A few weeks ago I attended a day-long pow-wow here in DC on U.S. policy towards Iran. Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an associate professor at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and director of its Middle Eastern Studies Program, gave an incisive, thought-provoking presentation on the structure and varied preferences of the Iranian government and its constituent actors. He has graciously agreed to share his PowerPoint slides (edited a wee bit for public release) with Wonk readers. Definitely worth a look.
A good primer, but I’m disappointed only two policy options on the nuclear issue were discussed.
Any chance of a video or transcript of the actual presentation? Slides are nice but inevitably incomplete.
The slides left out an important political figure: Mulla Nasrudin and his donkey.
Or did that get deleted for the ACW version?
Looks to me like a really complex system he has build (marxist maybe, but hegelian for sure).
Any political structure should look simpler than that. Otherwise it wouldn’t last more than one month.
Andy,
A must read is Ansari’s “Iran under Ahmadinejad”. Not only beautifully written, it also provides many insights on the personalities behind power.
http://www.iiss.org/publications/adelphi-papers/2007-adelphi-papers/iran-under-ahmadinejad/
Such a complex government system must have a lot of inertia…
Ideology over pragmatism.