The F.B.I. tried to recruit an Iranian scientist as an informant. When he balked, the payback was brutal. Laura Secor |September 14, 2020 | The New Yorker In the spring of 2017, an Iranian materials scientist named Sirous Asgari received a call from the United States consulate in Dubai. Two years earlier, he and his wife, Fatemeh, had applied for visas to visit America, … [Read more...] about The Man Who Refused to Spy
INSIGHT
The new ‘invisible enemy’
Hisham Aïdi |14 Jul 2020 | Mail & Guardian In 2005, Middle East Report (MERIP) published an article by political scientist Hisham Aïdi, “Slavery, Genocide and the Politics of Outrage: Understanding the New Racial Olympics.” MERIP recently decided to re-publish Aïdi’s piece on the Save Darfur movement. In this post, Aïdi compares the current Black Lives … [Read more...] about The new ‘invisible enemy’
What Kim Wants
The Hopes and Fears of North Korea’s Dictator Jung H. Pak | May/June 2020 | Foreign Affairs etween 2017 and 2019, relations between the United States and North Korea made for great television. Perhaps this was by design: U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to believe that any interactions between the two adversaries would be more successful—or at least play more to his … [Read more...] about What Kim Wants
How to Topple a Dictator
Conway Hall | Published on Apr 10, 2015 In conversation with Nick Cohen, Srdja Popovic will explain how he became one of the leaders of Otpor! — the movement which overthrew dictator Slobodan Milosevic. He has since gone on to train the pro-democracy activists behind the Arab Spring, Occupy, and many other movements. Drawing on his new book, Blueprint for Revolution, he … [Read more...] about How to Topple a Dictator
THE RULES FOR RULERS
Muslim Brothers: The Rivalry That Shaped Modern Egypt
Shadi Hamid | September/October 2018 Issue | Foreign Policy Seven years since the heady days of early 2011, when massive, electrifying protests brought down the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, the political atmosphere in Egypt has turned somber. In 2013, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi overthrew President Mohamed Morsi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who had narrowly … [Read more...] about Muslim Brothers: The Rivalry That Shaped Modern Egypt
A Theory of Trump Kompromat or Why the President is so nice to Putin, even when Putin might not want him to be.
Adam Davidson | July 19, 2018 | The New Yorker The former C.I.A. operative Jack Devine watched Donald Trump’s performance standing next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday, and his first thought was, “There is no way Trump is a Russian agent.” The proof, he told me, was right in front of us. If Trump were truly serving as a Russian intelligence asset, there would … [Read more...] about A Theory of Trump Kompromat or Why the President is so nice to Putin, even when Putin might not want him to be.
The Sources of Soviet Conduct
"X" (George F. Kennan) | July 1947 Issue | Foreign Affairs The political personality of Soviet power as we know it today is the product of ideology and circumstances: ideology inherited by the present Soviet leaders from the movement in which they had their political origin, and circumstances of the power which they now have exercised for nearly three decades in Russia. … [Read more...] about The Sources of Soviet Conduct
The Blesser’s Curse: How sugar daddies and vaginal microbes created the world’s largest HIV epidemic
Olga Khazan | Mar 22, 2018 | The Atlantic VULINDLELA, South Africa—Mbali N. was just 17 when a well-dressed man in his 30s spotted her. She was at a mall in a nearby town, alone, when he called out. He might have been captivated by her almond eyes and soaring cheekbones. Or he might have just seen her for what she was: young and poor. She tried to ignore him, she told … [Read more...] about The Blesser’s Curse: How sugar daddies and vaginal microbes created the world’s largest HIV epidemic
This Land Is Their Land
Suketu Mehta Illustration by Owen Freeman | September 12, 2017 | Foreign Policy Immigration is inevitable. When will the West learn that it promises salvation — not destruction? On Oct. 1, 1977, my parents, my two sisters, and I boarded a Lufthansa plane in the dead of night in Bombay. We were dressed in new, heavy, uncomfortable clothes and had been seen off by our entire … [Read more...] about This Land Is Their Land