Beyond Succession: What Mojtaba Khamenei’s Rise Reveals About the Islamic Republic By Yvette Hovsepian Bearce, PhD On March 8, 2026, Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei was elected the third Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. His rise to power comes at one of the most consequential moments in the...
The Coin in the Air: The Black Revolution and the Battle over Iran’s Youth
The Coin in the Air: The Black Revolution and the Battle over Iran’s Youth Yvette Hovsepian Bearce I. The Coin in the Air The Black Revolution has tossed an Iranian coin into the air. It is still spinning. It has not yet landed. And on both sides of that...
Who Speaks for the Iranian People? What Araghchi’s Statement Leaves Unsaid
Who Speaks for the Iranian People? What Araghchi’s Statement Leaves Unsaid Yvette Hovsepian Bearce Iran has just lived through what can only be called the Black Revolution. Nearly three weeks of confrontation between the state and its own people ended with the deaths of thousands of young Iranians. Most...
Power Is Not Inherited: A January 16 Reflection on Authority and Responsibility
Power Is Not Inherited: A January 16 Reflection on Authority and Responsibility Yvette Hovsepian Bearce, PhD January 16 occupies a distinctive place in Iran’s modern political memory. It is commemorated in sharply divergent ways: for the Islamic Republic and its supporters, it symbolizes the “dawn of victory” and the end...
Iran and the Unfinished Lesson of January 16, 1979
Iran and the Unfinished Lesson of January 16, 1979 Yvette Hovsepian Bearce, PhD January 16, 1979 was not the end of an era. It was the beginning of a lesson that remains unfinished. Iran is once again living through a moment marked by widespread repression, mass killing, and the...
Reading “Iran is Iran”: The Four Pillars of Power and Their Fragility
Reading “Iran Is Iran”: The Four Pillars of Power and Their Fragility Yvette Hovsepian Bearce, PhD On January 4, amid escalating unrest inside Iran and growing external pressure from the United States, the online newspaper Voice of Iran, published on Ayatollah Khamenei’s official website, released an editorial titled “Iran Is...
Reading Khamenei in a Moment of Strain
Reading Khamenei in a Moment of Strain Yvette Hovsepian Bearce, PhD January 12, 2026 In response to nearly two weeks of consecutive anti-government protests across Iran, on Sunday, January 11, the Islamic Republic called for nationwide pro-government rallies to be held on the following day. These demonstrations were intended to counter...