

Barbara Slavin is assistant managing editor for World and National Security at The Washington Times and the author of a 2007 book on Iran, titled "Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S. and the Twisted Path to Confrontation.” Before joining The Times in July 2008, she was senior diplomatic reporter for USA Today. She has accompanied three secretaries of state on their official travels and also reported from Iran, Libya, Israel, Egypt, North Korea, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Ms. Slavin is a regular commentator on U.S. foreign policy on National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting System and C-SPAN.
Before moving abroad, she was a writer and editor for the New York Times Week in Review section and a reporter and editor for United Press International in New York City. She got her bachelor's degree in Russian language and literature at Harvard University and also studied at Leningrad State University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Friday, Jan. 1, 2010
Iran's opposition movement has yet to produce a charismatic leader but has a diverse and growing group of organizers, including numerous students and veterans of an abortive 1999 uprising, Iran specialists say.
Top opposition aides detained
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
The Iranian regime, desperate to restore order after massive protests, arrested more than 1,000 people Monday in an increasingly doubtful bid to suppress an opposition movement that appears to be growing stronger by the day.
Leadership seen beset by political paralysis
Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009
Even for a country that prides itself on its revolutionary credentials, Iran has been unusually bellicose in recent weeks, rejecting a nuclear deal it had earlier appeared to embrace and threatening to build new uranium-enrichment plants in defiance of international restrictions.
Urges Obama to condemn violations of human rights
Friday, Nov. 20, 2009
Iranian filmmaker and dissident Mohsen Makhmalbaf said Thursday that the Obama administration should speak out more about human rights in his country and tailor new sanctions to hurt Iran's Revolutionary Guards and foreign companies that provide technology and equipment used to crack down on dissent.
Monday, Nov. 9, 2009
While democracy was introduced to the Communist bloc two decades ago, it hasn't quite worked as planned in some countries.
Monday, Nov. 9, 2009
Over the past two decades, the United States has targeted and been targeted by adversaries ranging from Iraq's Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden. But U.S. officials and the American people have sometimes had difficulty calibrating threats, hyping lesser foreign irritants into bogeymen while failing to recognize more serious challenges to U.S. national security.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009
As North Korea began gingerly to open its doors to Westerners during the terrible famine of the 1990s, a foreign aid worker remarked that when it came to understanding life in that isolated country, many "have snapshots, nobody has seen the movie."
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009
Eight U.S. troops died Tuesday in twin insurgent attacks in southern Afghanistan, making October the deadliest month for Americans in Afghanistan since the war started in 2001.
Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009
Iran said Friday it would respond next week to a U.S.-backed plan that would have Tehran send out much of its stockpiled nuclear fuel by the end of this year.
U.S. says patience is limited
Friday, Oct. 23, 2009
Iran said Friday it would respond next week to a U.S.-backed plan that would have Tehran send out much of its stockpiled nuclear fuel by the end of this year.