Ronen A. Cohen (
Hebrew: רונן א. כהן) is an Israeli scholar of Middle Eastern studies. He is an associate professor at
Ariel University, and heads both its Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies (MECAS) center and Department of Middle Eastern and Political Science Studies.[3]
Cohen's main field of research is contemporary history and politics of
Iran[2] and he has written numerous works on the subject including monographs on Iranian organizations the
Hojjatieh, the
Forqan and the
Mojahedin-e Khalq.
Views
Cohen maintains that
Ruhollah Khomeini was immensely influenced by
Musa al-Sadr, deriving "most of his methods and vision" from his pupil. He credits
Iranian Revolution to Sadr, not Khomeini, stating "Khomeini conducted the music, but the music was composed by al-Sadr."[4]
In a June 2013 interview with The Jerusalem Post, Cohen categorically dismissed that the next Iranian president, to-be-elected in
2013 presidential election, may follow a nuclear policy different from his predecessor and said "the president is a clerk, a pawn of the supreme leader".[3]
Writing an opinion piece for Israel Hayom in 2018, Cohen remarked that
regime change is inevitable in Iran: "it is just a matter of time before the revolution implodes and blows up in everyone's face".[5]
Published works
Books as author
The Rise and Fall of the Mojahedin Khalq, 1987–1997: Their Survival after the Islamic Revolution and Resistance to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Sussex Academic Press. 2009.[1][2]
The Hojjatiyeh Society in Iran: Ideology and Practice from the 1950s to the Present. Palgrave Macmillan US. 2013.
Revolution Under Attack: The Forqan Group of Iran. Palgrave Macmillan US. 2015.[6]
Upheavals in the Middle East: The Theory and Practice of a Revolution. Lexington Books. 2016.[7]
The Mostadha'fin's Confusing Journey from Shariati's Revolutionary Utopianism to Khomeini's Dystopian Reality, 1976–1982. Peter Lang. 2019.
Book chapters
"Self-Criticism and Confronting Anti-Semitism: The Moderate Voices of Recognition in the Islamic World". Post-Holocaust Studies in a Modern Context. IGI Global. 2019.
Books as editor
Identities in Crisis in Iran: Politics, Culture and Religion. Lexington Books. 2015.
Cohen, Ronen A. (2018). "Iran's Shortsighted Policies in Iraq: Between Inflaming and Containing of Radical Sunni Islam: 2003–2015". Digest of Middle East Studies. 27 (1): 34–52.
doi:
10.1111/dome.12122.
Cohen, Ronen A. (2014). "The "Babak Khorramdin Organisation": A Mysterious Opposition Group in the Islamic Republic of Iran". Iran and the Caucasus. 18 (2): 167–180.
doi:
10.1163/1573384X-20140207.
^
abRafati, Naysan (2010). "Reviewed Work: The Rise and Fall of the Mojahedin Khalq, 1987–1997: Their Survival after the Islamic Revolution and Resistance to the Islamic Republic of Iran by Ronen A. Cohen". Journal of Islamic Studies. 43 (10): 736–739.
JSTOR27919949.
^
abcFrantzman, Seth J. (2010). "Reviewed Work: The Rise and Fall of the Mojahedin Khalq, 1987–1997". Digest of Middle East Studies. 19 (1): 736–739.
doi:
10.1111/j.1949-3606.2010.00024.x.
^Lob, Eric (2016). "Reviewed Work: Ronen A. Cohen, Revolution under Attack: The Forqan Group of Iran (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 48 (3): 599–601.
doi:
10.1017/S0020743816000611.
S2CID164160251.
^Bevers, Michael (2015). "Reviewed Work: Upheavals in the Middle East: The Theories and Practice of a Revolution by Cohen Ronen A.". Journal of Islamic Studies. 26 (3): 343–345.
doi:
10.1093/jis/etv035.
JSTOR26200408.