In The News

The Arab Spring protests, with demands for representative government and economic stability, have disintegrated into violent power struggles. After one year, Egypt’s military removed the first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, from power and cracked down on protests by his supporters, leaving more than 500 dead. Violence unfolds in Syria, Libya, Tunisia and Iraq, too. Building...

A vote in the US House of Representatives in favor of harsher economic sanctions for Iran, days before the president’s inauguration, could be counterproductive, explains Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer. She urges the US should try negotiations before the Senate votes, considering that sanctions have only hurt the Iranian economy and not deterred the nuclear program. Critics suggest that...

Iranians – frustrated by a flailing economy, compounded by rigid policies of a theocratic government and sanctions from the West that target the country’s nuclear program – expect reforms from President Hassan Rouhani. Iran confronts challenges that, if left unaddressed, will bring severe consequences at home and abroad, warns Jamsheed K. Choksy, professor of Iranian Studies at Indiana University...