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In mid July 2017, Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan – Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs – authored two additional op-eds on U.S. policy in the Middle East. Dr. Sheehan’s scholarship on regime change, policy-oriented writing, and media appearances have been influential in shaping Washington’s thinking on terrorism, the Iranian opposition, and the prospect of a democratic transition in Iran.

SHEEHAN | Iran Ripe for Regime Change Two Years After Nuclear Deal | New York Daily News | 14 JUL 2017

SHEEHAN | Trump et Macron devraient décourager les entreprises d’investir en Iran | Translation | Trump and Macron Should Jointly Discourage Businesses from Investing in Iran | La Tribune | 13 JUL 2017

The first article in New York Daily News was published on the second anniversary of the conclusion of negotiations that resulted in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran (JCPOA) and proposes a formal shift in U.S. policy consistent with American national security interests and Department of State rhetoric.

In the second article Dr. Sheehan was invited by the French newspaper La Tribune to weigh in on the recent Trump-Macron meeting in Paris. The op-ed was translated into French as the heads of state met in private and shared with U.S. and E.U. dignitaries. Read the original article submitted in English here.

The policy-oriented commentaries are in keeping with remarks that Dr. Sheehan made at a panel discussion for U.S. officials in Europe earlier this summer where he spoke alongside former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and joined a distinguished international research delegation.

Dr. Sheehan also published two widely circulated op-eds in June that addressed terrorism and U.S. Policy in Middle East.

Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan is the Director of the graduate programs in Negotiations & Conflict Management and Global Affairs & Human Security in the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore. For research or media related updates or to learn more about Dr. Sheehan, follow him at @ProfSheehan or link to his research profiles.

Social Media: @ProfSheehan / @PublicAffairsUB

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Congressional Briefing | 2017 Iran Presidential Elections | U.S. House of Representatives

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Congressional Briefing | Iran Presidential Election: Status Quo or Change? | U.S. Congress | 16 May 2017

On May 16, 2017, Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan – Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs – was invited to moderate and speak at a briefing in the U.S. Congress for media and legislative staffers on the 2017 presidential elections in Iran. The panel discussion, held in the Rayburn Building’s House Foreign Affairs Committee Room, featured remarks by Congressman Mike Coffman (R-CO), Congressman Thomas Garrett (R-VA), and leading Middle East experts Ilan Berman, Lee Smith, and Alireza Jafarzadeh. The event, carried live by Voice of America and translated in Farsi, was broadcast inside Iran.

On May 17, Dr. Sheehan followed his remarks in the U.S. Congress with a leading op-ed in Independent Journal Review titled When Iran Votes For President Friday, Is It A Referendum On The Future Or More Of The Same?

Warning that the ultimate power in contemporary Iran resides with the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, Dr. Sheehan cautioned U.S. policymakers not to expect reforms when either candidate wins:

“In the 2017 contest Iranians have again been denied an opportunity to choose from those who represent a meaningful departure from the status quo, they have been denied access to information from credible news outlets, and journalists, activists, and scholars have been denied basic freedoms widely considered staples of liberal democracy…

Without fundamental change in Iran the world will see more terrorism exported abroad and more violence directed at Iranians at home. Without real change in Tehran the world will get more ballistic missile tests, more covert arms transfers, more illicit nuclear activities, and more human rights abuses…

The Iranian regime’s rogue status and lack of legitimacy will leave whomever emerges on Friday vulnerable to a Persian Spring. As one prominent former U.S. official at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies concluded in the Wall Street Journal: History contradicts the dream of Iranian moderation so long as the existing regime is left intact.”

One day after the Congressional briefing moderated by Dr. Sheehan two senior members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee asked Secretary of State Tillerson not to recognize the Iranian Presidential Election in a formal letter to the Department of State. And one day after Dr. Sheehan’s op-ed, the editorial board of The Washington Post concluded, like Sheehan, that “real transformation in Iran will require a collapse of the Islamic Republic.”

A terrorism scholar, Dr. Sheehan’s recent scholarship has explored topics related to the Iranian opposition and regime change.

Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan is the Director of the graduate programs in Negotiations & Conflict Management and Global Affairs & Human Security in the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore. For additional research or media related updates or to learn more about Dr. Sheehan, follow him at @ProfSheehan or link to his research profiles.

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SHEEHAN | Interviewed on Academic Freedom in Iran

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SHEEHAN | Interview on State of Academic Freedom in Iran | 29 September 2016

On September 29, 2016, Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan – Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs – was interviewed by Cited podcast for an episode on academic freedom in Iran. Dr. Sheehan’s interview follows the release of Professor Homa Hoodfar, a Canadian-Iranian anthropologist who had been detained — many thought unjustly — in Tehran’s Evin prison since March.

Cited is an award-winning documentary radio program funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the University of British Columbia. It has been featured on 95 stations, including NPR and CBC. The segment featuring Dr. Sheehan begins at the 24 minute mark and runs approximately 15 minutes.

Stream the full episode of the @CitedPodcast or download it from iTunes or SoundCloud.

Dr. Sheehan is the Director of the graduate programs in Negotiations & Conflict Management and Global Affairs & Human Security in the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore.

For additional research or media related updates or to learn more about Dr. Sheehan, follow him on Twitter @ProfSheehan or link to his research profiles.

BACKGROUND READING: SHEEHAN | Iran’s Assault on Academic Freedom | The Hill | Op-Ed | 11 September 2016

Social Media: @ProfSheehan / @PublicAffairsUB

Dr. Sheehan Serves as Academic Observer at 2016 Conference for Democracy in Iran

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In July 2016, Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan – Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs – traveled to Paris as part of a distinguished research delegation examining the Iranian opposition on the first anniversary of the conclusion of negotiations that resulted in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran.

A guest of the organizing committee, Dr. Sheehan met with a series of bipartisan U.S. officials in Paris to discuss U.S.-Iran policy and his research on regime change. He also chaired a panel featuring former U.S. Attorney General Judge Michael Mukasey. While in Europe, Sheehan met with a recently released American hostage detained at Iran’s notorious Evin Prison and examined the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran through a series of interviews with Iranian dissidents.

The annual conference – which featured crowds estimated at more than 100,000 – is the largest annual gathering of the democratic Iranian opposition in exile. The July event featured remarks by leaders from more than fifty countries, a bipartisan delegation of senior U.S. officials, and prominent academics from around the world. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and the deteriorating situation in neighboring Syria and Iraq were discussed.

Dignitaries in attendance included former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich; former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge; former U.S. Attorney General Judge Michael Mukasey; and former National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush, Frances Townsend, among many others.

Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, a former Director of the Saudi General Intelligence Directorate, Saudi Arabia’s Intelligence Agency, pledged his commitment to regime change from within via the Iranian resistance. Clare M. Lopez, Vice President for Research and Analysis at the Center for Security Policy, reflected on the significance of the new alliance between the former Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., a member of the House of Saud, and the principal Iranian opposition:

Although not openly stated by bin Faisal, the new NCRI-Riyadh alliance may be expected to involve funding, intelligence sharing, and possible collaboration in operations aimed at the shared goal of overthrowing the current Tehran regime.

Dr. Sheehan has written and spoken extensively on the concept of regime change from within in the context of Iran in both scholarly and news outlets and for the U.S. policy community. Sheehan is the Director of the graduate programs in Negotiations & Conflict Management and Global Affairs & Human Security in the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore.

For additional research or media related updates or to learn more about Dr. Sheehan, follow him on Twitter @ProfSheehan or link to his research profiles.

Social Media: @ProfSheehan / @PublicAffairsUB

SHEEHAN: Trump’s Torture Stance is Bad Counterterrorism Policy | The Hill | Op-Ed

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*PRESS RELEASE via University of Baltimore*

SHEEHAN: Trump’s Torture Stance is Bad Counterterrorism Policy | The Hill | Op-Ed | 1 July 2016

In the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Istanbul on June 28, Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan – Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs – questions the wisdom of Donald Trump’s embrace of torture as an appropriate counterterrorism tool. The criticism is situated in the context of studies Dr. Sheehan has undertaken over the past ten years on matters related to evidence-based counterterrorism policy. #PDF #PR

Excerpts:

When force disintegrates into barbarism in asymmetric conflicts, as it was shown to do in footage released in 2003 depicting abuse and humiliation of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, the negative effects are magnified. The photographs of U.S. soldiers and CIA personnel abusing Iraqi prisoners was not simply, as Fareed Zakaria (2005) put it, just “bad public relations”:

Ask any soldier in Iraq when the general population really turned against the United States and he will say, ‘Abu Ghraib.’ A few months before the scandal broke, Coalition Provisional Authority polls showed Iraqi support for the occupation at 63 percent. A month after Abu Ghraib, the number was 9 percent.

The lesson: When you brutalize the enemy, there are negative consequences.

Dr. Sheehan is the Director of the graduate programs in Negotiations & Conflict Management and Global Affairs & Human Security in the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore.

For additional research or media related updates or to learn more about Dr. Sheehan, follow him on Twitter @ProfSheehan or link to his research profiles.

Social Media: @ProfSheehan / @PublicAffairsUB

Screenshots: #PR #I #II #III

TANTER & SHEEHAN: The Iran Deal Needs Bipartisanship | Foreign Policy | Commentary

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#Media / #News / #Scholarship / #Inquiries / #UBTANTER & SHEEHAN: The Iran Deal Needs Bipartisanship | Foreign Policy | Commentary |15 Aug 2015 | Print #PDF

Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan, Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs, and Dr. Raymond Tanter, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and former National Security Council Staff in the Reagan-Bush administration, take to the pages of Foreign Policy to issue a call for bipartisanship in the context of congressional oversight of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran.

Foreign Policy was founded in 1970 by prominent Harvard University professor of political science, Samuel Huntington, to give a voice to alternative views about American foreign policy at the time of the Vietnam War.

Since this time it has grown into one of the leading foreign policy magazines in the world with a readership of millions:

“Over the course of almost half a century of award-winning journalism, design, and the presentation of important new ideas from the world’s leading thinkers, Foreign Policy has established itself at the forefront of media organizations devoted to the coverage of global affairs. Through Foreign Policy Magazine, our website ForeignPolicy.com, and FP Events, the FP Group reaches an international audience of millions and has become a trusted source of insight and analysis for leaders from government, business, finance, and the academic world.”

For additional research or media related updates or to learn more about Dr. Sheehan, follow him on Twitter @ProfSheehan or link to his research profiles. Follow Dr. Tanter @IPCPublishing and Pundicity.

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SHEEHAN: National Press Club | Iran Nuclear Deal & Congressional Oversight | 4 Aug 2015

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Iran Policy Committee Publishing & Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project (NPPP.org)

PRESS RELEASE: Iran Nuclear Deal & Congressional Oversight | National Press Club | Washington, D.C. | 4 Aug 2015

Note: Dr. Sheehan’s remarks run from ~ minute 27 – 50.

Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan, Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs, spoke at the National Press Club on August 4, 2015. Sheehan touched on topics related to congressional oversight of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, scenario likelihood, contingency planning, and the options available to policymakers not satisfied with the choice between war and diplomacy.

Speakers:

Prof. Alan J. Kuperman, Associate Professor, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, coordinates the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project.

Prof. Ivan Sascha Sheehan, Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Baltimore.

Chair, Moderator, and Commentator:

Emeritus Prof. Raymond Tanter, University of Michigan, is President of Iran Policy Committee Publishing and former member of the National Security Council staff and Representative of the Secretary of Defense to arms control talks.

*Official Press Release*

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SHEEHAN: Balancing Ends, Ways, and Means: The Case for Reviving Support for ‘Regime Change from Within’ in Iran | The Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis | Syracuse University | Spring 2015 | 10th Edition

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Access a full PDF of the newly published article here.

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SHEEHAN: Balancing Ends, Ways, and Means: The Case for Reviving Support for “Regime Change from Within” in Iran | The Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis | Syracuse University | Spring 2015 | 10th Edition

As a March 31 deadline looms and world powers scramble to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program – and on the heels of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warnings to a joint session of Congress this week – Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan has published his latest paper titled Balancing Ends, Ways, and Means: The Case for Reviving Support for ‘Regime Change from Within’ in Iran in The Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis (Syracuse University). In the paper he argues that “the U.S. needs to abandon the idea that pressure on Iran in the form of support for “regime change from within” will only derail talks. As Kenneth Pollack has pointed out, Iran does not moderate when the pressure is off but when it is high.

Excerpt: The regime’s expanding use of proxies to destabilize its neighbors is another matter of urgent concern. Iran still provides small arms shipments and training to the Taliban in Afghanistan. In addition, and despite its pledge to support Iraq’s stabilization, it gives regular guidance and training to Shia militants in Iraq. It has also deployed several hundred military specialists, including senior Quds Force commanders to Syria and is believed to have spent billions of dollars to support the Assad regime as it continues its brutal crackdown on the Syrian people, a crackdown that has resulted in the deaths of more than 70,000 civilians. Additionally, Iran has been sending weapons to secessionist movements to foment dissent and destabilize Yemen. These activities too are unlikely to stop in the presence of a nuclear deal, if one occurs. As Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, indicated as recently as November 2013, Iran is determined on “challenging the influence of America in the region and extending its own influence”and it does not appear to be inclined to change how it pursues its influence “one iota.”

Further, to support these activities and defend against potential fallout, Iran has intensified a brutal crackdown on its own citizens. While the regime’s record on human rights has always been poor, its repression of ordinary Iranians reached new heights in the wake of the disputed elections of 2009. Protestors were arrested en masse, tortured, raped and killed in prison. Today, as many as 500 Iranian dissidents, including minority rights and women’s activists, are still behind bars. Leading opposition figures such as Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard have now been held under house arrest for three years without charges or trial, and “despite President Rouhani’s numerous promises to respect people’s rights following his June 2013 electoral victory,” serious rights abuses continue. One of the most alarming trends is the surge in executions. Iran is now ranked number one, above China, in executions per capita. According to Ahmed Shaheed, Iran’s UN special rapporteur for human rights, 176 people were put to death in January, February, and early March of 2014 alone. Several were executed in public and many sources believe the numbers are much higher. According to other reports, including the Human Rights Documentation Center, more than 500 people have been executed since Rouhani took office. These trends, coupled with the regime’s record of arbitrary detention and unfair trials, discrimination against minorities, mistreatment of political prisoners and restrictions on freedom of expression, led the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to deliver a sharp rebuke to Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, as recently as March 2014. The problem is that such abuses not only affect individuals and communities. In “a world of complex interdependencies and trans-border activities,” they also have “spillover effects.” In particular they can increase the flow of refugees with destabilizing effects in neighboring countries. In addition, as Tim Dunne points out they “diminish the constraining capacity of key norms” and in the process give a “green light” to other states to engage in similar repression in blatant violation of international standards of behavior.

For additional research or media related updates or to learn more, follow Dr. Sheehan on Twitter @ProfSheehan.

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SHEEHAN: What Is “Regime Change From Within?” Unpacking the Concept in the Context of Iran | Digest of Middle East Studies | Oct 14

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SHEEHAN: What Is “Regime Change From Within?” Unpacking the Concept in the Context of Iran | Digest of Middle East Studies | Fall 2014 | Vol. 23, Issue 2

Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan is published in the fall 2014 issue of the Digest of Middle East Studies, a peer-reviewed journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Policy Studies Organization. Dr. Sheehan’s latest study — What Is “Regime Change From Within?” Unpacking the Concept in the Context of Iran — clarifies the contested concept of regime change from within via Tehran’s organized opposition and makes contributions to the concept’s formation to increase its policy relevance and classificatory significance.

Abstract: The use of the phrase “regime change from within” has surged in recent years in media, policy, and opposition discourse, especially in relation to the Islamic Republic of Iran. But what does “regime change from within” actually mean? Is it just a script to encourage the aspirations of a people, or can it be defined with more specificity? This article argues that to be of value as a concept and the basis for articulate policy, “regime change from within” needs to be better defined. To bring greater clarity to the term, the article tries to unpack the concept by disaggregating it into three analytically separable problem components: the “regime,” “change,” and “from within.” Drawing on the case of Iran, I argue that although most of the current debate around the concept is on the “from within” component, the definitional choices that need more discussion are the “regime” and “change” aspects of the phrase.

Excerpt | What Is “Regime Change From Within?” Unpacking the Concept in the Context of Iran | Digest of Middle East Studies | F.14 | Vol. 23, Issue 2 –

[The concept of] ‘regime change from within’ has been employed for an array of very disparate processes — as a holder for democracy promotion efforts from outside a country as well as indigenous efforts that exclude outside intervention, to highlight the need for radical change and more vaguely to call for continuous reform. But to be of value as a concept and the basis for articulate policy, a term needs to have some degree of specificity of meaning, some shared consensus. Otherwise, it just becomes a proverbial “you know it when you see it” concept that is difficult to distinguish from other types of political phenomena.

To address this gap and bring greater clarity to the concept, this article looks at some of the definitional choices that need to be addressed to come to a consensus on the meaning of “regime change from within.” Using the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I show how different decisions about what constitutes “regime change from within” could lead to very different conceptualizations in empirical cases…

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Sheehan Published in New Book on Middle East

Posted in analysis, arak, ashraf, assad, baghdad, brussels, CIA, clinton, college of public affairs, conflict resolution, congress, council on foreign relations, counterterrorism, covert, crimes against humanity, data, debate, delisting, democracy, digest of middle east studies, diplomacy, dissident, DOMES, european union, evidence-based, fordow, foreign policy, foreign policy analysis, framing, freedom, global, human rights, human security, IAEA, intelligence, international relations, international security studies, iran, iraq, maliki, media, MEK, MI6, middle east, middle east dialogue, military, mossad, natanz, NCRI, negotiation, nuclear, obama, P5+1, paris, PMOI, policy, policy studies organization, politics, protest, rajavi, regime change, research, rhetoric, sanctions, scholarly, security studies, sheehan, social science, state department, teaching, tehran, terror tagging, terrorism, threat, u.s. foundation for liberty, university of baltimore, unrest, war, weapons, westphalia press, zarif on June 19, 2014 by Professor Sheehan

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New Directions in the Middle East / Edited by Mohammed M. Aman and Mary Jo Aman / Westphalia Press / ISBN/EAN13: 194147201X; 9781941472019 / 16 Jun 2014

Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan is published in a new book titled New Directions in the Middle East. The book presents articles based on papers delivered at the annual Middle East Dialogue held in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Digest of Middle East Studies (DOMES) and the Policy Studies Organization (PSO), and at the Conference of the Association for Middle Eastern Public Policy and Administration (AMEPPA) held in Ifrane, Morocco. The authors suggest much needed and even radical reforms amidst a series of conflicts that include the standoff between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the role and impact of social media as empowered by technology, and citizens’ demands for political, economic, and social change. Those interested in crisis management and conflict resolution will find this a must read. The contributors represent an unusually wide variety of political and religious views and include a number who enjoy considerable standing in the Middle East.

“This exceptional work, composed of two volumes, ‘Middle East: Conflicts & Reforms’ and ‘New Directions in the Middle East’ is a magnum opus. In this book, edited by Mohammed M. Aman and Mary Jo Aman, the reader is introduced to a comprehensive and integrated erudite work addressed by a number of distinguished scholars from different disciplines dealing with the Middle East and North Africa, a most sensitive region of the world. The book identifies significant academic and public policy approaches as well as socio-economic, cultural, and political paradigms that bind together such timely topics as democracy, Islam, Islamism, sectarianism, secularism, globalism, modernity, Arab Spring, social justice, social media, leadership, women’s rights, and peace. The book offers a unique and compelling assessment of the future of the Middle East. Objectively written and eloquently presented, this book will enhance the scholarship of the Middle East and assist in the understanding the ability of political systems, government or state and non-government or civil society, in handling and managing current challenges facing the region.”

el-Sayed el-Aswad, Ph.D.
Prof. of Anthropology and Chair of Department of Sociology
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
United Arab Emirates University

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SHEEHAN: Conflict Transformation as Counterinsurgency | Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice | March 2014

SHEEHAN: Conflict Transformation as Counterinsurgency | Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice | March 2014

Posted in 9-11, afghanistan, analysis, baghdad, college of public affairs, conflict resolution, conflict transformation, congress, council on foreign relations, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, courses, data, databases, democracy, diplomacy, education, evidence-based, foreign policy, foreign policy analysis, framing, global, human rights, human security, international relations, international security studies, international studies association, iraq, ISA, media, middle east, militarization, military, obama, peace, peace and conflict studies, peace review, peacebuilding, pedagogy, petraeus, policy, politics, research, scholarly, securitization, security studies, sheehan, social science, soldier, stability operations, state department, teaching, terrorism, transformation of war, university of baltimore, war on March 17, 2014 by Professor Sheehan

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Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan is published in the March 2014 edition of Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice. Dr. Sheehan’s latest study — Conflict Transformation as Counterinsurgency — is an empirical examination of the increasing usage of conflict transformation concepts in the context of counterinsurgency doctrine. Peace Review is a peer-reviewed journal published by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC/ Routledge that addresses current issues and controversies that underlie the promotion of a more peaceful world.

Excerpt | Conflict Transformation as Counterinsurgency | Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice | March 2014 –

…By October of 2008, Colonel Patrick Kelleher, in a report submitted to the Joint Military Operations Department at the Naval War College, had proposed that conflict transformation be embraced wholesale by the U.S. government as the primary framework and a “paradigm” for “Security, Stability, Transition and Reconstruction Operations (SSTR)” in what was now being called the “Long War” against insurgency. Borrowing from Lederach the importance of implementing a process to achieve “sustainable results” and from other influential work by Miall, Ramsbotham, and Woodhouse, he addressed the need to achieve transformation at five levels: “context transformation,” “structural transformation,” “actor transformation,” “issue transformation,” and “personal and group transformation.” But at each level, although he used the language of conflict transformation (paying attention to “basic human needs” and “empowering civil society”), he cast its intent in clearly utilitarian and prescriptive terms, such as to “win the peace,” “to establish a new domestic order,” and “to further U.S. objectives.”

Retrieve in #PDF Format – SHEEHAN: Conflict Transformation as Counterinsurgency | Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice | March 2014

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Digest of Middle East Studies (DOMES) / Wiley-Blackwell / Policy Studies Organization / Online ISSN: 1949-3606 / Fall 2013, Vol. 22, Issue 2

Sheehan Study on Iranian Opposition Published in Digest of Middle East Studies

Posted in analysis, APSA, CIA, clinton, college of public affairs, congress, council on foreign relations, counterterrorism, courses, covert, crimes against humanity, data, databases, debate, delisting, democracy, deterrence, digest of middle east studies, diplomacy, dissident, DOMES, education, european union, evidence-based, faculty fellow, foreign policy, foreign policy analysis, framing, freedom, global, human rights, human security, intelligence, international relations, international security studies, international studies association, iran, iran policy committee, iraq, ISA, maliki, media, MEK, MI6, middle east, middle east dialogue, military, NCRI, negotiation, nuclear, obama, paris, peace, PMOI, policy, policy studies organization, politics, preemptive, protest, rajavi, regime change, research, rhetoric, scholarly, security studies, sheehan, state department, syria, teaching, terrorism, think-tank, threat, toronto, u.s. foundation for liberty, university of baltimore, unrest, war on October 11, 2013 by Professor Sheehan

Challenging a Terrorist Tag in the Media: Framing the Politics of Resistance and an Iranian Opposition Group – Digest of Middle East Studies – Fall 2013 – Vol. 22, Issue 2

Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan is published in the latest edition of the Digest of Middle East Studies, a peer reviewed journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Policy Studies Organization. The journal is edited by Middle East scholar Professor Mohammed M. Aman of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Study Abstract:

Scholars have shown that media framing has a powerful effect on citizen perception and policy debates. Research has provided less insight into the ability of marginalized actors to promote their preferred frames in the media in a dynamic political context. The efforts of an exiled Iranian opposition group to get its name removed from official terror lists in the US, UK and EU provides a valuable platform to examine this problem. Using content analysis, I explore how the group promoted its frames in the opinion sections of major world news publications over nine years (2003–2012). I then examine the extent to which journalists aligned to its frames, as opposed to rival official frames, over time in the larger arena of news. The results support research showing that by nurturing small opportunities, marginalized political actors can expand media capacity and influence, but these effects are mediated at least in part by critical or focusing events that make rival frames less salient. The study sheds light on the complex relationship between activists, the government and the media. It has implications for the ability of marginalized political actors to get their frames into public discourse. It also has implications for terror tagging and media coverage of other controversial issues.

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