Strategic Paradigms by Ehsan Ahrari

Helen Thomas, the veteran journalist who covered the White House for fifty years, and who was serving as a columnist for the Hearst newspapers, was forced to resign from her job for saying on camera that the Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to where they came from: Germany, Poland, [...]

When the global dialogue about an ostensible power shift to Asia from the West was heating up, no one was imagining that Japan would be reassessing its historical ties with the United States. The Yoshida Doctrine – named after Japan’s post-World War II Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida – was expected to be the cornerstone of [...]

There is something about revolutionary change that keeps us from recognizing it while it is happening.  Only when it picks up its pace beyond control that we wake up from our slumber of ignorance and recognize that something really “big” is either happening or about to happen.  Such is the case in Iran today.  

The continuing public spat between Hezbollah and Arab states is a mixture of old and new styles of power play.  The “old” part implicitly involves Iran–the chief supporter of Hezbollah–while the new aspect of this power play is between the antiquated monarchies and the nexus between Iran and Hezbollah.  Iran is the “rising power” of [...]

A London Times dispatch reads:  “Tony Blair makes his first trip to the Gaza Strip.”  In the growing global economic meltdown, the world has forgotten the suffering of the Palestinians who became victims of Israel’s “war” against Hamas.  How can there be a war between the most well equipped military of the Middle East and [...]

America’s presidential election debates are driven by a regular fear-mongering drumbeat on Iran.  Both Barack Obama and John McCain are involved in it.  Iran is frequently described as a source of regional turbulence and a sponsor of terrorism.  A similar type of drumbeat on Iraq led to America’s “war of choice.”  Those—especially the critics of [...]

The confluence of the waning months of the Bush presidency—when the lameduck factor is looming large— the continued insistence of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the U.S. set a timetable of withdrawing from Iraq, the Russian invasion of Georgia, and the forced resignation of General Pervez Musharraf—President Bush’s favorite strongman in Pakistan—are creating a new [...]

There is something imprudent about strategic thinkers when it comes to history.  For some reason, for some of them, it has to come to an end when an idea experiences a temporary—but significant—success.  But when that idea appears to fail, they make an equally rash extrapolation, and start talking about the “return” of history.  Francis [...]

In the presidential debates between the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama, and that of the Republican Party, John McCain, the Middle East and South Asia stand out prominently.  The four issues of discussion are: America’s continued presence in Iraq, relations with Israel, dealing with Iran, and the future modalities of American actions [...]

If either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton wins the net presidential election, there is going to be a radical change at least in the current size of American troop presence in Iraq.  But if John McCain were to win, the present U.S. commitment would remain the same or would even increase.  But the bottom line [...]