Stephen Zunes, a Foreign Policy In Focus columnist and senior analyst, is a professor of Politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco. He is the author, along with Jacob Mundy, of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press, 2010).
The ongoing struggle in Iran between Islamic reformers and Islamic hard-liners, along with struggles within the U.S. foreign policy establishment between hawks and those seeking accommodation, has left U.S.-Iranian relations in a state of flux.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the triumph in the Gulf War, the United States standsat least for a timeas the region’s dominant outside power.
On Africas Atlantic coast, at the western extremity of the Arab world, lies Western Sahara, site of Africas longest post-colonial conflict.
The massive terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have placed the threat of terrorism on the front burner and have exposed the failure of the U.S. government to protect its citizens.
The strident anti-Americanism of Irans Islamic regime is a direct consequence of past U.S. interference in Iranian internal affairs.