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Ali Abootalebi

Ali Abootalebi is Professor of Middle Eastern and Global Politics in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, the University of Wisconsin, UWEC. He is the author of Islam and democracy: State-Society Relations in Developing Countries, 1980-1994 (Garland, 2000), coauthored with Stephen Hill, Introduction to World Politics: Prospects and Challenges for the United States, 2nd ed. (Kendall Hunt, 2018), edited, Global Politics Reader: Themes, Actors, and Issues, 2nd edition (Cognella Publishing, 2024), and numerous articles on Iran, Arab Politics, Civil Society and Democracy and U.S. foreign policy.

Featured
How did the Mideast become a Nuclear Flashpoint?

How did the Mideast become a Nuclear Flashpoint?

Ali Abootalebi

Eau Claire, WI (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The state of world politics since the end of the Cold War has been marked by more conflicts and wars.  The United States’ imperialist impulses during the Cold War had to consider the threat of Communism in Europe and at the global level. Today, the ongoing […]

Featured
Is Washington's Defense of Israel's War destroying the Edifice of the Liberal International Order?

Is Washington’s Defense of Israel’s War destroying the Edifice of the Liberal International Order?

Ali Abootalebi

Eau Clare, Wi. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – We are in an age of firsts. The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel set off a conflict in which non-state actors have played an unprecedented role. In the aftermath, Israel replied with massively disproportionate force, such that its actions have been found plausibly to […]

Featured
Saudi Arabia Needs to Show Leadership to avert a Continuing Massacre in Gaza

Saudi Arabia Needs to Show Leadership to avert a Continuing Massacre in Gaza

Ali Abootalebi

Eau Claire, Wisconsin (Special to Informed Comment) – The Hamas brazen, surprised incursion into Israel on Saturday, the 7th of October 2023, has already been condemned and praised by competing protagonists as one of the deadliest, most brutal, and surprising attacks in Israeli history. There is no doubt that Hamas tactics in indiscriminately targeting, killing, […]

al-Qaeda
When Foreign Policy Elites Manipulate the Public into War, the First Amendment is the First Casualty

When Foreign Policy Elites Manipulate the Public into War, the First Amendment is the First Casualty

Ali Abootalebi

Eau Claire, WI (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – United States presidents have repeatedly waged wars with tacit congressional approval and distorted narratives at the expense of citizens’ political participation in the political process and to the detriment of their first amendment rights. the seemingly popular support for such interventions is constructed and deprives millions […]

Iran
Foes of a new Nuclear Agreement Demonize Tehran, but what is Iranian Society really Like Today?

Foes of a new Nuclear Agreement Demonize Tehran, but what is Iranian Society really Like Today?

Ali Abootalebi

Eau Claire, Wi. (Special to Informed Comment) – The nature and the parameters of power relations in the state-society relations in Iran since the 1978-79 revolution have radically changed. The revolution ended the twenty-five-hundred-year-old monarchical rule in Iran and gave rise to a Shi’a ‘ulema-dominated rule. The demise of the old Pahlavi regime saw the […]

Iran
Iran doesn't even have a Nuclear Weapons Program: Why does the US keep passing it off as a Threat?

Iran doesn’t even have a Nuclear Weapons Program: Why does the US keep passing it off as a Threat?

Ali Abootalebi

( Iran Daily) – The American foreign policy establishment is complex and has many layers. Foreign policy in the United States, as in other countries, is presumed to promote its national interests. However, the nature of the state-society relations in the United States allows for many different layers of forces and influences in shaping foreign […]

China
The Lion & the Dragon: Understanding the New Iran-China Strategic Partnership

The Lion & the Dragon: Understanding the New Iran-China Strategic Partnership

Ali Abootalebi

Eau Claire, WI (Special to Informed Comment) – On July 11, the New York Times reported on the Iran-China new economic and security partnership, detailed in an 18-page proposed agreement, that would clear the way for billions of dollars of Chinese investments in energy and other sectors. The proposed 25-year roadmap between Iran and China […]

Israel/ Palestine
The Kushner "Deal of the Century": If Only America's Profound Betrayal of the Palestinian People Came as a Shock

The Kushner “Deal of the Century”: If Only America’s Profound Betrayal of the Palestinian People Came as a Shock

Ali Abootalebi

Eau Claire, WI (Special to Informed Comment) – President Trump unveiled his administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan at the White House on January 28, 2020, telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel that there are ‘many, many countries who want to partake in this,’ and predicting that “you are going to have tremendous support from your […]

Donald Trump
Iran is not Going Away, and Trump's only hope of Success is not War but a Deal

Iran is not Going Away, and Trump’s only hope of Success is not War but a Deal

Ali Abootalebi

Eau Clare, Wi. (Special to Informed Comment) – Much has been speculated and written about the possibility, trajectory, and the likely consequences of a war between the United States and Iran. In case of a wider war that may threaten the survival of the Islamic Republic, Iranian leadership will inevitably push for an all-out war […]

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