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By James Horncastle, Assistant Professor and Edward and Emily McWhinney Professor in International Relations, Simon Fraser University The United States has apparently answered Israel’s call to to become involved in the war between Israel and Iran. President Donald Trump had signalled a willingness for the U.S. to become involved in the conflict. He went so … Continue reading “Why Israel and the U.S. are sure to encounter the limits of air power in Iran”
By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham When Nato leaders meet for their annual summit in The Hague on Wednesday June 25, all eyes will be on Donald Trump. Not only is the 47th president of the United States less committed to the alliance than any of his predecessors in Nato’s 76-year … Continue reading “At June’s Nato summit, just keeping Donald Trump in the room will be seen as a victory”
By Shukriya Bradost, Ph.D. Student of Planning, Governance and Globalization, Virginia Tech The 12-day confrontation between Iran and Israel in June 2025 may not have escalated into a full-scale regional war, but it marks a potentially critical turning point in Iran’s internal political landscape. Though the Islamic Republic has entered into direct conflict with a … Continue reading “Iran emerged weakened and vulnerable after war with Israel − and that could mean trouble for country’s ethnic minorities”
By Simon Theobald, Postdoctoral researcher, Institute for Ethics and Society, University of Notre Dame Australia From 2015 to 2018, I spent 15 months doing research work in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city. As an anthropologist, I was interested in everyday life in Iran outside the capital Tehran. I was also interested in understanding whether the ambitions … Continue reading “Do all Iranians hate the regime? Hate America? Life inside the country is more complex than that”
By Joscha Abels, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Institute of Political Science, University of Tübingen It was the briefest of messages, but the potential consequences could have been significant. Elon Musk posted a four-word tweet on June 14: “The beams are on”. The message prefigured a consequential intervention – not only in Iranian domestic affairs but potentially in … Continue reading “In the sky over Iran, Elon Musk and Starlink step into geopolitics – not for the first time”
By Andrea Stanton, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies & Faculty Affiliate, Center for Middle East Studies, University of Denver After 12 days of trading deadly airstrikes, Israel and Iran confirmed on June 24, 2025, that a ceasefire is in effect, one day after President Donald Trump proclaimed the countries reached a deal to end fighting. … Continue reading “Israel-Iran war recalls the 2003 US invasion of Iraq – a war my undergraduate students see as a relic of the past”
By Hussein Dia, Professor of Future Urban Mobility, Swinburne University of Technology As the world watches the US–Iran situation with concern, the ripple effect from these events are reaching global oil supply chains – and exposing their fragility.If Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz as it is considering, it would restrict the global oil trade … Continue reading “Oil shocks in the 1970s drove rapid changes in transport. It could happen again if Middle East tensions continue”
By James Horncastle, Assistant Professor and Edward and Emily McWhinney Professor in International Relations, Simon Fraser University The American intervention in Iran is being touted as an outstanding success by President Donald Trump. At the very least, Trump’s decision to attack Iran facilitated a ceasefire as it created angst in Gulf states about being caught … Continue reading “How Israeli and U.S. strikes against Iran were facilitated by the Russia-Ukraine war”
By Donald Heflin, Executive Director of the Edward R. Murrow Center and Senior Fellow of Diplomatic Practice, The Fletcher School, Tufts University Within hours of President Donald Trump unexpectedly announcing an upcoming ceasefire between Israel and Iran on June 23, 2025, both countries launched airstrikes against the other.“We basically have two countries that have been … Continue reading “Ceasefires like the one between Iran and Israel often fail – but an agreement with specific conditions is more likely to hold”
By Ismail Albayrak, Professor of Islam and Catholic Muslim Relations, Australian Catholic University In our guides to the classics, experts explain key literary works.Ibn Battuta, was born in Tangier, Morocco, on February 24, 1304. From a statement in his celebrated travel book the Rihla (“legal affairs are my ancestral profession,”) he evidently came from an … Continue reading “Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century judge and ambassador, travelled further than Marco Polo. The Rihla records his adventures”