Tag: Special Content
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Turning on Putin would fit Trump’s trend of second-term wins
Inflection Points July 11, 2025 • 11:01 am ET Frederick Kempe It may seem counterintuitive—after years of speculation over US President Donald Trump’s sympathies for Russian President Vladimir Putin—but the logic of Trump 2.0 suggests that a tightening of US screws on Russia would make perfect sense. In his second term thus far, Trump has…
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Iran Policy Has Gone Postmodern
The Trump administration’s analysis of the war with Iran is an exercise in pure narrative. Cook-Steve-foreign-policy-columnist4Steven A. Cook By Steven A. Cook, a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Demonstrators raise their phones showing images of Iran’s supreme…
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Islamization from Above, Secularization from Below: Turkey and Iran as Case Studies
INSS Insight No. 2008, July 10, 2025 Despite more than twenty years of promoting Islam under Erdoğan in Turkey and over four and a half decades of Islamic rule in Iran, secularization processes are observable in both countries, especially among the younger generation. In Turkey, despite efforts by the government to promote religion through the…
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For the Gulf, business comes first—even after the Twelve Day War
Israel and Iran’s Twelve Day War saw Gulf states contemplating contingency plans, as they reckoned with the possibility of a conflict that could destroy their carefully built model of connectivity, tourism, and logistics. Gulf states have invested heavily in courting the US President Donald Trump’s administration through business deals, with the aim of expanding their…
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Operation Rising Lion: Achievements, Open Questions, and Future Scenarios
INSS Insight No. 2007, July 9, 2025 Operation Rising Lion, carried out on Iranian soil was a highly significant campaign, showcasing operational artistry, excellence, and a sophisticated, complementary international diplomatic effort. Whereas gratification is in order, the campaign must be analyzed objectively and professionally. Were its goals truly achieved? Has an existential threat to the…
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The Strike on Iran Was ‘Jacksonian’
What did the U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities achieve? Nothing of significance, sneers Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth describes them as “historically successful.” Walter Russell Mead would like us to step back and look at the question in its broadest perspective. “Just when the conventional wisdom that America was in terminal decline had congealed…
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Iran Can Already Build a Dirty Bomb
There is an ongoing debate about just how much of a setback Iran’s nuclear program experienced during its recent conflict with Israel and the United States. But there is little doubt that Iran already has sufficient nuclear material to make a radiological weapon known as a dirty bomb. The question is whether it has sufficient…
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Iranian resistance groups need to show their cards
On June 23, 2025, President Donald Trump raised the specter of regime change in Iran in a Truth Social post. “If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!,” he said. While Trump’s team clarified that regime change was not a war aim, speculation remains rife in Iran, especially given…
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Opportunity knocks on Netanyahu’s US visit after Israel-Iran war
MENASource July 7, 2025 • 10:38 am ET Shalom Lipner “I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop wars,” US President Donald Trump pledged after recapturing the Oval Office last November. That’s much easier said than done. In fact, the “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” between Israel and Iran, which he heralded in…
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Iran Suspends IAEA Cooperation
4 Jul 2025 Issue: 68 / 27 By: Yesar Al-Maleki Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian signed a law on 2 July suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) amid rising tensions with the UN nuclear watchdog following Iran’s 12-day conflict with Israel last month. The Iranians have accused IAEA Director Rafael Grossi of providing political cover…