Economics

Tehran’s inflation troubles present a critical vulnerability for the clerical regime. On March 25, 2024, as Iranians celebrated Nowruz (Persian New Year), the black market rate of the Iranian rial plunged to a record low. Despite sanctions relief and infusions of cash, the Islamic Republic’s corruption, mismanagement, and …

Bruce Bechtol Iran last weekend launched a large-scale overnight air strike on Israel. More than 300 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles targeted the country.   While the attack was quite large, it was also ineffective. According to spokespersons for the U.S. and Israeli militaries, 99% of the …

Daniel Runde As the IMF’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, heads for her second term, she must refocus her institution’s attention on four key issues. Kristalina Georgieva, the current Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will finish her first five-year term on September 30, 2024. She is …

Eng. Saleem Al Batayneh In Jordan, our collective memory is rich with events that have shaped our nation. The plethora of topics and titles that emerge from our surroundings make it easy to find inspiration for discourse and analysis. However, what sets our Jordanian situation apart is that …

Nathan Sher As Beijing deprioritizes the real estate sector, it is doubling down on investment in science, technology, and national defense. In 2023, China’s economy grew at the slowest pace since 1990, apart from two years during the COVID-19 pandemic when the country was closed to the outside …

Konner Fiddler The weakness of adversary powers relative to the United States should not deceive us from their very clear advantage in willingness to execute decisive, if risky, strategies. On an unusually warm October day in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took center stage to dedicate the new …

Paul Pillars From TikTok to AIPAC, intense partisanship provides a channel for foreign states to interfere in U.S. politics and policy. The Chinese ownership of the video app TikTok—targeted by a bill that the House of Representatives passed with a large bipartisan majority—might indicate a severe concern about …

As China increases its presence in the Indian Ocean and the Maldives, New Delhi cannot afford to relax. Since assuming power in November 2023, President Mohamed Muizzu’s foreign policy has ruffled feathers in New Delhi. After asking India to remove its military personnel from the archipelagic state, the …

There is no doubt that Erdogan’s mismanagement of the economy has been the driving force behind popular discontent. In Sunday’s local elections, the Turkish people voted with their pockets. The parliamentary and presidential elections last May were far from fair. The winner could have been the popular mayor …