Hoover Institution - Iran Democracy Project

Iran Democracy Project

Palace Ruins of Darius the Great at Persepolis
Persepolis, in the southern part of Iran, was built around 518 B.C. by Darius the Great (522-486 B.C.), the third emperor of the Achaemenid dynasty. Persia was, at that time, a world power and a multicultural empire. Persepolis, as the seat of government, was the spiritual and ceremonial center where representatives from 28 nations of the Persian Empire gathered. Diversity of ideas flourished. Many scholars suggest that the first doctrine of human rights and rights of nations was fromalgated there. It was known as "the richest city under the sun" before Alexander the Great burned it to the ground in 330 B.C.

The Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution was created to understand the process and prospects for democracy in Iran and the rest of the Middle East. The central goal is to help the West understand the complexities of the Muslim world, and to map out possible trajectories for transitions to democracy and free markets in the Middle East, beginning with Iran. The project also seeks to identify, analyze, and offer policy options on the existing obstacles to democratic transition and ways to remove them and to ensure that policy makers in Washington receive advice that is non-partisan and reliable. Read more about IDP.

WHAT'S NEW

Hoover research fellow Abbas Milani in Symposium on Iran (News)
November 06, 2009

Will Iran be the next Iraq? (Calendar Event)
March 15, 2005

Abbas Milani Spoke at the Commonwealth Club on February 12, 2008 (News)
February 14, 2008

The Right Way to Engage Iran (Daily Report Entry)
December 28, 2007

Hoover Institution Hosted a Conference on the “Prospects for Democracy in Iran: Assessing the Regime and the Opposition” (Event)
November 02, 2007

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