• Monthly Review
  • Monthly Review Press
  • Climate & Capitalism
  • Money on the Left
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Mastadon
MR Online
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact/Submission
  • Browse
    • Recent Articles Archive
    • by Subject
      • Ecology
      • Education
      • Imperialism
      • Inequality
      • Labor
      • Literature
      • Marxism
      • Movements
      • Philosophy
      • Political Economy
    • by Region
      • Africa
      • Americas
      • Asia
      • Australasia
      • Europe
      • Global
      • Middle East
    • by Category
      • Art
      • Commentary
      • Interview
      • Letter
      • News
      • Newswire
  • Monthly Review Essays
  • Is Iran Now a Nuclear Target for the United States?

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Today — Tuesday, April 6, 2010 — the Obama Administration will proclaim, as a matter of declaratory policy, that the United States claims the prerogative to use nuclear weapons against the Islamic Republic of Iran, even as Iran remains a non-nuclear-weapons state.  The Administration will make this declaration as part of its much anticipated Nuclear […]

  • The United States, Iran, and the Middle East’s New “Cold War”

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    The absence of US-Iranian rapprochement will perpetuate the new Middle Eastern Cold War, imposing costs on the United States, Iran and other regional and international players.  However, in strategic terms, the heaviest costs of continued US-Iranian estrangement are likely to be borne by the United States.  In particular, lack of productive relations with Tehran will […]

  • From Iraq to Iran: Is London Again “Helping” Washington Pursue Regime Change in the Middle East?

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    There are two countries in the world which are routinely described by American politicians across the political spectrum as having a “special relationship” with the United States — Israel and the United Kingdom.  We have all grown more familiar than we probably like to acknowledge with Israel using its channels to Capitol Hill and in […]

  • The Most Probable Endgame for New Iran Sanctions

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    The all too predictable dynamics surrounding a potential new Iran sanctions resolution in the United Nations Security Council continue to play out just as we have anticipated.  As some commentators are leaping on media stories that one of China’s diplomats took part in a P-5+1 conference call yesterday about a possible resolution, the Wall Street […]

  • Israel’s Perspective on Iran: Insights from the AIPAC Conference

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Yesterday, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) concluded its annual policy conference in Washington, DC.  This year saw the largest-ever turnout for AIPAC’s annual conference, with 7,800 people in attendance, an important percentage of whom were not Jewish but evangelical Protestant Christians.  At the climax of the conference, participants deployed to Capitol Hill to […]

  • Misreading Khamenei’s Approach to the United States and Iran’s Geopolitics

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Most of the Western media failed to report on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s annual, live Nowruz (Persian New Year) address yesterday in his hometown of Mashhad.  Instead they took conventional snippets from his earlier pre-recorded message for state television.  In doing so, the Western media have again missed important content and context regarding Khamenei’s […]

  • Is the U.S. “Offer” to Iran on Medical Isotopes a Pretext for More Coercive Action?

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Earlier this week, journalists highlighted U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman’s statement that the Obama Administration had “offered to facilitate Iran’s procurement through the world markets of the medical isotopes its citizens need,” but that “Iran’s leaders apparently prefer to reject the most responsible, cost effective, and timely options to ensure access to medical […]

  • Why Does Washington Continue to Gamble on Iran’s Green Movement?

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    The standing of Iran’s so-called Green Movement is a deeply serious matter, with potentially profound implications for America’s Iran policy.  Since the Islamic Republic’s June 12, 2009 presidential election, it has become widely accepted among Iran analysts in the United States and the Western political class more broadly that the emergence of the Green Movement […]

  • Headline: “Saudis Deny Discussing Pressure on China over Iran with US”

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Sometimes headlines really do convey powerful messages.  That was certainly the case with an AFP story, which appeared late last week under the headline, “Saudis Deny Discussing Pressure on China over Iran with US.”   The story was prompted by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ visits to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates last week. […]

  • Biden’s Israel Debacle Puts Obama’s Flawed Middle East Strategy in the Spotlight

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Vice President Joseph Biden set out to massage U.S.-Israeli relations this week, but instead ran up against the reality of Israeli politics, manifested in the Netanyahu government’s announcement of the construction of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem.  The result, as described by the normally rhetorically sober Financial Times, has been to expose “an emasculated […]

  • Is the Obama Administration Supporting Violent “Regime Change” in Iran?

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    We were in Tehran on February 24 — the day when Iranian authorities announced the capture of Abdol Malik Rigi, the head of Jundallah.  Jundallah (the name in Arabic for “soldiers of God”; the group is also known as the People’s Resistance Movement of Iran) is a Sunni Islamist group that claims to be fighting […]

  • Clinton Strikes Out in Brazil: A Security Council Divided on Iran Sanctions

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Brasilia to mount a full court press on the Brazilian government to support a United Nations Security Council resolution imposing tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activities.  (Brazil is presently one of the Council’s ten non-permanent members.)  And, as accumulating media reports indicate, she was politely but […]

  • Syria’s Strategic Ties to the Islamic Republic: Diplomacy in the Post-Iraq/Post-Peace Process Middle East

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Last week, just after we had completed our regional tour to Beirut, Damascus, and Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his own journey to Damascus, for highly publicized meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, HAMAS Political Bureau chief Khalid Mishal, and a “resistance” summit with Assad and Hizballah Secretary General Shaykh Hassan Nasrallah.  Ahmadinejad’s trip […]

  • The Israeli Agenda

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Does Israel want another war in Lebanon and/or Gaza?  Certainly, the Israeli posture toward both Lebanon and Gaza has grown increasingly provocative.  Violations of Lebanese airspace by Israeli military aircraft are not new, but have increased dramatically in recent weeks.  For the past several weeks, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri has been warning of escalating […]

  • Thanks to the University of Tehran

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    We just returned from a trip to the Middle East, which included stops in Lebanon, Syria, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.  We will be writing about our meetings, discussions, and observations on this trip in future posts.  First, though, we want to express our gratitude to the Faculty of World Studies at the University […]

  • China, Europe, and Natural Gas in Iran

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Yesterday, President Obama declared that the international community is “moving along fairly quickly” toward imposing new multilateral sanctions on Iran.  Today, the Obama Administration followed that up by announcing new unilateral financial sanctions against individuals and corporate entities associated with the Revolutionary Guards.  The Administration proclaims that its “engagement” policy has been successful, after all, […]

  • Just Which Country Is “Playing for Time” in Nuclear Diplomacy with Iran?

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Until today, the Obama Administration and much of the foreign policy punditocracy in Washington have been overflowing with observations that recent statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki reiterating the Islamic Republic’s interest in a deal to refuel the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) were just another example of Iranian efforts to […]

  • Could the Obama Administration Perhaps Be Exaggerating Russian Enthusiasm for Expanded Sanctions on Iran?

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    In recent weeks, the Obama Administration has been enthusiastically spinning its progress in winning Russian support for prospective new sanctions on Iran.  We have cautioned that, while Russia may, in the end, support a new UNSC sanctions resolution, it will not support broad-based sanctions against major sectors of Iran’s economy or measures that would get […]

  • Iran, China, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    The new secretary general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Muratbek Sansyzbayevich Imanaliev, said at a news conference in Beijing earlier this week that the conflict in Afghanistan and expanding the SCO’s members to include Iran and Pakistan were the top issues on the SCO’s agenda in 2010.  Certainly, these issues are likely to dominate […]

  • Just Which Major Power Faces “Diplomatic Isolation”?

    Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett

    Back in May 2009 — before the Islamic Republic’s June 2009 presidential election — we took a lot criticism for our view in a New York Times Op Ed that “President Obama’s Iran policy has, in all likelihood, already failed.”  In particular, we argued that Obama “has made several policy and personnel decisions that have […]

← Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
Next →

Monthly Review Essays

  • The Migrant Genocide: Toward a Third World Analysis of European Class Struggle
    Iker Suarez A banner at a memorial rally for victims of the 2014 massacre of migrants at Tarajal, 2021.

    Over 10,000 people died in transit to Spain in 2024 alone.[1] On June 2022, the border fence of Melilla, one of two Spanish enclaves in Morocco, was witness to a massacre that killed or disappeared over a hundred African migrants.[2]  A recent BBC investigation revealed that Greek border guards systematically repeal immigrants already on Greek […]

Lost & Found

  • Strike at the Helm: The First Ministerial Meeting of the New Cycle of the Bolivarian Revolution
    Hugo Chávez Mural of Chávez in Caracas. (Univision)

    On October 7th, 2012, after hearing of his victory as the nation‘s candidate with 56 percent of the vote, President Hugo Chávez Frias announced from a balcony in his hometown that a new cycle was beginning the very next day, October 8th.

Trending

  • World leaders attend the 2025 BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 7, 2025. Photo courtesy the Government of India/Wikimedia Commons.
    What is BRICS and where is it going?
  • Paul M. Sweezy and Harry Magdoff
    Paul Sweezy facts for kids
  • Trump
    Trump escalates Ukraine war-Putin acknowledges reality is turning out to be Marxist
  • HADEEQA ARZOO MALIK PREPARES TO SPEAK ON JUNE 8 AT CUNY4PALESTINE’S PRESS CONFERENCE AND RALLY TO ADDRESS REPRESSION ACROSS CUNY. (PHOTO: JUDE SEMINARA / @JUDESIES)
    CUNY suspends student activist leader, fires four faculty members in escalation of repression against Palestine activism
  • The "Atomic Bowl." Photo courtesy Greg Mitchell.
    A new documentary highlights one of the most surreal events of World War II: The “Atomic Bowl”
  • Image by Caitlin Johnstone
    The Empire is a nonstop insult to our intelligence
  • Hard Truths About the US Labor Movement: An Interview with Chris Townsend
  • This colorized transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19.
    The Costs of Covid
  • Anointed and the Annihilators
    The anointed and the annihilators: Trump’s peace candidacy and his apostles in Tel Aviv and Rawalpindi
  • RootsAction’s Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon
    ‘Media and corporate power structures see genuine Democracy as a terrible danger’

Popular (last 30 days)

  • Airbus A330-243F cargo aircraft
    Russian and Chinese Military cargo planes shuttling weapons, missiles, supplies into Iran
  • A person on a crane surveys the ruins of a bombed building, surrounded by smoke.
    The Empire’s Strategic Failure: How the US-Israeli Assault on Iran Accelerated Imperial Decline
  • AP Photo / IRNA/ Mostafa Qotbi
    Iran now first line of defense of BRICS and the Global South
  • Natanz, Iran
    Exclusive: Iran given advance notice as U.S. insisted attack on nuclear sites is ‘one-off’
  • Black citizenship
    The necessity of birthright citizenship for Black People
  • World leaders attend the 2025 BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 7, 2025. Photo courtesy the Government of India/Wikimedia Commons.
    What is BRICS and where is it going?
  • Climeworks CO2 capture plant under construction in Iceland.
    Can carbon dioxide removal save the climate?
  • John Bellamy Foster on U.S. Foreign Policy & the “New MAGA Imperialism”
    What is the Trump Doctrine? John Bellamy Foster on U.S. Foreign Policy & the “New MAGA Imperialism”
  • diabetes
    China strikes Diabetes
  • Chilean Communist Party leader Jeannette Jara in a photo composition with sketches of Santiago and the Chilean flag. Photo: Eduardo Ramón/El País.
    Chile: A major victory for the People and the Left, with strategic impact

RSS MR Press News

  • EXCERPT: Colonial dreams, racist nightmares, liberated futures (from the introduction to A Land With A People) July 11, 2025
  • LISTEN: Public banking must be definancialized…and democratized (Socialist Register/Thomas Marois on ‘Against the Grain’) July 11, 2025
  • LISTEN: Rafael Barrett’s keen observations, blistering critiques, and anarchist politics (William Costa on ‘Against the Grain’) July 9, 2025
  • The legacy of a Sardinian original (Roses for Gramsci reviewed in ‘Counterpunch’) June 13, 2025
  • LISTEN: Gramsci’s lasting contributions (Andy Merrifield on ‘Against the Grain’) June 6, 2025

RSS Climate & Capitalism

  • ‘Climate tipping points pose catastrophic risks to billions of people’ July 9, 2025
  • Can carbon dioxide removal save the climate? June 29, 2025
  • Global heating isn’t just getting worse. It is getting worse faster. June 19, 2025
  • Ecosocialist Bookshelf, June 2025 June 17, 2025
  • 1.5 is dead: How hot will the Earth get? June 5, 2025

 

RSS Monthly Review

  • July-August 2025 (Volume 77, Number 3) July 1, 2025 The Editors
  • A Special Issue on Communes in Socialist Construction July 1, 2025 Chris Gilbert
  • Venezuela’s Communal Project July 1, 2025 Ángel Prado
  • Socialist Communes and Anti-Imperialism: The Marxist Approach July 1, 2025 Chris Gilbert
  • The Worker-Peasant Alliance in the Transition to Socialism Today July 1, 2025 Prabhat Patnaik

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License

Monthly Review Foundation
134 W 29TH ST STE 706
New York NY 10001-5304

Tel: 212-691-2555