Iran's June 2009 elections set into motion four processes that are central to the operations of the Islamic Republic regime. They include: the growing gap between large sections of Iranian society from the Islamic Republican ...

The author contends that the Arab Spring has provided an opening for the Gulf Cooperation Council as a group and for Saudi Arabia to expand their regional influence and global profile. An already weakened Arab state system, ...

A survey of recent Iranian books and journal articles reveals four important characteristics about how writers and academics in Iran generally perceive the concept of civil society. First and foremost, the notion of 'civil ...

The article presents an alternative framework for conceptualizing Third World politics based on the institutional and normative relationships that exist between state and society. The broad types of polities are distinguished. ...

Prompted by serious economic difficulties, in 1989 the Jordanian government launched a series of political liberalization measures aimed at rejuvenating the country's parliament and party politics, and restoring freedom ...

For some time now, observers of the international relations of the Middle East have tried to decipher emerging security dynamics in the region in the aftermath of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. Clearly, the Iraq ...

More than two decades after its victory, Iran’s Islamic revolution has resulted in profound theoretical and theological consequences for Shiite political thought. This unfolding discourse especially as represented by the ...

Iran’s national-security policy is a victim of the factional debates and disagreements that characterize the Islamic Republic’s political system. ¬¬There are currently three main factions in Iran — the radicals, the ...

Uniquely for a country its size, Qatar has emerged as one of the world's most proactive mediators in recent years. Motivated by a combination of international prestige and survival strategies, the country has sought to ...

Saudi Arabia has positioned itself among the primary mediators in some of the Middle East's most intractable conflicts, having played central mediatory roles in Lebanon, Palestine, and in Arab-Israeli conflict. Compared ...