For many years now, Hezbollah has served as a major instrument of Iran to take over Lebanon, not only as a territory but as a sovereign state. Many Western countries would like to avoid that and invest in the former “Pearl of the Middle East”, led by France. These efforts …

Introduction Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 put an end to European security as a cooperative project. That project was grounded in the so-called Helsinki Decalogue, a declaration within the 1975 Helsinki Final Act that laid out agreed principles of conduct between the West and the Soviet bloc.1 …

Masoud Pezeshkian, who had vowed to form a “national consensus” (vefagh melli) government, could not deliver. Even though a few ministers are from the prior government, the key positions in his administration are given to those who had served in the reformist government of Hassan Rouhani until three years ago. …