Most recent articles by Stefan Buchen
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Sunni-Shia conflictThe enemy of my enemy
Anyone who thinks that the Sunnis in Tikrit and Mosul will welcome the opponents of Islamic State with open arms as liberators is mistaken. They fear the Shia militias even more than they do IS. This shows how the inner-Islamic religious war has polarised Iraqi society. By Stefan Buchen
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The West's strategy in the Middle EastHollow alliance
The islands of stability in the Arab-Islamic world are shrinking. In the face of war and chaos, the West continues to cling to its new-old allies: the "moderate Sunni regimes". The aim of this alliance, which purportedly shares goals and ideals, is that "good Islam" will conquer "bad Islam" with Western support. By Stefan Buchen
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The Iraq crisis and the WestThe ugly new order in the "Fertile Crescent"
Iraq is in the grip of a devastating inner-Islamic religious war. The conflict has an inherent dynamic that cannot be stopped by presidential wishful thinking or a hurried visit to Baghdad by US foreign minister John Kerry. Stefan Buchen comments
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Presidential election in EgyptA nation marching in step
Anyone seen filming in Cairo these days should expect to be approached by an upright citizen demanding to see a permit and referring to the omnipresent threat of terrorism. On the eve of the presidential election in Egypt, fighting terrorism and not boosting the country's crippled economy seems to be right at the top of the political agenda. A commentary by Stefan Buchen in Cairo
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Open Letter to a Border GuardDefending Our Borders against the Scum
In Germany, helpers of Syrian refugees are being put on trial. These lifesavers are being treated like enemies of the state. In his polemic, Stefan Buchen addresses a German border guard and encourages him to prevent the misery of the Syrian civil war from spilling over into Europe
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Surveillance and Domestic Security since 9/11Like Donkeys Carrying Books
The intelligence services' frenzied data analysis is the latest and for the moment, the last in a series of imbalanced responses to the attacks of 11 September 2001, says investigative journalist Stefan Buchen who, according to a report in the German news weekly Der Spiegel, has himself been the subject of security agency investigations
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Mohammed Rasoulof's ''Manuscripts Don't Burn''Iranian Agents as Killers
The Islamic Republic's intelligence service is unmasked for the first time in a film based on a series of murders of Iranian writers and intellectuals in the late 1990s. Stefan Buchen introduces the new movie by director Mohammed Rasoulof
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Israeli Air Attacks in SyriaBlinding Flashes in a Shadowy War
The latest Israeli air bombardments of military facilities near Damascus throw a spotlight on the Israeli-Iranian conflict in the region, and apparent Israeli plans to fight Iran and Hezbollah on Syrian territory. Analysis by Stefan Buchen
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Afghanistan as the Western Troop Withdrawal NearsThe Failure of Dialogue
The end of the NATO mission in the Hindu Kush, scheduled for 2014, is fast approaching. The results to date are sobering. Mistrust and even mutual dislike between locals and representatives of the West in Afghanistan are striking and widespread. By Stefan Buchen
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Justice in IranPetty Criminals Sent to the Gallows
Iran has begun handing down death sentences for robbery – a crime that previously carried much less severe punishments. In socially and politically uncertain times, the regime is increasingly resorting to Draconian measures in the hope that these will serve as a deterrent, reports Stefan Buchen
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US Strikes People's Mujahedin of Iran off Terror ListThe Schizophrenia of US Foreign Policy
The People's Mujahedin of Iran was one of the leading participants of the 1979 Revolution in Iran. For years the militant revolutionary organization was on the US list of terrorist organizations. Now the ban is suddenly lifted. Stephan Buchen on a bizarre episode of US Foreign Policy
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Alliance between the PKK and the Assad RegimeA Political Sect on the Wrong Track
Just as the Assad regime is foundering, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, is proving to be its loyal henchman. In this essay, Stefan Buchen writes that PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan made a deal with the Syrian regime back in the days of Hafez al-Assad