JOHN TIRMAN

The Reading Room

JOHN TIRMAN

The Reading Room

The best reading--books, articles, op-eds, analysis--on public policy issues relevant to the new administration's manifold tasks. This is drawn from the worlds of universities, think tanks, journalists, and others who have done the empirical work to present factual, often original, observations and make it understandable and useful.

The Iran Crisis

Mousavi speaks to democracy activists June 20, 2009

The best daily analysis, from Juan Cole

Excellent blogging by Andrew Sullivan

Asieh Mir explains the protests

We can look at the crisis as a consequence of a septic, fairy-tale ideology strangling itself and the Iranian people. We can look at it as freedom fighters calling for a new Iran. Neither would be precisely true. What we do know is that the rigged elections have demonstrated anew how authoritarians misstep, and how many people pay a high price for that miscalculation.

The U.S. and Obama have treaded carefully, which is all he and we can do. We can say to the protesters, we are listening, and say to the authoritarians, we are watching. Eventually, we must talk to Iran and move to heal the bitterness of the last 56 years, because that will help Iranians more than anything else. That is months away, however, because moving forward now is neither necessary or morally sensible. Then, we can seek the new approach, whomever is in power.

A New Approach to Iran
a roadmap to a secure and cooperative relationship
April 2009

The New Approach from theBoston Globe

MIT-Harvard Gaza Symposium: Statement
The need for a new policy of accountability and human rights

Iraq mortality study given thumbs up in JHU review:
After two years of back and forth on the integrity of the "Lancet 2" study, an internal review by the Bloomberg School of Health found the methods sound and the survey's work to be completely authentic. READ

Bush's War Dead - 1 million
Doing the math, from The Nation and AlterNet

What would a "Liberal Foreign Policy" look like? see it here

The New American Frontier, my look backwards and forwards to provide a bigger canvas for the new Obama era, from The American Scholar

A new strategy for dealing with Iran - Joint Experts' Statement

TIME FOR NEW AGENDAS

Finally, some new thinking about the economic crisis and the way we live from The Nation

Pickering, Luers and Walsh on a new Iran policy

John Mearsheimer on Gaza, from the American Conservative

The Battle for Iran Policy

What "Victory" in Iraq?

For excellent foreign coverage: Inst. for War & Peace Reporting

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