read
Current Analysis Introducing Algeria’s President-for-Life Across nearly the breadth of North Africa, the head of state enjoys a lifetime appointment. Morocco has a king. In Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, president since 1987, pushed for a constitutional amendment removing term limits and has now announced a bid for a fifth term in office. President Husn Ahmed Aghrout, Yahia Zoubir • 13 min read
Current Analysis Letters, He Gets Letters Shortly before assuming office, President Barack Obama was handed a missive signed by such Washington luminaries as ex-national security advisers Zbigniew Brezezinski and Brent Scowcroft, urging him to “explore the possibility” of direct contact with Hamas. One month after he entered the White House Chris Toensing • 3 min read
Current Analysis The Hazy Path Forward in Sudan On the day after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the wanted man addressed a pre-planned rally of thousands in front of the presidential palace in Khartoum. Bashir was defiant, denouncing the warrant as “neo-colonialism,” and prai Sarah Washburne • 13 min read
Current Analysis Bring In the Dead Beating their chests and wearing black, a procession of young men and women filed toward the gates of Tehran’s Amir Kabir Polytechnic University on February 23. The mourners -- drawn primarily from the ranks of the Basij militia and unaffiliated hardline Islamist vigilantes -- were carrying the rema Rasmus Christian Elling • 16 min read
