Dr. Haytham Mouzahem

Iran is not about to collapse The strength of the Islamic republic's economy and government are so understated in analyses that errors of policy could follow Arshin Adib-Moghaddam guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 November 2011 14.12 GMT Article history The Safir satellite-carrier rocket, carrying Iran's Omid 2 satellite, is launched in 2009. Iran plans to send astronauts into space by 2019. Photograph: Fars News/Reuters There are two central narratives that presume the Iranian state is likely to collapse under the pressure of sanctions and/or threats of war. In my opinion, both are flawed. The first maintains that Iran is running out of money and that its economy is teetering on the brink. This has been repeatedly presented as an argument in support of sanctions or as an example of the incompetence of the Iranian state. But that narrative does not correspond to the facts. The World Bank set the economic growth of Iran at 3.0% in 2010, and the IMF says nominal G...

http://english.dohainstitute.org/Home/Details?entityID=5ea4b31b-155d-4a9f-8f4d-a5b428135cd5&resourceId=51a32473-a9fa-434d-ba6b-c773376f568c Soft Power Revolutions in the Arab world: Towards the Deconstruction of Dictatorships and Fundamentalisms Haytham Ahmad Mouzahem 21/11/2011 Book Title: Soft Power Revolutions in the Arab world: the Deconstruction of Dictatorships and Fundamentalisms Author: Ali Harb Publisher: Al-Dar Al Arabiya Liloloum Publishers - Beirut 1st Edition - 2011 The revolutions being witnessed by several Arab countries have prompted the Lebanese philosopher and writer Ali Harb to examine them and to "deconstruct dictatorships and fundamentalisms"; the book is a collection of articles covering these revolutions. Harb says that he did not originally intend to publish this booklet on the ongoing revolutions in several Arab arenas. The disparate articles contained in the book represent readings, from multiple angles and perspectives, of...