Current Analysis Protest and Regime Resilience in Iran The largest pro-reform demonstrations since the summer of 1999 roiled Tehran on December 7-10, as student protesters press ahead with plans to hold campus referendums on the legitimacy of unelected bodies of conservative clergy that wield great power in the country's political system. On December 7, Iranian security Bijan Khajehpour • 7 min read
Current Analysis The Upcoming Elections in Israel On November 19, 2002, Amram Mitzna, a former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general who now serves as mayor of Haifa, soundly defeated another retired general, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, the incumbent Labor party leader and former Defense Minister, in the Labor party primaries. Mitzna will face yet another Yoav Peled • 9 min read
Current Analysis Occupied Maan An expanded campaign to silence outspoken critics of the Jordanian government has followed the October 20 assassination of USAID official Lawrence Foley in Amman. On the pretext of unsubstantiated speculation that Foley's killing was orchestrated by a group of Islamist militants, the regime has arrested foreign and local Jillian Schwedler • 9 min read
Current Analysis The Fight for Iran's Democratic Ideals Over the weekend thousands of Iranian students continued their protests to demand political reform. Their voices were raised in support of Hashem Aghajari, the college professor who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy. But the student movement is broader than dissent over one injustice. Saeed Razavi-Faqih, Ian Urbina • 2 min read
Current Analysis Ground Shifting Under Mullahs After a court in Iran sentenced dissident academic Hashem Aghajari to death for challenging clerical rule, several thousand university students took to the streets in Tehran. They protested for about two weeks before the government threatened to crack down and declare a state of emergency. No one ha Ian Urbina • 4 min read
Current Analysis Broadcast Ruse "Word got around the department that I was a good Arabic translator who did a great Saddam imitation," recalls the Harvard grad student. "Eventually, someone phoned me asking if I wanted to help change the course of Iraq policy." So twice a week, for $3000 a month, the Iraqi student tells the Voice Ian Urbina • 6 min read
Current Analysis Up in Arms JERUSALEM — Unemployment and inflation are skyrocketing in Israel, but fear and paranoia are also soaring, and so business is booming for gun dealers and security companies. Israeli society is becoming so militarized that hosts of weddings and bar mitzvahs sometimes can’t attract guests unless they Ian Urbina • 5 min read
Current Analysis Is the US Ready for Democracy in the Mideast? Those in favor of an Iraq invasion argue that a regime change will be the first step in bringing democracy to the Middle East. But unnoticed in all the recent national focus on Iraq, recent elections in Morocco, Bahrain, Turkey and Pakistan indicate that democracy, albeit in small increments, has al Ian Urbina • 3 min read
Current Analysis Snipers and the Panic Over Five Percent Islamic Hip-Hop A number of media stories have raised the possibility that certain clues indicate a connection between arrested sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo and an African-American Islamic group calling itself the Nation of Gods and Earths but commonly known as the Five Percenters. These clues are also Ted Swedenburg • 7 min read
Current Analysis Poetic Injustice In its war against terrorism, the United States has trumpeted its intentions to spread democracy in a region where there is little. Many around the globe remain skeptical about whether toppling leaders is an effective method for cultivating a respect for the rule of law and a liberalization of the p Ian Urbina • 3 min read
Current Analysis Letter from France Despite intense pressure from Washington, several weeks into negotiations at the Security Council of the United Nations, France is holding to its position on how to resolve the current crisis in international policy toward Iraq. As stated by the minister of foreign affairs before the National Assembly, France prefers a Jean-Paul Chagnollaud • 6 min read
Current Analysis Elections in Pakistan The results of Pakistan's October 10 elections to the national and provincial assemblies—the first such contests since Gen. Pervez Musharraf grabbed power in a bloodless coup in 1999—seem to have surprised many observers both within and outside the country. On election night and the morning after, Shahnaz Rouse • 8 min read
