Arab & Islamic Politics

Iranians will head back to the polls on June 24 to decide an unprecedented presidential runoff pitting Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad against Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Ahmadinezhad, mayor of Tehran, defied pre-election forecasts by reportedly finishing with 5,710,354 (19.5 percent) of the 29,317,042 ballots cast in the original election on June 17

Today, when Iranians go to the polls to elect a new president, the vote will almost certainly be free, competitive, and fair. It will also be a joke. Always inventive, Iran's ruling mullahs years ago developed a new twist on the old autocratic game of holding sham elections. Whereas the

Syrian leaders hope that significant reforms introduced at the Baath Party's Tenth Regional Congress on June 6 will allow them to fend off both domestic challenges and foreign threats. Among the important issues on the Congress' agenda is the status of the Baath Party itself. Obsolete Ideology Since he assumed

Egyptians today are voting in a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would, for the first time, allow multicandidate, direct presidential elections. The amendment, approved by Egypt's parliament on May 10, was presented amid growing internal and external pressure on President Hosni Mubarak to enact much-needed political reform. This measure

On May 19, 2005, Paul Wolfowitz addressed the Institute's Twentieth Anniversary Soref Symposium. Dr. Wolfowitz, former deputy secretary of defense, is president of the World Bank. The following is a transcript of his presentation. Read a summary of his remarks. So many Iraqis, 8.5 million of them, demonstrated courage on

Iran appears to be fomenting a crisis over its nuclear program as the campaign for the June 17 presidential elections gets underway (by May 14, candidates have to register; by May 24, the Guardian Council will announce which candidates are approved). Assertiveness on the Nuclear Program Ever since Iran signed

The following is a FrontPageMagazine.com symposium moderated by Jamie Glazov and featuring remarks by Washington Institute senior fellow Soner Cagaptay. As Turkey drifts toward Islamization, some serious questions arise: Is Turkey even our ally? Is Turkish accession to the EU in America's interests? Does the Justice and Development Party (AKP)

Syria's Muslim Brotherhood - banned for nearly 25 years - has been increasingly vocal recently in its criticism of the regime of President Bashar Assad. Earlier this month, for example, it demanded the organization of free elections, cancellation of the state of emergency and dismantlement of special courts, warning that

President George W. Bush recently stated, “The elections in Lebanon must be fully and carefully monitored by international observers.” Already, Lebanese prime minister Omar Karami has issued a de facto invitation to former president Jimmy Carter to fulfill that role. Some skepticism is warranted, particularly with regard to the notion