Download Free Electronic Document
| Format | File Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PDF file | 0.4 MB | Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 10 or higher for the best experience. |
Focus on the American hostage crisis obscures the fact that no facet of the conflict in Iran is likely to affect the post-crisis political environment more fundamentally than unrest and militancy among the state's ethnic minorities. This oversight ignores many of the ethnic differences among the sizable minorities in Iran. The dominant Persian majority is rapidly losing its ability to control events along Iran's periphery, which is inhabited primarily by non-Persians. Ethnic minorities have seized the opportunities resulting from chaos at the center to advance a variety of local demands. This paper addresses the present state of disarray. The Iran that emerges will logically contain not one center of power, but several, thereby confronting policymakers with a complex international dilemma that they should have addressed long ago and for which they should have formulated sensible policies and contingency plans.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation Paper series. The paper was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1948 to 2003 that captured speeches, memorials, and derivative research, usually prepared on authors' own time and meant to be the scholarly or scientific contribution of individual authors to their professional fields. Papers were less formal than reports and did not require rigorous peer review.
This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.