Graeme Wood has a fascinating piece in the current edition of Foreign Policy about his travels in the “limbo world” of unofficial or unrecognized states.

Now, this has to be one of the strangest round-ups of organizations I have seen in a long time — organizations considered by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence to be trouble-makers inside Iran and thus “blacklisted.” Here is the Iranian source — as well as a comprised list of translated organizations from Laura Rozen and Neo-Resistance….

(A giant tree at Musgrove, the family estate of Smith Bagley and the Arca Foundation — photo credit: Steve Clemons) In Dubai a day and a half ago, I was sitting on a bus next to well known Clinton family friend and adviser Lanny Davis who was chatting with me about the widest possible array…

Jon Weinberg is a research intern with the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force. The Iraqi constitution stipulates that there be “a referendum in Kirkuk and other disputed territories to determine the will of their citizens, in a period not to exceed (the thirty first of December two thousand and seven).

Anya Landau French is director of research for the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative. Normally I say my piece and I let it go. But sometimes, the point bears repeating, especially when it deals with serious national security questions.

(President Barack Obama meets with John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, in the Oval Office, Jan. 4, 2010.

(The Burj Khalifa — previously the Burj Dubai — on opening night, 4 January 2010; photo credit: Steve Clemons) Here is a farewell pic from Dubai — a picture of the new tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa (which until a few hours ago was known as the Burj Dubai).

(photo credit: Steve Clemons) A stunning fireworks show and water dance ensemble opened the latest claimant to tallest building in the world in Dubai tonight.

Photo credit: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish/files/2009/08/jfk_tsa_021.jpg Anya Landau French is director of research for the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative. Responding to the attempted bombing of a U.S.

(Hendrik Hertzberg, Steve Clemons and Charles Kaiser in Dubai) This morning I am out to see more of Dubai — along with two terrific social and political commentators, the New Yorker‘s Hendrick Hertzberg, who has his own blog at the magazine and Charles Kaiser, publisher of Full Court Press and author of the The Gay…