Harith Abu Badiwi

If Iran drew its political boundaries early-at the Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin in 1639-it did not delineate its intellectual boundaries with the same clarity except across a full century of upheaval, inquiry, and the redefinition of the self. The modern Iranian intellectual field did not emerge solely from the Islamic Revolution, nor did it take shape in a single moment…

Iran’s contemporary influence is neither a late byproduct of the 1979 Islamic Revolution nor analytically sound to reduce, in a simplistic and reductive manner, to a distant Safavid origin-as if Iranian history had not been marked by ruptures, inflections, and profound transformations. Rather, as multiple junctures in its history suggest, Iran has, over centuries, accumulated layered configurations of political and…

The pilot and professor of geopolitics-who has combined the mayoralty of Tehran with the speakership of parliament-now emerges as a potential negotiator and a figure poised to shape the contours of a political transition. The name of Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has recently emerged as that of a figure who has accumulated a rare breadth of experience across…

In exceptional times-when the deep structure of the state begins to tremble and the central question becomes one of regime survival-systems tend to revert to their most weighty figures in both institutional standing and collective memory; to those who embody accumulated layers of experience, legitimacy, networks, and foundational narrative. It is precisely through this lens that one may interpret the…

During periods of stability, political systems tend to elevate their most visible and charismatic figures. In moments of existential danger, however-when the prospect of a sudden leadership vacuum looms-the criteria of selection may be inverted entirely. Popularity and rhetorical prominence recede in importance, giving way to the imperative of continuity. In such moments, regimes search for a “transitional manager.” It…

Masoud Pezeshkian’s experience embodies a living manifestation of the reformist’s predicament when he is summoned after the moment has passed—not as a project of structural transformation, but as an instrument for managing deadlock and reducing the costs of systemic collapse. The legacy of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri represents a latent horizon of internal transition, one that may still allow for…