Snapshots

Ayatollah Khamenei has developed a four-part strategy to avoid a repeat of the 2009 presidential elections, which led to massive demonstrations and the discrediting of the regime. But the eleventh-hour declarations of candidacy by Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei have made his task more difficult.

The high turnout for the recent general election indicates that the Pakistani public is warming up to democracy. But participation is a double-edged sword: by virtue of having had its voice heard, the public now has heightened expectations of government performance. If Sharif fails to deliver, public disaffection could set in rather quickly and powerfully.

All in all, the reaction of the online jihadist community to the Boston bombing was unusually tepid. For many, the relatively small attack was simply a sideshow to bigger operations, most notably in Syria. For others, it was an uncomfortable indication of the global jihadist movement’s real limitations in the West.

The Supreme Court decision on Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. seemed to deal a blow to foreign victims of foreign human rights abusers who wished to the Alien Tort Statute to sue their abusers in U.S. courts. But the decision might be a blessing in disguise. The ATS never proved that useful in advancing human rights worldwide, and by slamming the door on it, the Supreme Court has pushed the human rights movement to focus on using other tools.