Interviews

  Kourosh Ziabari - The assumption that the United States is experiencing a political decline and its economic and military power is also on the wane has many proponents and critics. Many academicians argue that the United States has been facing a serious political downfall following the World War II and it cannot exert influence over so many countries as the world nations have woken up to the urgent need for a structural revision of their relations and interactions with the United States as a hegemon, and don’t tolerate its absolute and uncontested dominance anymore. These thinkers believe that the U.S. has also undergone economic setbacks, especially following the late-2000s economic crisis. However, there is another group...

  Kourosh Ziabari - The fact that new contenders have been challenging the economic and political absolutism of the United States for several decades is almost clear to all of those who have been closely monitoring the developments of the American society and the U.S. foreign policy. Japan has risen from the ashes of the World War II, has consigned to oblivion the deadly atomic bombardments of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and is now featuring itself as one of the world’s largest economic powers. China has made such enormous economic progress that is predicted to surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy no later than 2020. Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and Iran, among a number of other countries are also...

  Kourosh Ziabari - The concept of imperialism and the issue of the global political, economic and cultural dominance and hegemony of the United States are complicated and subtle questions which should be dealt with carefully and eruditely. It’s not possible to tackle this issue in a disorganized and incompetent manner. It should be noted that the hegemony of the United States has to be studied in terms of its military, political, social, cultural, industrial and media aspects and all of these aspects need elaborate and detailed discussions to be completely clarified, both to the academics and the public. Following the conclusion of the World War II, the phenomenon of the plurality of political powers started to emerge...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Mark Foster Gage is the founding partner of Gage/Clemenceau Architects in New York City and a professor of architecture at the Yale School of Architecture. His work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Deutsches Architektur Zentrum in Berlin. Gage/Clemenceau Architects was recently selected as one of the architecture firms to represent the United States in the 2010 Beijing International Biennale. Mr. Gage’s firm received an AIA New Practices citation in 2006 and was chosen as a finalist in the Museum of Modern Art/PS1 Young Architects Program in 2007. In 2008 he was selected as a winner of the...

Kourosh Ziabari - Today, most of the international relations analysts and experts consider China as the world’s second political and economic power after the United States. China came second in the International Monetary Fund’s 2011 ranking of countries by GDP (nominal) and is one of the main producers of agricultural products, industrial commodities and the world’s number one exporter of goods to other nations. China is also the United States’ first trading partner and at the same time, it’s major economic and political competitor. The politics of China are thoroughly complicated and in most cases, incomprehensible. National interests define the limits of China’s foreign policy while some traces of opposition to the Western...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Today even the most optimistic advocates of the U.S. foreign policy are confessing that the aggressive attitude of the consecutive U.S. administrations in the recent decades have contributed to the weakening and undermining of the American Empire, portraying a detestable image of the cultural hallmarks, lifestyle and socioeconomic values of the United States. In Iran Review, we have started a project to discuss the issue of the future of U.S. Empire and the survival of imperialism with the world’s renowned political scientists and public intellectuals. We reflect the viewpoints and ideas of world’s academics regarding the decline of the U.S. Empire, and whether they agree or disagree with these...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Alexander Stille is a renowned American journalist and university professor. His father, Ugo Stille, was a renowned Italian journalist and former editor of the Milan-based leading daily Corriere della Sera. Alexander Stille graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is currently working there as a professor of journalism. He has written extensively on Italy domestic and foreign policies and has been a vocal critic of the former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, accusing him of corruption, accumulating illegitimate power and creating an unrivaled and uncontested media monopoly in the country. Stille has also written about the role of the Sicilian mafia in Italian politics and...

Kourosh Ziabari - Deepak Tripathi is a British historian, journalist and researcher who specializes in South and West Asia affairs, terrorism and the United States foreign policy. He was born into a political family in Unnao, the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. His grandfather, Pandit Vishwambhar Dayal Tripathi, was a prominent leader in the Indian independence movement and Member of the Constituent Assembly and later the Indian Parliament. Deepak Tripathi worked with BBC for almost 23 years and ended up his cooperation with the British broadcaster in 2000. During these years, he served as a South Asia specialist and correspondent, Afghanistan correspondent and Syria, Nepal, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka reporter. He has also been a BBC...

 Kourosh Ziabari - Christian Bromberger is globally renowned as a prolific and outstanding orientalist who has dedicated almost three decades of his life to research and study on the culture and civilization of the Near and Middle East.Fluent in English, Persian, Russian, Italian, Greek, and French, he has served several years as the Director of French Association of Iranology in Paris and currently holds the Professorship of Ethnology at the University of Aix En Provence.His latest research titled “the Interrelation of Crafts and Cultures in Guilan or the Exploration of a Society Through the Arts and Crafts”, which reveals some anthropological facts on the lifestyle of people at the North Iranian Province of Guilan, is...

Kourosh Ziabari: 11 years after the shocking attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001 which claimed the lives of 3,000 people, there are still many questions unanswered about the horrendous events as several independent researchers, who have been mostly vilified by the U.S. mainstream media as “conspiracy theorists,” have seriously questioned the official accounts the U.S. government and 9/11 Commission have presented regarding the attacks. As alleged by the U.S. government and mainstream media, 15 hijackers who were all the citizens of Saudi Arabia and affiliated with the Al-Qaeda terrorist group took over the American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Michael Behe is an American scientist and biochemist. Being an intelligent design advocate, he serves as a professor of biochemistry at the University of Lehigh in Pennsylvania. He is also a senior fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. Behe has controversially challenged the evolution theory of Charles Darwin which underpins the ideology of western thought with regards to the material life and universe. In his 1996 book “Darwin’s Black Box”, Behe has proposed the notion of irreducible complexity which underscores the role of an intelligent designer in the emergence of complex biological systems. According to this theory, certain biological systems are too complex to have...

Kourosh Ziabari - Mark Glenn is an American journalist and radio host based in Washington D.C. He runs the Ugly Truth radio show which features interviews with political activists, journalists, academicians and informed people who talk about the most important political developments of the world, and especially the Middle East. The Ugly Truth radio show has some co-hosts such as the Palestinian journalist Sammi Ibrahem. Mark Glenn is a staunch supporter of Iran and has dedicated many of his radio programs to the Iran affairs, including Iranian culture, lifestyle and civilization, the media propaganda campaign of the United States and Israel on Iran, the war threats of the same countries against Iran and the terrorist operations of MKO,...