Diwan Dispatches
commentary
A Stalemate in Kurdistan

The most recent parliamentary elections highlighted the rifts between the two dominant parties, the KDP and PUK.

  • Wladimir van Wilgenburg
· October 25, 2024
commentary
Defending Israel, but not Kurdistan?

When U.S. Patriots shot down an Iranian missile over Erbil on April 15, Kurds wondered why such defenses weren’t activated when they were attacked.

  • Wladimir van Wilgenburg
· April 25, 2024
commentary
A Cry for the Levant

The great divide we are witnessing today in the Middle East is, in part, the result of European interference.

  • Michael Vatikiotis
· December 4, 2023
commentary
The Yezidi Genocide Nine Years Later

For survivors in the community, the prospect of going home is disappearing because of political inaction.

  • Wladimir van Wilgenburg
· August 22, 2023
commentary
Angry Ankara

Türkiye is raising the heat on the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, denouncing its ties with the Syrian Democratic Forces.

  • Wladimir van Wilgenburg
· May 11, 2023
commentary
From the Levant to the Holy Mountain

With Gareth Smyth’s death, the Middle East has lost one of its most penetrating foreign journalists.

  • Michael Karam
· February 21, 2023
commentary
Completing the Revolution

Iran’s hardline leaders seek to use recent elections in the country to Islamize society at all levels.

  • Kasra Aarabi
  • Saeid Golkar
· August 17, 2021
commentary
Iran Uninterrupted

The political culture of the post-revolutionary period shows striking continuities with the prerevolutionary era.

  • Mahmood Sariolghalam
· June 8, 2021
commentary
The Downing of a High Flyer

When Naim Attallah died recently, few remembered the role he played in one of the Middle East’s worst financial scandals.

  • Michael Karam
· February 24, 2021
commentary
What’s in a Flag?

On Lebanon’s Independence Day, the question has meaning for a population whose leaders are masters of the meaningless.

  • Olivia Shabb
· November 20, 2020
commentary
The Tragedy of Doing Nothing

Lebanon’s ad hoc approach to its myriad economic shocks will leave scars that are long-lasting.

  • Amer Bisat
· October 21, 2020
commentary
The Advantages of Intimidation

In Ba‘lbek-Hermel, there was support for the Lebanese uprising until the main Shi‘a parties gained the upper hand.

  • Soubhi Amhaz
· September 16, 2020