Daniel Aaron Lazar

IRAN’S 2008 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS: A TRIUMPH OF THE SYSTEM

Read this analysis by Raz Zimmt

Raz Zimmt is a research fellow at the Center for Iranian Studies and a PhD candidate at the Graduate School of Historical Studies at Tel Aviv University.

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Strap on Your Helmets–We’re Going to War…Again

Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker discusses on the latest developments between Iran and the United States regarding Iran’s nuclear power program. Hersh writes that the Bush administration has clandestine plans for a possible major attack on Iran.

Listen Here

Read the article Here

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Iran Parliamentary Elections 2008

TIME is up for Iran’s election candidates. Campaigning finished at 8am on Thursday 13th March, leaving voters to consider how to cast their votes in parliamentary elections the next day. For many the choice is simple: vote conservative or ultra-conservative. Opposition reformists had hoped to capitalise on widespread discontent about the government’s mismanagement of the economy but the disqualification of thousands of their candidates is a severe blow. Instead the challenge to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hardliners will come from traditional conservatives.

Read More Here

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Full CBS Interview with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

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Iran Extra Credit Opportunity

For extra points to start the semester you may take on either of the following two challenges:

For a possible score of 10 EC points: Read Nasr’s provocative essay “The Rise of Muslim Democracy” and respond to him in a one-page piece that demonstrates your understanding of his thesis and analyzes his argument.

Read Nasr’s Essay Here

You may also listen to a 30 minute interview with Nasr who discusses how the latest developments there, and about his book The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future. Listen Here

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Assignment One: Democracy in Iran?

To succeed on this assignment, you must:

1. Read and analyze the documents on the following links:

Frontline on Democracy in Iran

BBC on Democracy in Iran

Iran Breifing Paper pages 35-40 ONLY (from “Citizens and Society” through “Gender”)

2. post (where it says “comments” below) a one page single-spaced op-ed citing ample evidence from EACH article (insufficient evidence from EACH article will result in a zero). Your op-ed should carefully address the relationship between Islam and Democracy in Iran.

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Assignment Two: Structural-Funtional Analysis Made Easy (Sort Of)

Iran’s complex political system combines elements of a modern Islamic theocracy with democracy. The whole system operates under a Supreme Leader who is, in theory, appointed by an elected body but is in practice answerable to nobody. The key question is how this system develops in the ongoing struggle between reformists and conservatives.

To answer this question, I have two posted two interactive flow charts which should help you to cultivate structural-functional analyses of Iran’s Political system:

One is Here

The Other is Here

Your task: construct a one-page, single-spaced essay that provides a careful and detailed structural-functional analysis of Iranian politics. Resist your temptation to editorialize as you may do this at another time. Post your article. Feel free to read and comment on the work of your classmates.

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Assignment Three: Three Articles

In Iran, Even Some On Right Warning Against Extremes

Executive Seeks To Extend Control As Local Elections Near

Assembly Election Significant Despite Heavy Vetting

The Response Sheet (just in case)

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Assignment Four: Whose Iran?

“In part, last month’s election results reflected the complexity of Ahmadinejad’s skeptical, conditional and diverse constituency. They also demonstrated his isolation within the powerful conservative establishment, whose politics, however opaque, are determinative. At its center, Khamenei commands a faction known as the traditional conservatives. No elected leader can serve, let alone execute a policy agenda, without the acquiescence of the supreme leader and his associates. But was Ahmadinejad one of the leader’s associates? Or was he, like his predecessor, Khatami, something of a political rival? The answer to this question should determine the extent to which Ahmadinejad‘s foreign-policy extremism and authoritarian tendencies are taken seriously as a political program. But it is a puzzle that has vexed political analysts since the president took office in August 2005, bringing with him a faction that was largely new to the post-revolutionary political scene.”

Click Here to read more from the NY Times Magazine.

Your assignment is to read the article carefully and respond in a one-page single spaced essay. You might want to consider some (though perhaps not all) of the following prompts when constructing your essay:

-what is Laura Secor’s thesis and how does she attempt to prove this thesis?

-what does this article suggest about the struggles for power in Iran?

-what are the implications of the power struggle on democratic reform?

-what are the implications on legitimacy?

-explore this, “the structure of the Iranian state remains too liberal for the authoritarians and too authoritarian for the liberals, but the traditional conservatives at the center of power cannot resolve this obvious paradox at the republic’s heart without relinquishing their own position”

-consider this, “Iran’s grand revolutionary experiment is beset with fragility. The state is in a sense defined by its contradictions, both constitutional”

as always, you are encouraged to read the responses from your classmates and to comment as you deem fit.

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Ahmadinejad’s letter to Americans

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers.

Feel more of this enlightened theocrat’s loving embrace here

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