Commentaries

The conflict along the Lebanese border is entering a different phase, one in which military objectives are intertwined with attempts to reshape both the geographic and demographic realities. This trajectory is reflected in the statements of Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz: “We will establish a buffer zone inside southern Lebanon and maintain control over it.” Such statements do not appear…

The war between the United States and Iran represents a qualitative shift in the structure of regional security, marking a transition from indirect deterrence to an open, multi-layered conflict. The conflict has moved beyond a bilateral confrontation to assume the character of a multi-front regional war spanning Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Gulf, and the Red Sea. The behavior of both…

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 contemporary geopolitical landscape is undergoing a profound structural transformation driven by the maturation of what is best understood as digitized capitalism. In this emerging paradigm, traditional market dynamics and democratic processes are being replaced by platform-based economies, generating the rapid accumulation of unprecedented wealth and power among a new class of technological elite-Digital Lords. This class now commands vast…

In a development that reveals the scale of transformation underway in the Lebanese file, the discussion is no longer confined to how to contain the war or mitigate its repercussions. It has shifted to a deeper level concerning the redefinition of Lebanon’s regional position, the limits of its actual sovereignty, and the shape of the internal balance possible amid the…

At first glance, the paradox of the current landscape appears stark. Donald Trump’s rhetoric seems chaotic, erratic, and deeply personalized-closer to impulsiveness than to strategy. Meanwhile, the conduct of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, particularly in expanding theaters of conflict and broadening target ranges, is widely perceived as a form of irrational gambling. Yet this reading is, in all likelihood,…

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 the context of the current regional war, internal measures in Jerusalem are being transformed into part of a broader politicization of emergency. As Buzan, Waever, and de Wilde argue, securitization is the process through which an issue is moved beyond the ordinary rules of political practice by presenting it as an existential threat that justifies recourse to exceptional[1] measures.…

It comes as little surprise that Iraq has become one of the central arenas of confrontation and a direct theater in today’s regional war. The 2003 U.S. invasion, the expansion of Iranian influence, the scale of external interventions, and the overlap of local and regional actors on its territory have collectively transformed Iraq into a contested space, both a battlefield…