Arshin Adib-Moghaddam

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam is an SOAS academic, critical theorist, and author of Iran in World Politics: The Question of the Islamic Republic (Columbia University Press, 2008, 2010) and A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations: Us and Them Beyond Orientalism (Columbia/Hurst, 2010).

The Myth of a Shia-Sunni/Persian-Arab Confrontation

Is there a Shia crescent threatening the stability of western Asia and northern Africa? Is there a historically coded Arab-Persian enmity driving the international politics of the region? Does it date back centuries, and is it now viewed as a battle for regional supremacy? If we are to believe the media comments on the latest … Continue reading “The Myth of a Shia-Sunni/Persian-Arab Confrontation”

The Broad Reach of Neoconservatism

Just because certain prominent neoconservative acolytes are no longer official members of the Bush administration does not mean that the movement has lost its institutional sway or its ideological commitment to war. Writing on these pages two and a half years ago, I warned that the neoconservative propensity for conflict is inscribed in the worldview … Continue reading “The Broad Reach of Neoconservatism”

After Babylon, Persia

In an essay for Bitter Lemons last year, I discussed the ways in which neoconservatives (in tandem with their allies in the Likud Party) were directly involved in manufacturing the invasion of Iraq. What evidence is available to us today if we seek to support the hypothesis that neoconservatives are following a similar script against … Continue reading “After Babylon, Persia”