Stephen Kinzer

Venezuela may be the latest in a long string of botched invasions and coups throughout the region. 

Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega was once hailed as a revolutionary for ending the dynastic Samoza rule in the '70s. But now he faces opposition that may be too difficult to resolve.

The ceasefire negotiated by the U.S. and Russia could bring the first break in the five-year Syrian civil war. But many are unsure if it can hold.

At the peak of the Cold War in the 1950s, two powerful brothers—Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and CIA director Allen Dulles —led the United States into a series of foreign conflicts whose effects are still felt around the world today. Historian Stephen Kinzer explains how they were both propelled by what he calls a quintessentially American set of fears and delusions. In  The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War, Kinzer, looks at their campaigns that pushed countries from Guatemala to the Congo into long spirals of violence, led the United States into the Vietnam War, and laid the foundation for decades of hostility between the United States and other countries.

Experienced as John Kerry is with diplomacy, negotiating foreign policy in regions volatile to the U.S. will not be an easy task. Journalist Stephen Kinzer offers a few theories for h...

Violence continues in Syria, a day after the UN-backed ceasefire deadline. What will it take for Bashar al-Assad and opposition forces to stop what has been almost a year of continuou...

On Wednesday, Iran claimed to have made advances in the master production of nuclear fuel despite increasingly tough sanctions by the West over its controversial nuclear program. This week Iran has also been in the headlines for a series of attacks in Thailand, India and Georgia. Furthermore, relations between Israel and Iran are increasingly strained with threats of aggression coming from both sides. Is there still hope for diplomacy between Iran and Western governments?

Attorney General Eric Holder announced in a news conference on Tuesday that U.S. officials foiled an Iranian-backed terrorist plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington. The plot, which allegedly involved a Mexican cartel and large sums of money, would have culminated in an assassination on U.S. soil — a clear violation of international law. But perhaps more tellingly, this plot reveals major rifts between two of the Middle East's largest nations and within Iran's highest levels of power.

A ripple of activism is spreading across the Middle East, following Egypt’s popular uprising that ended three decades of authoritarian rule. Iran’s opposition rallied in Tehran despite a government ban, and the Palestinian cabinet resigned Monday. What does this change mean for the United States' role in the Mideast? William Yong, reporter for The New York Times is in Tehran, where he's been watching the protests.

The United States is performing a difficult balancing act in how to respond to the tumult in Egypt. The Obama administration was quick to show support for protesters who are pushing for democratic reform in the Middle East, but hasn't forcefully called for the end to Mubarak's regime.

American and European diplomats are meeting in Geneva today in hopes of building a framework for future talks on tempering Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But yesterday, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization announced that it had produced yellowcake uranium from domestically-mined ore — a breakthrough that eliminates Iran's reliance on imports for their nuclear goals.

On Monday, Rwandans head to the polls to vote in presidential elections. Incumbent President Paul Kagame is expected to win by a landslide. Kagame is credited with bringing stability, development and economic prosperity to Rwanda following the 1994 genocide. While few expect violence on election day, Amnesty International says voters are casting their ballots in a climate of fear.

 

One year ago, Iran, in turmoil, appeared to be on the brink of a revolution. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was declared the winner of Iran's much-contested presidential election. For days afterwards, protests raged. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians poured into the streets. They marched, despite a savage government crackdown. Dissidents, journalists and ordinary people were swept off the streets and imprisoned, but the protests went on. Cameras filmed the death throes of a young woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, shot in the streets of Tehran. She was called a martyr; her death fuelled even more protests. Twitter and Youtube became foreign correspondents, telling stories from the embattled nation after traditional media were shut down or shut out. But the protests petered out.

One year later, where is the revolutionary fervor?

Stephen Kinzer explains what he thinks the United States can do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East.

Today is the 31st anniversary of the Iranian revolution, and to mark that date, Iranians took to the streets in protest this morning. For a look at the challenges - both internal and external - that Iran is facing, we're joined by Stephen Kinzer, author of "All The Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror" and a forthcoming book"Reset: Itan, Turkey and America's future."

Earlier this summer, protests spilled onto the streets of Tehran in the days following Iran's June 12 presidential elections. At the time, some voices inside Iran's halls of power all...