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5 World Events Could Swing U.S. Election - Uri Friedman, Foreign Policy

In January, the Pew Research Center concluded that the American public is more concerned with domestic policy than at any point in the past 15 years. But every politician lives in ...

Iran Hawks Flap Harder - Jim Lobe, Asia Times

As at least two days of talks on the future of Iran's nuclear program got underway in Baghdad on Wednesday, ...

Syrian Rebels Up Against Much More than Assad - Charles Rizk, Daily Star

China, Russia and Iran support for Bashar Assad makes a Western military intervention in Syria impossible, given the likely catastrophic repercussions for all concerned. In the e...

Booming, Modern Tehran Defies Stereotypes - Paul Koring, Globe and Mail

Big, boisterous and booming, Tehran defies the caricature so often painted in the West portraying Iran as a repressed, bitter, colourless society, throttled by sanctions and in t...

A Flicker of Optimism on Iran - Robert Dreyfuss, The Diplomat

There’s a flicker of optimism about the May 23 talks in Baghdad between Iran, the P5+1 world powers, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over Iran’s nuclear prog...

A Lull in the Drift Toward War with Iran? - Aaron David Miller, CNN

Whatever the outcome of this week's talks in Baghdad, there will be no war with Iran in 2012 and no comprehensive deal on the nuclear issue either. Sanctions have forced the Iran...

Stakes Higher than Ever for Netanyahu - Thomas Friedman, NY Times

He avoided early elections by adding a new centrist coalition partner to his right-wing cabinet, giving him control of 96 of the 120 seats in Parliament. There are Arab dictators...

Is the West About to Bend to Iran? - Gerecht & Dubowitz, Washington Post

The euphoria in Western and certain Israeli circles that Judgment Day has been avoided will vanish rapidly as it becomes obvious how much Khamenei can cheat with this new standar...

Sea Treaty Would Usurp U.S. Navy - Sens. Inhofe, Wicker & Sessions, Politico

The U.S. Navy has been the master of the seven seas since World War II, the pre-eminent maritime force. It seems odd, then, that Navy leadership has long pressed for what amounts t...

For Iran, It's Sticks Now, Carrots Later - The Economist

Iran is back at the negotiating table. But trust in its diplomacy and in its theological utterances about nuclear weapons is fragile....

Reflections on the Iranian Challenge - CSIS

As the world works to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, there is widespread agreement on what failure looks like. It is an Iranian bomb—or, more likely, a number...

Iran Talks Have One Goal: Stop Israel - Danielle Pletka, The Enterprise Blog

Baghdad is all atwitter over the P-5+1 talks with Iran beginning today. A sandstorm kept many European and Western diplomats from landing, but the Iranians were out in full force, ...

The Nixon Option for Iran - Luers & Pickering, Project Syndicate

Rearranging the deck chairs would not have saved the Titanic. Nor did the endless debates on the shape of the table in the Vietnam negotiations advance the effort to end that malig...

Before a War, Keep Oil Embargo on Iran - Michael Burleigh, Daily Mail

Today Iranian negotiators are meeting representatives of the U.S., China, Russia, UK, France and Germany in Baghdad with EU chief foreign affairs head Baroness Ashton in the chair....

Don't Believe Israel's Generals - Makovsky & Holt-Ivry, Foreign Policy

This week, the world's major powers resumed negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Should they fail, the specter of a possible Israeli strike looms large, seeming to grow...

Romney & Obama Have the Same Foreign Policy - Aaron David Miller, FP

Ignore what the candidates say they'll do differently on foreign policy. They're basically the same man....

U.S. Must Engage Russia to Tame Iran - Robert Merry, The National Interest

There are many reasons to lament the wary state of relations between the United States and Russia—and between President Obama and Russian president Putin—but the most gnawing ...

Baghdad Talks a Critical Test for Iran Diplomacy - Haaretz

This week's Baghdad summit is not only an effort to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat, but also to neutralize the Israeli strategic threat....

A Global 'No' to a Nuclear Iran - Pew Research Center

A 21-nation Pew Global Attitudes survey finds widespread opposition to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. And in most countries, there is majority support among opponents of a nuclear...

Reaching a Deal with Iran - Oxford Research Group

One of the most pressing questions in international diplomacy is whether it is possible to reach a comprehensive agreement to end the impasse surrounding Iran’s nuclear progr...

Beware 'Successful' Talks with Iran - Amitai Etzioni, The New Republic

With the next round of nuclear negotiations with Iran set to begin on Wednesday, commentators are increasingly optimistic that they will succeed. There has, however, been an alar...

Iran Talks Irrelevant to Israel - Geneive Abdo, CNN

Iran is set for nuclear talks Wednesday with members of the U.N. Security Council, and the Obama administration, as well as some Iranian and European Union officials, expressed ...

Turkey's New Course Between East, West - Abdullah Gul, Project Syndicate

Turkey has recently been at the forefront of international economic and political debates. On the one hand, despite the economic crisis engulfing neighboring Europe, Turkey rema...

5 Iran Sites That Could Spark War - Spencer Ackerman, Danger Room

This week, the U.S. and its allies will sit down with some of their arch-nemeses: the Iranians. The meeting in Baghdad is the definition of high stakes, as 2012 has been characte...

How to Avoid U.S.-Iran War - Matthew Bunn & Abbas Maleki, Foreign Policy

Observers would be forgiven for dismissing negotiations over Iran's nuclear program as Kabuki theater. Despite years of on-again, off-again efforts, after all, fears of war continu...

Rethink the Russian Reset - The Economist

America's missile-defence plans are aimed at Iran, not Russia. But they are also a token of transatlantic seriousness about Europe. Any suggestion of making them a bargaining chi...

For Iran 'Breakthrough,' Coalition Must Survive - Vali Nasr, Bloomberg

To Iran, this is all welcome news: The international alliance against its nuclear program is losing focus and may unravel. Almost certainly, there will be no further sanctions, and...

Iran Sanctions Are About to Backfire, Big Time - Kupchan & Priddy, NYT

Western sanctions on Iran are on the threshold of an overreach. That evolving reality might provide leverage at the talks in Baghdad. If it doesn’t, the West will have to dod...

The Persian Paradox - Daily Star

The Iranians are quick to forget that their double-edged rhetoric has found them few friends in the region. Iranian officials regularly state that they seek peace and cooperation w...

Iran Must Choose Enmity or Economy - Ray Takeyh, Financial Times

Diplomacy is reclaiming a role in Iran's nuclear drama, but little attention is being paid to a conflict of interests that is likely to complicate Tehran's path to a settlement. ...

Why Tehran Might Be Ready to Talk - Joe Klein, Time

Here is how it usually works when the world attempts to negotiate with Iran about its rogue nuclear program: The U.N. passes a resolution, or threatens sanctions, or imposes sanc...

Was Ambassador's Iran Threat Credible? - Jonathan Tobin, Contentions

Like much of what the administration has said and done in recent months, Ambassador Shapiro's comments seem to be geared more toward convincing Israel to refrain from its own str...

Iran Mulling Reset of Relations with West - Kaveh Afrasiabi, Asia Times

In the current tumult of diplomatic maneuvers ahead of the crucial Baghdad talks on Tehran's nuclear program between Iran and the P5+1 nations scheduled for May 23, reflected in m...

Obama's Foreign Policy Failures - Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

President Barack Obama ran as the anti-George Bush candidate. So it is ironic that his signature achievement overseas - the killing of Osama bin Laden - is one Bush would have b...

Iran Sees Success in Stalling on Nuclear Issue - Thomas Erdbrink, NY Times

As Iran starts a critical round of talks over its nuclear program, its negotiating team may be less interested in reaching a comprehensive settlement than in buying time and esta...

In Iran Talks, Ehud Barak Is Man to Watch - Jeffrey Goldberg, Bloomberg

Obama believes that Barak, and not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is the Israeli leader agitating most vociferously for a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, a strike...

Can Obama Save NATO from Disaster in Chicago? - Pavel & Joyner, CSM

The 2010 NATO Summit in Lisbon produced a bold vision for NATO's future. With one week to the Chicago summit, not nearly enough progress has been made. To avoid the Chicago summi...

To Stop Iran Nukes, Give It a Stake - David Patrikarakos, The Diplomat

The world would be a worse place if Iran constructs a nuclear weapon. But engaging it on broader Middle East issues might make it rethink....

A Compelling Plan for Iranian Talks - David Ignatius, Washington Post

Let's assume the signals from the White House and Tehran are reliable, and that Iran is serious about an agreement to remove its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium from th...

Tragic Farce of Voting in Iran - Laura Secor, The New Yorker

Voting in Iran is depressing....

Around the World, Energy War Heating Up - Michael Klare, The Nation

Conflict and intrigue over valuable energy supplies have been features of the international landscape for a long time. Major wars over oil have been fought every decade or so since...

Iran Poses Cyber War Threat to U.S. - Ilan Berman, Washington Times

Since taking office in 2009, the Obama administration has made cybersecurity a major area of policy focus. The past year in particular has seen a dramatic expansion of governmental...

Israel Unites to Face Iran - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post

The wall-to-wall coalition demonstrates Israel's political readiness to attack, if necessary. (Its military readiness is not in doubt.)...

Israeli Attack on Iran May Enrage Muslim World - Ahmed Rashid, Haaretz

Iran is far more likely to mobilize on the basis of the much wider support it can muster in the Muslim world, which is already seething with anti-American and anti-Israeli feelin...

The Iranian Threat in the Western Hemisphere - Washington Institute

Undertanding the Iranian threat to the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere....

Israel's Spies Are Revolting - Natan Sachs, Foreign Policy

Something has gone very wrong with Israel's posture on Iran's nuclear program. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak lead a confrontational approa...

Israel's Expanding Sub Fleet Means Business - Anshel Pfeffer, The Axis

With all the attention in recent days given to short-term political developments, an event with long-term implications for regional strategic balance almost escaped serious attenti...

India Balances the U.S. and Iran - Nikolas Gvosdev, World Politics Review

A fascinating display of diplomatic balancing occurred this past week in New Delhi. At the same time that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in India to urge the Indian go...

Goal of Iran Talks Should Be Regime Change - Patrick Clawson, Foreign Aff.

To judge the effectiveness of Western sanctions against Iran, it is important to first establish their purpose. U.S. officials and their European counterparts have set out a number...

A New Approach to Iran's Bomb - Center for Strategic and Int'l Studies

We badly need to rethink our approach to Iran’s nuclear programs. We are putting far too much emphasis on Iran’s nuclear efforts without considering how these programs ...

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 ...

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