Charles Wolf

Jerrold D. Green

Frederic M. Wehrey

"Over the years, there have been numerous efforts to locate the roots of the Islamic Republic's intentions and motivations in the distinctiveness of its political culture and history. A rich and ancient nation, Iran has always beguiled outsiders. This complexity, combined with America's lack of access to Iran since 1979, has produced a peculiar view of the Islamic Republic, a view defined by mystique and a superficial reading that places too much emphasis on Iran's 'abnormal' and 'exceptional' characteristics. This document is a short, accessible guide intended to help U.S. policymakers understand the Islamic Republic. 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 sets out an argument for appreciating the challenges and fundamentals of negotiating with Iran."--Summary, p. ix.

Understanding Iran

Alireza Nader

David E. Thaler

Shahram Chubin

Charlotte Lynch

The U.S. ability to "read" the Iranian regime and formulate appropriate policies has been weakened by lack of access to the country and by the opacity of decisionmaking in Tehran. To improve understanding of Iran's political system, the authors describe Iranian strategic culture; investigate Iran's informal networks, formal government institutions, and personalities; assess the impact of elite behavior on Iranian policy; and summarize key trends.

An Exploration of Iranian Leadership Dynamics

Mullahs, Guards, and Bonyads

Daniel Byman

Anoushiravan Ehteshami

Religion, nationalism, ethnicity, economics, and geopolitics all are important in explaining Iran's goals and tactics in its relationship with the outside world, as are the agendas of key security institutions and the ambitions of their leaders. This report assesses Iran's security policy in light of these factors. It examines broad drivers of Iran's security policy, describes important security institutions, explores decisionmaking, and reviews Iran's relations with key countries. The authors conclude that Iraq is widely recognized as the leading threat to Iran's Islamic regime and Afghanistan is seen as an emerging threat. In contrast, Iran has solid, if not necessarily warm, relations with Syria and established working ties to Pakistan and Russia. Iran's policies toward its neighbors are increasingly prudent: It is trying to calm regional tension and end its isolation, although its policies toward Israel and the United States are often an exception to this policy. Iran's security forces, particularly the regular military, are often voices of restraint, preferring shows of force to overactive confrontations. Finally, Iran's security forces generally respect and follow the wishes of Iran's civilian leadership; conducting rogue operations is rare to nonexistent.

Iran's Security Policy in the Post-Revolutionary Era

Frederic Wehrey

Charles Jr. Wolf

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 Iran's politics, strategy, economic policy, and diplomacy.

Jerrold D. Green

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