Report Author:
CLERICAL AUTHORITARIANISM
FINDINGS
- The Iranian regime has a multifaceted policy for augmenting its international influence, which takes shape in different arenas and is geared toward a range of different constituencies. Tehran’s most obvious campaign to increase its global leverage plays out in international organizations. In the United Nations, Iranian officials have worked assiduously to create ad hoc coalitions against the United States and Israel.
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has emerged one of the most powerful political and economic forces in the country. Along with the Basij Resistance Force and the state intelligence services, it is part of a network of illiberal and nontransparent institutions that acts as a bulwark against democratic development.
- As part of a broader soft-power effort, the Iranian authorities have invested considerable resources into a number of media initiatives. The regime makes direct appeals to foreign audiences by sponsoring television and radio networks aimed at the English- and Arabspeaking worlds, including Press TV and Al-Alam.
- Iranian democrats have failed to develop a cogent policy or a unified leadership, and the authorities use a range of tools to sow disunity and confusion among them, disrupting the country’s democratic development. Iran would benefit from initiatives that foster greater democratic discourse
- The global economic crisis is crippling the Iranian economy. Should oil prices remain at low levels, they are bound to hamper the regime’s ability to pursue its goals, both at home and abroad. There are also growing signs of public dissatisfaction, and the government has begun reorganizing its coercive apparatus to withstand future domestic instability.
June 4 2009 EVENT
On June 4, 2009, a high level conference in Washington DC launched the "Undermining Democracy: 21st Century Authoritarians" study.
IN THE NEWS
MEDIA
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