In The News

Liberals Losing the Battle?

Shahid Kardar December 11, 2009
Liberals and moderates in Pakistan are becoming a minority. In a recent poll, 86 percent of the respondents believed that religion should have some role in politics. Such a statistic is not surprising when moderate and civilian governments are unable to provide Pakistanis with a decent education, good governance, or basic health services. Is it any wonder, then, that so many gravitate to madrasas...

Iranian Crackdown Goes Global

Farnaz Fassihi December 4, 2009
Iranians abroad who used Facebook and Twitter to protest the controversial elections are receiving emails threatening their relatives back in Iran. Immigrants who return home are detained at the airport, where they are shown videos taken of them participating in protests in countries of their residence or are forced to log in to their Facebook accounts. Residents of Iran report being harassed and...

Iran and the West at a Crossroad – Part II

Deepti Choubey November 2, 2009
Iran’s refusal to send its enriched uranium to Russia as part of a deal to ensure the Islamic Republic is not developing nuclear weapons could have serious consequences. According to Deepti Choubey, Deputy Director of the Nonproliferation Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Iran risks uniting the major powers against it as well, increasing the skepticism of the rest of the...

Economics Versus Extremism

Vali Nasr October 30, 2009
The failure of post-9/11 Western policies in the Muslim world has led many to misunderstand extremism as a byproduct of the Muslim faith rather than a result of the desolate economic situation that plagues many such nations. Tuft’s University professor Vali Nasr argues that beneath stories of growing terrorist groups lies a small-but-emerging group of middle-class capitalists who are integrated...

Iran and the West at a Crossroad – Part I

Jamsheed K. Choksy October 30, 2009
Despite Iran’s recent equivocation over a deal crafted to lower the threat of the country producing nuclear weapons, there are signs that the Islamic Republic could, nevertheless, settle the issue, according to Iranian and International Studies professor Jamsheed K. Choksy. First, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime is feeling the pressure exerted by international sanctions not just in terms...

Waziristan or Bust: Pakistan Army in Fight for the State’s Survival

Ahmed Rashid October 19, 2009
Pakistan’s slow descent into chaos that author and journalist Ahmed Rashid has chronicled over the past years has reached a critical juncture with this week’s army offensive against the Pakistani Taliban base in South Waziristan. The latest offensive coming on the wake of audacious terrorist attacks is only a tip of the iceberg. As Rashid deftly shows in this essay, the complexity of the...

Pakistan's Partial War on Terror

C. Christine Fair October 15, 2009
Pakistan is now reaping the bitter harvest of what it had sown by cultivating Islamic militants. Islamabad believed that it could use militants and terrorists to keep India in check and as a hedge for maintaining influence in Afghanistan should the US withdraw. But the recent uptick in suicide bombings and attacks across Pakistan along with evidence of how the Pakistani and Afghani Taliban and Al...