Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum. A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre- and postwar Iraq. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught classes at sea about the Horn of Africa and Middle East conflicts, culture, and terrorism, to deployed US Navy and Marine units. Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics.
Russia-Iran relations are their warmest in centuries. While Russian assistance to Iran’s nuclear program and Iranian supply of drones and ballistic missiles to Russia...
Will Iraq Take Over “Resistance”? Is Baghdad Ready? Israel’s strike on Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s long-time leader, left a void at the group’s top. While...
Make no mistake: Ukraine is right. Russia’s aggression toward its southern neighbor had nothing to do with NATO expansion nor grievances at the post-Cold...
Just over a week before the U.S. elections, Russian President Vladimir Putin may deliver a knockout blow to U.S. influence and prestige in the Caucasus and...
Against the backdrop of African conflict, Liberia’s two turn-of-the-century wars were fierce, replete with forced impressment of child soldiers, torture, rape, and summary executions....
After North Korea, Eritrea is the world’s most repressive and totalitarian country. Independence leader Isaias Afwerki rules with an iron fist. He rejects elections,...
The Iranian government defaulted to its influence operations playbook in the aftermath of the September 17, 2024, systematic explosion of Hezbollah pagers, presumably enabled...