RealClearWorld

Most Recent Articles

To Weaken Iran, Start With Syria - Efraim Halevy, New York Times

Iran's foothold in Syria enables the mullahs in Tehran to pursue their reckless and violent regional policies - and its presence there must be ended....

A Post-American World? Not Quite - Victor Davis Hanson, National Review

As far as the 21st century goes, compared to the alternatives, it is more likely that we are in a pre-American than a post-American age....

How We Learned Not to Fear China's Bomb - Dan Gardner, Ottawa Citizen

Of course Maoist China is not theocratic Iran. This history does not conclusively prove that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would not end in tragedy. But it is a warning. ...

Israel Can't Take on Iran Alone - Jeffrey Goldberg, Bloomberg

On Sept. 4, 2003, three Israeli air force F-15s flew low over the gates of the former death camp at Auschwitz. On the ground -- on the train tracks, in fact, leading to the gas ch...

Israel and Iran: Countdown to War - Benny Morris, The National Interest

Israel's strategy for the Iranian nuclear weapons program is working - but it's unlikely to solve the problem, or solve it in time....

Can a Nuclear Iran Be Deterred? - Amitai Etzioni, CNN

There is a growing interest among U.S. foreign policy officials and scholars in deterring Iran; that is, in tolerating a nuclear armed Iran but keeping it at bay by threatening i...

The Biggest News from the Mideast Today - Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic

The most important news out of the Middle East is not the Hamas-PA Agreement 4.0 (or 5.0 or 6.0, who can remember?). For various reasons, it doesn't seem likely to work (you can ...

Iranians Expect to Feel Sanctions - Gallup

As the U.S. orders more economic sanctions against Iran, a new Gallup poll finds nearly two-thirds of Iranians think recent sanctions that the United Nations, the U.S., and Western...

U.S. Reasonableness on Iran Run Amok - Richard Cohen, Washington Post

Where is the evidence to suggest that the men who now run Iran will slap their foreheads, say zowie (in Farsi) and conclude that they were wrong to pursue a nuclear weapons program...

An Unthinkable Conflict Between Iran, Israel - Patrick Smith, Fiscal Times

The guessing game as to whether sanctions imposed last month against Iran for its nuclear program will work is over. They are already working. This past week the Iranian foreign m...

Iran's First Target Might Be Arab - Evelyn Gordon, Contentions

As Jonathan noted, the New York Times seems determined to downplay Iran’s verbal threats against Israel, first eliminating them from its report on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s...

Uniting the Iranian Opposition - Geneive Abdo, CNN

The speculation over whether Israel will attack Iran this spring is having an unintended consequence: It’s bringing Iranian opposition groups together....

Russia, Iran Are Intervening, Why Not Us? - Michael Weiss, Telegraph

“Michael, I swear we are getting slaughtered.” I had asked Alaa al-Sheikh, the spokesman for the Khaled Bin Waleed brigade of Syrian rebels, to give me an overview of what’s...

Why Israel Is Right to Fear Iran - Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic

But since the worldwide conversation has turned again toward the alleged imminence of an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, I asked Adam Chandler, the Goldblog Deputy-E...

Russia May Get its Way on Iran, Too - Tony Karon, Time

Russia has drawn a line in the sand on Syria with implications for Western action against Iran....

Israel and Iran on Eve of Destruction - Niall Ferguson, Newsweek

It probably felt a bit like this in the months before the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel launched its hugely successful preemptive strike against Egypt and its allies. Forty-five...

Iran Will Strike Back if Attacked - Inside Iran

Will Iran retaliate if attacked? Israeli intelligence officials and neo-conservative pundits in the United States argue that Iran is bluffing – that it wouldn’t dare. But on Tu...

There's Still Time for Sanctions to Force Iran's Hand - The National

Vitriol makes good headlines, but shouldn't be confused with policy. There is still reason to believe that patience and pragmatism will win the day....

Iran Attack Could Fray U.S.-Israel Ties - Trudy Rubin, Philly Inquirer

A premature strike would jeopardize U.S. interests, while failing to achieve Israel's goal of destroying the Iranian program. The unintended consequences of such a strike could f...

Trading Threats With Iran - New York Times

The posturing and saber rattling from both Iran and Israel are getting frightening....

Iran's Mystery Nuclear Scientist - Natalie Nougayrede, Le Monde

He is the mysterious man behind Iran’s nuclear program, the invisible “boss” of the military program at the heart of current Middle East tensions. His name is Moh...

Envisioning a Deal With Iran - Luers & Pickering, New York Times

“IF you deal in camels, make the doors high,” an Afghan proverb cautions. As the dangers mount in the confrontation between the United States and Iran, both sides will have to...

Israel Won't Rest Until Hezbollah Annihilated - Con Coughlin, Telegraph

It is the front line of Israel’s deepening conflict with Iran, and beneath the snow-capped peaks of Mount Hermon the final preparations are taking shape for a conflict that prom...

Syria Offers Chance to Weaken Iran - Charles Krauthammer, Wash Post

His fall would deprive Iran of an intra-Arab staging area and sever its corridor to the Mediterranean. Syria would return to the Sunni fold. Hezbollah, Tehran's agent in Lebanon,...

Israel's Iran Threats All Hype? - Flynt & Hillary Mann Leverett, Race 4 Iran

Today, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius devoted his column, see here, to growing concerns within the Obama Administration that “Israel will attack Iran militarily over th...

Is Israel Preparing to Attack Iran? - David Ignatius, Washington Post

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has a lot on his mind these days, from cutting the defense budget to managing the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But his biggest worry is th...

How to Handle an Iran-Induced Oil Crisis - Council on Foreign Relations

Confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program has prompted worries that escalation could lead to massive oil market disruptions. In this Energy Brief, Robert McNally outlines se...

Is the Bahrain Uprising Sponsored by Iran? - Michael Rubin, Contentions

When the British evacuated the region, the United Nations brokered a referendum on Bahrain's future, and the vast majority—of both Sunni and Shi’ites—chose inde...

Israel's Profound Choice on Iran - Chuck Freilich, Los Angeles Times

In the end it will come down to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His senior officials will make their cases, but he alone will have to make one of the most critical decisions inI...

History Shows Talking to Iran Won't Work - Reza Kahlili, CS Monitor

President Obama, in his State of the Union Address, said he will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and that all options to prevent that are on the table. More importantl...

Japan's Iran Dilemma - Sheila Smith, Asia Unbound

Cutting off Iranian oil imports has put Tokyo in a difficult position. The United States and its European allies have already agreed to up the ante on sanctions against Iran, but t...

Deploy Credible Military Force to Deter Iran - Bipartisan Policy Center

This is BPC’s fourth report on the most immediate national security challenge facing our nation: Iran’s continued progress towards nuclear weapons capability. Despite p...

Oman: America's Quiet Go-Between on Iran - Judith Miller, Fox News

Oman's ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, a longtime, discreet intermediary with Iran, says that Iran is seriously seeking a way out of American-led sanctions over its nuclear program...

How Obama Became Vulnerable on Iran - Trita Parsi, Salon

The Republican primary debates have revealed what was long suspected: The foreign policy issue that will dominate the general elections will be Iran. This is not surprising. Iran ...

Why Wars U.S. Wages Often Go Wrong - Jim Powell, Forbes

Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylife Drums are beating for a pre-emptive war to take out such nuclear facilities as Iran might have. But considerable caution is in or...

Saudi Arabia's Role in Syria - Roula Khalaf, Financial Times

Saudi Arabia prefers to work in the shadows, flexing its diplomatic weight without attracting too much attention. So it is surprising that its veteran foreign minister, Prince Saud...

Hamas Hasn't Been Hurt by Syria's Fall - Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post

Commentators claim that Turkey’s sponsorship of Hamas was necessitated by Iran’s abandonment of the terror group. Iran, it is claimed, cut Hamas off in August due to the Pale...

China Courts the Middle East - Dilip Hiro, Yale Global

As a country importing 11 percent of its oil from Iran, the latest American and European move to isolate Iran has put China in a quandary. Should it join the West with which it has...

Obama's Special Forces Fascination - Richard Weitz, The Diplomat

Barack Obama's attraction to unconventional operations has perhaps only been rivaled by John F. Kennedy. But plans for a floating base have their limits....

How Do States Act After They Get Nukes? - James Fearon, The Monkey Cage

All this talk about a possible US and/or Israeli preventive war against Iran got me wondering about the historical record concerning the conflict behavior of states after they acq...

Debt and Oil: Double Jeopardy for Europe - Patrick Smith, Fiscal Times

It looks as though we have a deal between Greece and its private-sector creditors, and not a moment too soon. The announced agreement over the weekend ended months of handwringing...

Obama vs. the Hawks on Iran - Leon Hadar, The National Interest

The mainstream media is again reporting the conventional wisdom: A nuclear Iran would pose a direct threat to U.S. security interests and an “existential threat” to Israel, an...

Hamas Breaks With Iran, Loses Sponsor - Paul Scham, The National Interest

One of the most enduring epithets for Hamas, right up there with "terrorist," is "proxy." If you Google "Hamas Iran proxy," you get 1,750,000 hits. The idea that the relationship...

The Iranian Nuclear Timeline - Iran Tracker

Iran is at the threshold of a nuclear weapons capability. Sanctions, direct action, and diplomatic tools have neither changed Iran’s nuclear policy nor had a visible effect o...

Iran's Close Ties to al-Qaeda - Seth Jones, Foreign Affairs

Virtually unnoticed, since late 2001, Iran has held some of the most senior leaders of al Qaeda. Several of these operatives, such as Yasin al-Suri, an al Qaeda facilitator, have m...

How Obama Should Handle Iran - Leslie Gelb, The Daily Beast

As the U.S. and Iran inch ever closer to war, here is what Obama should do....

Patience Needed on Iran - Steve Coll, New Yorker

While all options may be on the table, patience will most likely win the day against Iran....

Israel Won't Attack Iran - Barry Rubin, Jerusalem Post

The radio superhero The Shadow had the power to “cloud men’s minds.” But nothing clouds men’s minds like anything that has to do with Jews or Israel. For many centuries, bi...

No More Leading from Behind for America - Rick Santorum, RealClearWorld

My passion for protecting and preserving freedom is a gift that comes to me from my grandfather, an immigrant who brought my father to this country and whose well-weathered hands ...

Arab Spring May Benefit Israel - Jonathan Schanzer, Jerusalem Post

To be sure, the Great Arab Revolt could still produce regimes that threaten Israel. But not yet....

Ahmadinejad Adviser Arrested

A simmering rivalry between Iran’s president and powerful adversaries within the conservative hierarchy spilled into the open on Monday when security forces briefly arrested ...

Iran

Related Videos