A View from Tehran: Threats Facing the New President
Iran’s new president, Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, entered office in July with low expectations and no voter mandate, having the narrowest margin of victory for any president since the 1979 Revolution. Had it not been for a sizable Azeri ethnic turnout supporting him in three of Iran’s 31 provinces, the election would have been far closer […]
Japan and the US Converging on Iran
For Japan, a good relationship with Iran was for decades essential for its economic prosperity. Japan had a policy of “agreeing to disagree” with the US over Iran. Today, that policy has started to change. A Relationship Based on Japan’s Quest for Energy Security Overviews of Japan and Iran note that trade and cultural ties […]
Video Interview with Uzi Arad
The JST’s Ksenia Svetlova interviews Israel’s former National Security Advisor Uzi Arad, about a strategy to counter Iran and the current war in Gaza. This transcript is lightly edited for clarity and concision. Ksenia Svetlova: Did Israel ever encounter something similar to Iran’s power, determination and also the number of proxies spread around the Middle East […]
An ‘America First’ Democracy Support Agenda for the Next President
Freedom and democracy have declined globally over the last two decades. This is bad for US security and prosperity, because autocracies hostile to the United States find more willing supporters among other autocrats. Furthermore, American companies trying to access markets of less-democratic developing nations face opaque regulatory regimes subject to the whims of unaccountable predatory […]
A Freedom Strategy for the Global South
In the current cold war, the US and its allies in the Free World bloc are in a sharp contest with the authoritarian, revisionist, and expansionist bloc of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The stakes could not be higher. If the Free World loses this contest, the freedom, security, and prosperity of Americans and its […]
Hidden Discord in the Russia-Iran Alliance
When Iran’s President Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May, President Putin expressed condolences and called Raisi a “very reliable partner.” Russian Muslims offered prayers for Raisi at Moscow’s main mosque, and Russian state television provided continuous updates on the funeral arrangements from Iran. Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who also perished in […]
The Failure of the “Economic Peace” Model in the Middle East
On September 26, 2021, Israel’s then Prime Minister Naftali Bennet took the podium at the UN General Assembly and laid out a grand vision for the Middle East. It was a modernist, advanced, technological future (as befitted Bennet, a former high-tech entrepreneur) in which Israel would play a major role – focused upon a world […]
Turkey and Israel Ties at Low Ebb, But Could Recover
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has a rocky relationship with Israel and bilateral relations have currently reached a nadir. But Erdoğan pursues a transactional foreign policy in general and, if interests re-align, he could once again restore robust relations with Israel. A long-time supporter of Hamas, Erdoğan bitterly criticized Israel’s 2008 incursion into Gaza that […]
How to Defeat the New Axis of Evil
Two blocs emerged after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Iran-backed terror in the Middle East: The Free World and the New Axis of Evil. By supporting each other, the countries of the New Axis of Evil are more dangerous together than they are separately. The Free World countries must design new policies to […]
No End to National Security Surprises
The surprise was total and horrific—Israeli men, women and children brutally killed or taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Israel’s vaunted intelligence services failed to provide adequate warning, its military—the Israeli Defense Forces—failed to provide adequate security, and Israeli political leadership remained cocooned in their comfortable assumptions about risks to Israeli security posed by Palestinians in […]
