Essays on Iran

Critical Thinking Paper: ENVI-423-003 Geography of Middle East

Three issues that have served as effective learning supplements in Geography of Middle East class include the following: the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel, continuing troubles in Iraq in the post-War on Terror era and the effects of high concentration of funds to Jewish organizations in the United States (US). The foregoing issues provide significant impacts on understanding the nature of Middle Eastern politics better, given the complicated interests of nations therein and their volatile status towards one another, the US and its allies. Key to understanding the complicated nature of Middle Eastern politics is the divisiveness brought Continue reading...

Questions

According to Robert A. Pape, What is the main strategic objective of suicide terrorism and to what extent is it effective, if at all?
Terrorism is a strategic effort to achieve political goals through intimidation and fear. The targets are governments, and normally the objective is to make them change policies or withdraw forces from a given territory the terrorists view as theirs. Suicidal terrorism seeks to maximize the number of casualties at the cost of losing support to the terrorist cause. Coercion and the threat of future of even more attacks are what create the political leverage in Continue reading...

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Political repression is a theme that transverses across the two novels including Chinua’s Things Fall Apart and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. Though the political repression is caused by different players in the two accounts, the reaction of the main characters in the two novels to the political oppression is both similar and distinct in several ways. The similarities in the response of the two main characters; Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart and Marjane in Persepolis can be attributed to the resemblance in the political regimes affecting them. On the other hand, the contrast in the Continue reading...

Presently Iran’s economy is largely dependent on oil revenues. The dependence began between 1954 and 1960 when a rapid and sudden increase in the oil prices led to Iranian main export being oil. In fact, between the fiscal years of 1964 and 1978 Iran’s gross product grew at the phenomenal rate of 13 percent. The oil, gas and other petroleum industries expanded by almost 500 percent. Even after the tumultuous events such as the 1979 revolution and the Iran-Iraq war oil the revenue on the oil production remained the principal earner for the government.
When one examines Continue reading...

The rapid advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against Iraqi forces represents yet another critical milestone in Iraq’s turbulent recent history. The policy options available to the United States are complicated by the regional dimensions of the conflict and the divergent interests of key players, most notably Iran, Syria, Russia, a loose coalistion of Western countries and Sunni-regimes in the region. While most of the policy options may be framed as a search for the “least bad” policy to address this quagmire, there may be a path worth exploring to transform the situation Continue reading...

[Professor]

Iran and Turkey are predominantly Islamic countries. Women since time immemorial share the same sentiments of male domination and severe violence and non-participation. On the other hand, both countries have women’s movements that are still in place up to this day. Both of the movements have ebbs and flows but they were able to withstand the wrath of patriarchy, and most importantly, they were able to fight back. From being marginalized and subjected to state fascism, women in Iran and Turkey are now enjoying some of the fruits of the long-running women’s movements. Their dreams of Continue reading...

Abstract

Fuelled by the protests that marred the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the 1979 Energy Crisis was caused a decline in oil production in Iran. The attack Iran by Iraq under the leadership of Saddam Hussein worsened the situation. Attack of Iran by Iraq almost brought to a halt oil production in Iran. The attack also causes a severe reduction in oil supply by Iraq. The 1979 Energy Crisis had a colossal impact on both the oil producing and oil consuming states. Nonetheless, the oil-consuming states such as the United States were more affected. The reaction of the populations affected by Continue reading...

English

English

Introduction

Global warming refers to the gradual rise in the total temperature of the atmosphere of the earth. The rise in temperature is attributed to the effects of the greenhouse gases, which is caused by an increase in the levels of chlorofluorocarbons, carbon (IV) oxide and other pollutants. Global warming affects the climate system of the earth’s atmosphere by increasing both the terrestrial radiation and the radiation from the sun. The ozone is an essential element in the issue of global warming. The ozone absorbs the heat radiated from the sun and the surface of the earth, leading Continue reading...

Mohammed introduced Islam, or submission to God, to the people of Mecca in 610 (Ro). The religion combined some Jewish and Christian traditions and later on included set of laws influencing most aspects of life. The religion proved to be influential and an empire that included Central Asia and Spain was established. However, his death 1400 years ago caused a divide amongst the Muslims. Debates about who will succeed Mohammed ensued, with some saying that a qualified member should be the next successor, while the others insisting that the next ruler should come from Mohammed’s bloodline. In the Continue reading...

Shirin Ebadi was born June 21, 1947 in Hamadan (western Iran) in the family of a prominent Iranian lawyer and professor of commercial law. She graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Tehran. From 1975 to 1979 until the Islamic Revolution in Iran Shirin was the president of the city court of Tehran and she also was the first female-judge in this country. However, after the revolution, just like all other women she had to leave her post. But Ebadi did not leave the judicial system and took the position of clerk of the court. According to Continue reading...

Conflict in Syria

The conflict in Syria pits two sides against each other. On the one hand, there is the group loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and on the other hand those who are against his rule. The conflict has forced about nine million people to run away from their homes. The democracy protests started in March 2011 after a number of teenagers were arrested and tortured for painting anti-regime graffiti. The protests demanded the president’s resignation and by July 2011, the situation had escalated.
In August 2013, hundreds of people were killed after rockets with the nerve agent sarin got Continue reading...

Iran Economics Analysis

Introduction and Data Presentation
Iran's economy is one of the richest countries in Asia - the 18th in the world by volume of national production (according to the CIA, 2010) and the largest among the countries of Western Asia, the Middle East and OPEC. Iran in terms of GDP is the largest economy in the Islamic world after Turkey. The volume of GDP in 2011, $ 928.9 billion, GDP growth - 2.5%.
At competitive occupies 23 place on innovation - 27, the index of the knowledge economy - 34th place among the other nations of the world. Iran possesses the Continue reading...

P5+1: Negotiations on Iran’s Uranium Enrichment Program
Russia continues to demonstrate its political authority in international relations with little sign of relenting in its role to polarize the West from the rest. The manufactured crisis in Ukraine positions Russia as the charitable nation for ceding any control in eastern Ukraine, despite its role in orchestrating the crisis, not to mention its annexation of Crimea. In 2013 Russia acquired international recognition for beating back US threats of air strikes in Syria by convincing its Middle East ally to agree to terms to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile. And Continue reading...

Abstract

The project deals with the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The first sections considers such essential aspects as popular sentiments dominating the society, ideological groups taking part in the revolt, the unique nature of the Iranian Revolution that differentiated it from conventional European analogues, the factors of success, and rationales behind the revolt like corruption, repression, excessive westernization, economic reforms, and other reasons. The next sections give insight into the major achievements of the revolution and people who took part in the revolt and made accomplishments possible. The final chapter summarizes the focal points of the research.
Keywords: revolution, Iran, Continue reading...

Yemen is facing internal conflicts of rebels who want to topple the government. The country is also facing hostile relationships with a number of Asian countries such as Iran and Kuwait. The country is accusing the Iran government of supplying the rebels with weapons and other military aids. Thus, the relation between the two countries is intense. Iran is in the process of setting up nuclear weapons and other chemical weapons of mass destruction facilities. Yemen, however, does not oppose Iran having nuclear weapons as long as it’s for peaceful purposes (Fulton et al., 2011). On the other Continue reading...

Arab spring is the series of mass street protests, revolutions and internal armed conflicts in several Arab countries, which began in late 2010 in Tunisia and continuing in some countries today. The impetus for the beginning of the protests was the self-immolation of Tunisian street fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi on 18 December 2010. His self-immolation was the protest against the tyranny of the police, who confiscated his goods. Consequently, in Tunisia began mass protests that led to the resignation of the president of Ben Ali on 14 January 2011. The success of the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia gave impetus Continue reading...

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: THE IRAN NUCLEAR CRISIS

Iran’s burgeoning nuclear activities seem to bear a threat as well as a challenge to international order. Iran has continued to mock the rule-based traditional system for preventing nuclear proliferation. In case the Islamic Republic decides to take a step further and weaponize the nuclear abilities of the country, the threat of war in the Middle Eastern region will become enhanced since Iran as well as its neighbors continue to modify themselves with the constant shifts in power and the stakes continue to grow higher.

Background

Nationalism in Iran coupled with the prevalent religious and ethnic tensions within the Continue reading...

US History

In 2012, critical acclaim, academy awards, and millions of box-office of dollars went towards the film Argo.1 A movie about the Middle East and terrorism, Argo touches upon this familiar topic in the United States. The film portrays a segment of the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979-1981; a tense period of 444 days in which fifty-three American hostages were seized from the American Embassy in Tehran.2 Argo chooses to ignore those fifty-three victims, and focuses on the successful escape of six Americans from the embassy in November 1979. Tony Mendez, the CIA operative who came up with the ridiculous, Continue reading...

Iran-United States Relations

Abstract
This paper is on the topic of relation between the global superpower the United States of America and the Islamic republic of Iran. This paper will discuss the various events and their timeline in the history of this relation. The paper will identify the sources of conflict between these countries and the impact of these conflicts on these countries. The paper will cover events from 1953 to present and the role played by the United States in the development and changes in Iran in past 60 years. Finally, the paper will summarize the events with information in brief Continue reading...

Tropical moist climates (A): They have high precipitation and an average temperature of 18 0C. Tropical rainforest climate (Af), occur within 5-100 latitudes, average precipitation of 60 mm, temperature may up up to 250C, found in South and Central America. Tropical monsoon climate (Am) has rainfall less than 60 mm during the driest month e.g. South America. Tropical wet and dry or savanna (Aw) has pronounced dry and seasons with rainfall less than 60mm and less than 1125 annually e.g. Mumbai, India and Bangkok, Thailand.
Dry climates (B): Experience precipitation less than the potential evapotranspiration. If the Continue reading...

1. Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi 's diary of experiencing childhood in Iran throughout the Islamic Revolution. In effective dark and-white funny cartoon pictures, Satrapi recounts the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the topple of the Shah's administration, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the crushing impacts of war with Iraq. The savvy and candid humor of submitted Marxists and the remarkable granddaughter of one of Iran's last heads, Marjane takes the stand concerning adolescence particularly weaved with the historical backdrop of her nation. Persepolis paints a life-changing picture of Continue reading...

The French Revolution (1789-1794)

The French Revolution was the democratic revolution of 1789-94 in France, which put an end to feudal-absolutist system and cleared the way for the development of capitalism. It was a natural result of a prolonged crisis of outdated feudal-absolutist system, the result of a crisis that reflected the growing conflict between the old, feudal relations of production and the new capitalist concepts and capitalist production.
The main contradictions that predetermined the revolution were exacerbated with state bankruptcy, commercial and industrial crisis which began in 1787, lean years that resulted in famine all over France. In 1788 peasant uprisings swept Continue reading...

The struggle started with this news, when Hamid Karzai’s government quietly started to release prisoners from Bagram prison in 2013. Parwan Detention Facility or also called the Bagram Theater Internment Facility is located in U.S. airbase, in Bagram. This facility has a long dramatic history, were torturing dozens of prisoners were disclosed. The control of this prison was handed to Afghan Authorities in a small ceremony on September 10, 2012. Later the Afghan authorities started to classify the prisoners into two groups: The first group is identified as criminals and they’ll wait for criminal prosecution, the second Continue reading...

Lipstick Jihad is a book written by Azadeh Moaveni and centered on revisiting the forgotten memories of the Iranian. In this book, Azadeh Moaveni is presented as the daughter of immigrants from Iranians who was initially born in California just three years before Islamic Revolution began. Moaveni is portrayed as a memoir of Iranian growing up in America and thus American in Iran is her only account of how her childhood would have been if she grew up in her homeland (Moaveni 7). She moves back to Iran in her quest to search for her Iranian identity.
According to Continue reading...

- In the six-way race for the presidency in Iran, the four conservatives that were aligned with the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneii finished last. Of these four, the frontrunner was Saeed Jalili, a close ally of Ayatollah Ali Khameneii and Iran’s nuclear negotiator. Saeed Jalili received a mere 11 percent of the vote. The victory went to the moderate candidate, Hassan Rowhani, who won by a significant margin with over 50 percent of the vote. Many Iranians were happy, if not surprised, that Rowhani won the election because previous elections in Iran, including the 2009 election, are Continue reading...

Introduction

Iraq War is one of modern world’s most long lasting conflicts. Having started in 2003 with the invasion of the U.S. armed forces in Iraq in 2003, aiming at changing existing political regime of Saddam Hussein, and ended only in 2011, the war was concerned with variety of long-term effects-related events for the people of Iraq, namely extremely high costs of the war, severe humanitarian crises and wide range of human rights abuses, being committed by Iraqi government, coalition forces and private contractors, as well as insurgent groups. With these events of war in mind I will be Continue reading...

In his article, ‘Are the Shia Rising?’, Maximilian Terhalle advances the argument that nothing could be further from the truth. He asserts that what is being termed as the ‘Shia rise’ is a phrase that was coined by various political players in the Gulf Region so as to enable them achieve their own selfish political interests. He however notes that while the role played by the Shia in the gulf region has increased significantly in the latter half of the last decade, this was not attributable to any goals of seeking political power.
On the contrary, Terhalle argues that Continue reading...

Iran’s nuclear program development attracts massive international response and more prominence in USA, Britain and other foreign governments and the entire public. The dispute poses major fundamental questions about the nuclear non-proliferation regime given that its result could have a major negative effect on the regional and international security. The news media reporting is the one majorly entrusted with the role of providing a public understanding of most foreign affairs and in this case, the Iran’s nuclear program development. The news media play an essential role in framing the public’s understanding on various matters of interest. Continue reading...

Who is an ordinary person? This is a question that has numerous answers depending on various circumstances. Some of the conditions may include; the environment, the culture that surrounds the individual or what the person or society at large has been led to believe by their doctrines and each other’s expectation. One of the many definitions of an ordinary person is a person who often settles for expectations of the society and does whatever it takes for that approval. They put their wishes and desires aside fearing that changes may occur. They settle for less than what they Continue reading...

There has always been an urge for me to learn about different political structures and how political decisions are made. Political science is a major interest, because going to school in Tehran and the going to the Strayer University I learned about completely different governmental infrastructures. This has only led to feed my urge to know and learn more about political science.
In Iran, the political style is is a mixture of theocracy and democracy. It can be very confusing to an outsider, because some officials are elected, while others are appointed by a specific person. This causes a Continue reading...

The hostage crisis in Iran was a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Iran. This happened between November 4, 1979 and January 20, 1981. During this period, fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days in Iran (Samuels, Richard 176). The crisis started when a few Iranian students, who were supporting the Iranian Revolution took over the US Embassy in Tehran. During that period, President Carter referred to the hostages as victims of anarchy and terrorists. The hostage taking was a blow against America and its influence in Iran. The crisis undermined the Iranian revolution, and the support Continue reading...

The August 28, 2013 news article in the New York Times namely “Iran Slows Its Gathering of Uranium, Report Says” explains of the new position taken by Iran of slowing down the process of gathering Uranium which could be easily and swiftly converted into fuel for nuclear bombs. In this article, Broad discusses the first report made by international nuclear inspectors since the new president of Iran; Mr Rouhani took office. The international atomic energy agency has detailed in its quarterly report, the plans by Iran to expand the installation of a new generation of unconventional equipment for uranium Continue reading...

U.S. Keeps Eye on Iran Policy
The September 2, 2013 news article in the New York Times namely “Drawing a Line on Syria, U.S. Keeps Eye on Iran Policy” says that as the US government pushes for punitive actions against the Syrian government; majority of the proponent of military action against Syria are of the opinion that a message should be conveyed to Iran in order to succeed. Unless the US enforces the sanctions against the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian administration; Iran may smell the weakness in the actions and instead push on with its nuclear Continue reading...

Introduction

Beginning in the 1970’s, the Shah of Iran began construction of a nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Although his overthrow in 1979 delayed Iran’s timetable for completing the plant, the newly established Islamic Republic turned to Russia and China to revitalize their program. Over the next 25 years, Iran eventually completed the Bushehr nuclear plant and to the dismay of International Atomic Energy Agency, United States, Israel, and Europe, embarked on a covert operation to reprocess uranium for use in a nuclear weapon. When coupled with Iran’s stated desire to destroy Israel, their ability to build Continue reading...

Introduction

Nuclear proliferation issue has essentially been a global worry since 1945. The two categories that is, unproclaimed and proclaimed nuclear club of states are deeply conscious of this issue of proliferation. Actually, all the states that fall under these two categories have largely agreed on the necessity to maintain nuclear club exclusivity. Nuclear proliferation policy terrain was much changed by fall of Soviet Union.
For a long time, the Soviet Union and United States agreed on need for nonproliferation regime and cajoled, worked, and threatened the allies together with the others to refrain themselves from developing nuclear weapons. However, Continue reading...

Marjane Satrapi’s book Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, published by Pantheon Books of New York, NY in 2003, tells the author and artist’s own story of her childhood in Iran during the 1970s and 1980s during revolutionary times in her home country. Told in graphic novel or comic book form, Satrapi’s book illustrates what it was like to be a young girl growing up in Iran as regimes and social standards underwent monumental change. Presented from a young girl’s point of view, she navigates not only the typical hazards of growing up, but also Continue reading...

Geopolitics of a Region Is Determined By Its Resources

Introduction
Geopolitics refers to the Physical and human geographical impact on foreign relations that accrue as a result of the resources a country possess. Geopolitics can also be viewed in an angle of a country’s economic dominance internationally in regard to what she produces. These factors can be natural or artificial which are of monetary value. Thus a country that is rich of natural resources like minerals dictates most of what other dependent countries does due to its command in the international market. There are vast resources a country or group of regional bodies can hold and make Continue reading...

Section 1

Nuclear Iran or Nuclear armed Iran has been a much source of debate off late. There have been different reactions from different lobbies to the Tehran’s much-feared nuclear program. Deliberations and talks on the topic have been going on between P5+1 countries and Iran to reach an amicable solution. While P5+1 countries led by US claim that Tehran already possesses nuclear weapons, Tehran has constantly declined the accusations and said that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes and to ensure the power security in the nation. The secretive nature of Tehran’s nuclear program Continue reading...

Socio-Political Impact of Nuclear Power

The debate on the usability and safety of nuclear power has returned back to the limelight due to the on-going issue in Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Plant, and the growing number of nations trying to accumulate nuclear power for their national interest. Nuclear power remains as a crucial topic of national importance for many nations since the discussions for nuclear proliferation and disarmament took place after the Second World War. However, some nations had retained its use for electricity and for other applicable sciences. With the debate on nuclear power back due to the countries trying to harness such volatile Continue reading...

Iran’s Nuclear Threat

REGIONAL STABILITY, GLOBAL SECURITY
Regional Stability, Global Security: Finding a Workable Answer to Iran’s Nuclear Threat
In the modern world, “rogue” states have become adept at wielding the threat of nuclear weaponry in the global political arena and wringing concessions from developed nations that have, at best, an imprecise knowledge of whether, and at what stage of development, nations like North Korea and Iran possess nuclear capability. It is a matter of intense interest among America’s intelligence and diplomatic communities to determine whether the persistently belligerent regime in Iran seeks political leverage against Israel and the United Continue reading...