Columnist

Joseph Braude

Middle East specialist Joseph Braude is the author of Broadcasting Change: Arabic Media as a Catalyst for Liberalism (Rowman & Littlefield). He is Advisor to the Al-Mesbar Center for Research and Studies and tweets@josephbraude.

Latest Articles

  • By Joseph Braude

    Fault Lines Emerge Within the U.S. Democratic Party

    As the contest for Democratic presidential nominee gains steam, several progressive voices within the party have floated aggressive proposals for tax increases, healthcare expansions, and realigning U.S. foreign policy. The initiatives have drawn broad and sometimes sharp criticism from more...

  • By Joseph Braude

    The Fight Against Extremism on Arab Airwaves

    The past decade has seen the proliferation of largely extremist and sectarian 24-hour religious television channels throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Numbering in the hundreds, they reach a collective viewership estimated in the tens of millions and play an outsize role in stoking vi...

  • By Joseph Braude

    Democrats and the Middle East

    Although the first Democratic primary debate is still two months away and the Iowa caucus nearly a year off, the main outlines of the Democratic party’s field are slowly coming into view. These periods in American politics — after the dust settles from the last election, but before primaries ar...

  • By Joseph Braude

    A Two-Year Probe into Russia-Trump Collusion Finds None

    In May 2017, the U.S. Attorney General’s office authorized a sweeping counterintelligence investigation into Russian government interference in the 2016 presidential election. At its heart was the charge, widely touted by opponents of President Trump, that the latter’s presidential campaign, an...

  • By Joseph Braude

    Iran Under Pressure From Multiple Vectors

    NEW ROUND OF US SANCTIONS TARGETS IRANIAN COMPANIES...

  • By Joseph Braude

    Washington Tightens Sanctions While Tehran Looks to Proxies for Aid

    As senior American officials warn of new sanctions, President Rouhani has dubbed the measures “a crime against humanity” and vowed to seek legal redress — while his peers in Tehran warn they may summon Shi’ite proxy militias to suppress unrest at home. US ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS WARN OF NEWS...

  • By Joseph Braude

    Hardliners Consolidate in Tehran, Face International Pushback in Bid to Evade Sanctions

    */ While Ayatollah Khamenei consolidates control of the Iranian judiciary for the hardline camp and President Rouhani visits Iraq, Israel and the UN expose Iranian maritime efforts to evade oil sanctions and cooperation with North Korean arms manufacturers. HARDLINER TIED TO MASS EXECUTIONS ...

  • By Joseph Braude

    Iranian Ties with Europe Suffer Amid Leadership Crisis and Diplomatic Row

    */ The past week saw a deepening of Iran’s international isolation, together with more fallout from tensions within the upper echelons of the Islamic Republic. Factional infighting prompted the leak of a 2018 speech by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in which he appeared to lower expectation...

  • By Joseph Braude

    Tehran Leadership: Erratic Behavior at Home, Aggression Abroad

    */ The Iranian government has been showing signs of discord in its senior ranks, with the attempted resignation of the popular foreign minister Javad Zarif over his exclusion from a meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. At the same time, the Iranian military has taken an increasingly a...

  • By Joseph Braude

    Tehran Celebrates Four Decades of Revolution 

    As the fortieth anniversary of the Iranian revolution approached, American media and policymakers reflected on the continuing enmity between the U.S. and Tehran’s rulers. National Public Radio, for example, aired a retrospective on the 1953 CIA-backed coup against Iran’s elected prime minister,...

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Genocides, Massacres and Crimes against Humanity
Enviroment
Mar 01,2019
Conflict and Terror in a Warming Middle East
Former World Bank Director Professor Jamal Saghir Speaks to Majalla About the Security Implications of Climate Change in the Region
Politics
Mar 01,2019
UK to Ban Hezbollah: What are the Repercussions?
Culture
Feb 22,2019
Shakespeare and the #MeToo Movement
When Will Judi Dench Finally Get to Play King Lear?
Politics
Jan 25,2019
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
No one in the region or outside should think that a war that may start in Lebanon will not spread to the rest of the region  

Opinion

The Deal to End All Deals
By Dennis Ross
US Policy Towards Lebanon
By Elie Fawaz
Hardliners Consolidate in Tehran, Face International Pushback in Bid to Evade Sanctions
By Joseph Braude
U.S. Sanctions Are Hurting Hezbollah
By Hanin Ghaddar
Pressure Mounts on Hezbollah
By Elie Fawaz
The U.S. and Europe Increasingly Aligned to Contain Iran
By Joseph Braude