Arab & Islamic Politics

The following is the English-language abstract of an article originally published in Farsi. Read the full text of this article in the original Farsi. The Iranian clergy in contemporary Iran bears little, if any, similarity with its traditional counterpart known as "Ulama." The financial resources, social authority and networking, organizational

President Obama will essentially face the same challenges as President Bush but his campaign promises and general philosophical orientation appear to be dramatically different from the outgoing president. These differences can be seen in sharp relief, in the Levant, Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinian issue as well. President Obama provided

Conventional wisdom holds that the Bush administration's Freedom Agenda has made "democracy" a dirty word throughout the Middle East. It this really true? The Washington Institute brought together an array of Arab democrats -- from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and the West Bank -- to ask them what

The upcoming provincial elections in Iraq, scheduled for January, will provide the best indicators to date of the health of Iraq's political system, the relative popularity of political parties, and Prime Minister al-Maliki's prospects for re-election in national elections planned for December 2009. Iraqis have been concerned by the delay

Damascus' foray into diplomacy with Israel has had little discernable effect on Syria's longstanding, unhelpful policies vis-a-vis Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestinian politics. While moving Syria into the Western camp would be a great accomplishment, it's not clear that this development would necessarily constitute a long-term strategic setback for Iranian efforts

On October 29, 2008, Jean-Pierre Filiu and Mehdi Khalaji addressed a Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute. Mr. Filiu, a former French diplomat and ministerial advisor, currently serves as a visiting professor at Georgetown University. Mehdi Khalaji is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute. The following is a

On November 6, Robert Satloff, Patrick Clawson, and David Makovsky addressed a Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute. Dr. Satloff is executive director of The Washington Institute, Dr. Clawson is the Institute's deputy director for research, and Mr. Makovsky is the director of the Institute's Project on the Middle

Featuring Isaac Herzog, Riad Malki, Dennis Ross, Max Boot, Richard Danzig, Richard Williamson, Richard Clarke, Colin Mellis, Maajid Nawaz, Farah Pandith, J. Scott Carpenter, Mohamed Abdelbaky, Oussama Safa, Engi El-Haddad, Nader Said, David Makovsy, Ghassan Atiyyah, Reul Marc Gerecht, Michael Knights, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Giora Eiland, Marwan Muasher, Soner Cagaptay

This PolicyWatch is the third in a three-part series examining the situation in Lebanon two years after the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. This series coincides with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon on October 23, 1983, an attack that continues to inform U.S