When President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emerged from seemingly nowhere to capture the Iranian presidency in 2005, American officials were dumbfounded. Whereas his predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, sought to assuage the West with talk of ‘dialogue of civilizations’, Ahmadinejad was crude and coarse.

I keep replaying the video in my mind of the leader of the free world running a game of three card monte with the Russian government against the American people—especially that godawful little gesture where Obama reaches toward Medvedev for an intimate moment:

February and March were bad months for the Western presence in Afghanistan. First the accidental burning of the Quran and then a lone soldier’s massacre of Afghan civilians undercut U.S. efforts to win Afghan hearts and minds.

The Islamic Republic of Iran will soon hold parliamentary elections, its first national election since widespread protests led to a violent crackdown following the 2009 presidential contest. Iranian leaders have described the upcoming parliamentary election, scheduled for March 2, as a critical event for the regime.

In the latest Middle Eastern Outlook, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Iran scholar Ali Alfoneh writes about Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's power struggle with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Merely monitoring Iran's foray into Latin America is not enough. The United States must find its way toward adopting new forward-leaning policies that will frustrate Tehran’s plans to threaten U.S. security and interests close to home.

Editor's Note: FMSO’s Operational Environment Watch provides translated selections and analysis from a diverse range of foreign articles and other media that analysts and expert contributors believe will give military and security experts an added dimension to their ...

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has surrounded himself with trusted college alumni, former IRGC fighters, and relatives.