United States History - 20th Century - General & Miscellaneous, Diplomatic Relations, Economic Conditions, Politics & Government - General & Miscellaneous, Diplomacy & International Relations, Middle Eastern History, Middle Eastern Politics

Understanding Iran

Name: Understanding Iran
Author: Jerrold D. Green
ISBN: 9780833045584

by Jerrold D. Green, Charles Wolf, Frederic M. Wehrey, Rand Corporation Staff

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Overview

Iran remains among the most poorly understood countries in the world and, for most Americans, terra incognita. A small community of American analysts in the government, academia, and the country's think tanks is, of course, working on Iran, but the overwhelming majority of them have never been to Iran or have visited only briefly. The consequences of this unfamiliarity have been distinctly negative for American policy, pushing most analyses toward a highly reductionist view. This monograph, the result of a workshop and the authors' own experience and analysis, is a concise, accessible handbook on the Islamic Republic for U.S. policymakers. As an aid to understanding current-day Iran, it synthesizes the existing analyses on the Islamic Republic and, most important, draws from non-American experts who can offer a different interpretive lens for viewing the seemingly opaque Iranian system. It offers a set of short analytic observations about the processes, institutions, networks, and actors that define Iran's politics, strategy, economic policy, and diplomacy. From these, it provides a guide for negotiating with Iran, about which the National Security Council's 2006 National Security Strategy warned, "We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran."

Synopsis

A compact, user-friendly handbook for U.S. Policymakers interested in understanding the Islamic Republic of Iran. It synthesizes existing analyses on Iran and draws from non-American experts with a different interpretive lens for viewing the seemingly opaque Iranian system. It provides short analytic observations about the processes, institutions, networks, and actors that define Iran1s politics, strategy, economic policy, and diplomacy.

About the Author, Jerrold D. Green

Jerrold D. Green (PhD, Political Science, University of Chicago) is director of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy and a senior political scientist. His research interests include U.S. foreign policy, Middle East politics, sociopolitical change in developing countries, terrorism and political violence, and Mediterranean security..

Charles Wolf, Jr. (Ph.D., Economics, Harvard University), founding Dean of the RAND Graduate School, is a senior economic adviser and corporate fellow in international economics at RAND and professor in the RAND Graduate School. From 1967 until June 1981, he was head of RAND's Economics Department, and thereafter was director of RAND research in international economics. Dr. Wolf is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a director of Capital Income Builder Fund, Inc. and Capital World Growth and Income Fund, Inc. He is a member of the advisory boards of the UCLA Management School's Center for International Business Education and Research, the Independent Institute, the journal Society, and the editorial board of the Korean Journal of Defense Analysis. Dr. Wolf has served with the Department of State, and has taught at Cornell, the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, and Nuffield College, Oxford. He is the author or co-author of more than 150 journal articles and two dozen books including Markets or Governments: Choosing Between Imperfect Alternatives (MIT Press, 1993), Asian Economic Trends and Their Security Implications (RAND, 2000), China, the United States and the Global Economy, (RAND, 2001), and European Military Prospects, Economic Constraints, and the Rapid Reaction Force (RAND, 2001).