The Foreign Service Journal, March 2010

10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 1 0 perceive their government as illegiti- mate. It also explored the assumption that the opposition represents a move- ment favoring a substantially different posture toward the United States. The PIPA study analyzed multiple polls of the Iranian public from differ- ent sources conducted during the three months following the June elec- tion, including one poll conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org, which is managed by PIPA. The study did not prove that there were no election irregularities; but nei- ther did it support the belief that a ma- jority rejected Ahmadinejad. It also found little evidence to support the other assumptions. “Our analysis sug- gests that it would not be prudent to base U.S. policy on the assumption that the Iranian public is in a pre-rev- olutionary state of mind,” says Steven Kull, director of PIPA. The complete report is available on- line at www.worldpublicopinion. org/pipa/ . Another view of the situation in Tehran not often heard in the U.S. comes from veteran New York Times foreign correspondent, historian and Northwestern University professor Stephen Kinzer, who told a Philadel- phia audience in late January that America’s ideal ally in the Middle East is not Jordan or a “new-and-improved” Iraq — and certainly not Saudi Arabia — but Iran. Kinzer was interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer ( www.philly. com/inquirer/magazine ). In his new book, Reset: Iran, Turkey and Amer- ica’s Future , due out in early June, he challenges the popular belief that it’s in our best interest to cultivate a weak, if not destabilized Iran. Like Turkey, he argues, Iran shares long-term strategic interests as well as a democratic impulse with the U.S. Moreover, Kinzer points out, as a Shi- ite nation, Iran has a deep-seated aver- sion toward radical Sunni movements like the Taliban. In his widely acclaimed 2003 polit- ical study, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Mid- dle East Terror , Kinzer argued that the anti-American rage that consumes Iranian leaders was incited 50 years ago when the CIA destroyed the na- tion’s first — and so far, only — exper- iment with liberal democracy after less than a decade. Democracy will flower again in Iran, Kinzer told the Inquirer , if only “the U.S. can resist the temptation to intervene and can allow events to take their own course.” Google v. China: Tough Love? A new row over Internet censorship in China erupted in mid-January with Google, Inc.’s announcement that it planned to stop censoring searches on its Google.cn network, and was con- sidering leaving China altogether if the problem could not be resolved. Only one of several disputes that have recently raised the temperature of Sino-American relations, this one has pushed the twin issues of cyberse- curity and Internet freedom back up to the top of the U.S. foreign policy agenda. In her Jan. 21 address on “Internet Freedom,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated the Obama admin- istration’s determination to “strengthen C Y B E R N O T E S Site of the Month: A New Online Center for Foreign Policy Discussion On Feb. 1, WorldAffairsDaily.org , a project of the World Affairs journal, debuted as an online center for discussion of foreign policy. As James Denton, publisher and editor of the online division, puts it, this is “a genuinely international site that allows any English-language reader to understand more fully the often unsettling events and complex issues that dominate the world’s headlines and debates.” On a daily basis, this attractive and accessible site presents a selection of official statements, news stories and think-tank reports from around the world. Thus, on any given day, readers will be able to see how a particular story is reported and com- mented upon in, for example, the Washington Post , France 24, Al-Jazeera, RIA Novesti, the Islamic Republic News Agency, “Frontline,” Afghanistan’s Quqnoos Web site and other media. “We know there is a global community,” says Denton. “Our idea is to allow everyone to hear the conversations taking place in its various neigh- borhoods.” In addition to selections from the bimonthly World Affairs journal, the site show- cases American bloggers from across the political spectrum, as well as influential mainstream and dissident voices from Europe, the Middle East, Russia and else- where. The aim is to facilitate frank, real-time conversations among opinion-makers at home and abroad about the ideas and events that define our era. “If we succeed,” says Denton, “when our viewers go to www.worldaffairsdaily.org, they will be look- ing at a rough draft of history.” World Affairs , the journal, is published in partnership with the American Peace Society. Issued intermittently since its founding in 1937, the publication was re- launched in a new format in 2008.