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?

Imagining Refugia

[caption id="attachment_55254738" align="aligncenter" width="4131"] Kurdish refugee children from the Syrian town of Kobani look on near makeshift tents in a camp in the southeastern town of Suruc,…

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Staying the Course in Afghanistan

[caption id="attachment_55254735" align="aligncenter" width="5760"] Members of the media try to protect themselves from dust blown up by a British forces transport helicopter as it lands at the…

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Xi Enters New Era of Power

[caption id="attachment_55254728" align="aligncenter" width="3628"] China's President Xi Jinping waves as he attends the opening session of the 19th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the…

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From Rhetoric to Action

[caption id="attachment_55254676" align="aligncenter" width="4640"] Iran's President Hassan Rouhani answers a question during a press conference in New York on September 20, 2017, on the sideline of…

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The Postcolonial Cold War

[caption id="attachment_55254692" align="aligncenter" width="3328"] Mao Tse Toung (1893-1976) chinese president here during review of army of The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in Pekin,…

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Don't Fund Syria's Reconstruction

[caption id="attachment_55254684" align="aligncenter" width="3000"] A Kurdish Syrian woman walks with her child past the ruins of the town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, on March 25, 2015. …

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Making Jihad Pay

[caption id="attachment_55254681" align="aligncenter" width="3808"] A member of the Iraqi forces walks past a mural bearing the logo of ISIS in a tunnel that was reportedly used as a training centre…

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