The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s new Supreme Leader represents one of the most consequential political shifts in the Islamic Republic in more than three decades. For the first time since the 1979 Revolution, supreme authority has passed directly from father to son. The Assembly of Experts confirmed Mojtaba around a week after the killing of his father, Ali Khamenei, in a US-Israeli strike that wiped out a substantial portion of Iran’s senior leadership. With that decision, days of speculation over a possible vacuum at the summit of power were brought to a close, at a moment when Iran had already entered a major war.

Who is Iran's new Supreme Leader? How was he shaped, and what ideas define him? What is his relationship with Iran’s institutions? What scenarios lie ahead for the country? And what form will the day after the war take?

The Women Who Escaped ISIS

[caption id="attachment_55255200" align="aligncenter" width="4112"] Iraqi women pose for a photo in Baghdad's Tahrir Square on December 10, 2017, during a gathering celebrating the end of the three…

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Iran’s Fourth Estate

[caption id="attachment_55255129" align="aligncenter" width="787"] Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres- RSF) activists take part in a protest in front of an Iran Air agency in Paris,…

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Why the Taliban Isn't Winning in Afghanistan

[caption id="attachment_55255137" align="aligncenter" width="4928"] Taliban fighters stand with their seized weapons as they are presented to the media in Kabul on January 5, 2016. (Getty)[/caption]…

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Hezbollah Will Not Yield Lebanon

[caption id="attachment_55255084" align="aligncenter" width="5724"] Young female supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah Shiite movement hold a giant symbolic key of Palestinian homes during a rally held…

Hanin Ghaddar

Will Iran be challenged in 2018?

[caption id="attachment_55255080" align="aligncenter" width="6432"] Iran's President Hassan Rouhani ( Getty Images)[/caption] by:Hanin Ghaddar As the New Year unfolds, the Middle East looks more…

Hanin Ghaddar

Europe's Authoritarian Equilibrium

by R. Daniel Kelemen* On Wednesday, December 20, the European Commission took a historic step to defend the rule of law in Poland. For the first time ever, the Commission triggered Article 7(1)…

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Trump and the Bond Market

[caption id="attachment_55255109" align="aligncenter" width="594"] Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. (Getty)[/caption] by…

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Macron’s World

[caption id="attachment_55255102" align="aligncenter" width="5246"] French President Emmanuel Macron listens to employees during a visit to the Whirlpool factory in Amiens, northern France, on…

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The Myanmar Military's Legacy of Impunity

[caption id="attachment_55255072" align="aligncenter" width="7360"] A Rohingya refugee boy desperate for aid cries as he climbs on a truck distributing aid for a local NGO near the Balukali refugee…

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