ESSAYS AND SPEECHES

June 19, 2007
The Wrong Lessons
The next step we should take? Neither attack nor appeasement, but negotiations—about everything. By Michael McFaul and Abbas Milani.

May 30, 2007
Prospects for Democracy in Iran
Democracy is a gift only a nation can give itself. Even then, it can give it solely after its body politic has reached certain maturity, and has developed the requisite organs of political mediation—from civil society and a propertied middle-class to a culture of religious tolerance and epistemological and political pluralism. There is, then, an implicit Historic law of democratic determinism. And the history of modern Iran has been, hitherto, a tragic tale of rulers and intellectuals ignoring these laws, trying to bring democracy too soon, or halting its overdue arrival. The Islamic Revolution of itself was the result of a modernizing but authoritarian monarch realizing only too late the force of this democratic determinism. Ironically the very clerics who hijacked that democratic movement and went on to create a theocratic despotism are still harboring the delusion that they can ignore the very laws that brought them to power. They have now pinned their hopes first on sheer brutality, and secondarily on emulating the China model, or more specifically of affording people the economic benefits of a controlled market economy, while ruling over them with an iron fist.

April 01, 2007
How to Turn Iran Upside Down
Tehran’s hard-liners yearn for a U.S. attack, knowing it would make them stronger. Why oblige them? By Abbas Milani, Larry Diamond, and Michael McFaul.

January 31, 2007
Understanding the Iran Crisis
Testimony of Dr. Abbas Milani, Co-Director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs

December 19, 2006
A Win-Win U.S. Strategy for Dealing with Iran
The United States needs a bold and fundamentally different strategy, proposed here, which would engage the Iranian regime and people on two tracks, allowing U.S. diplomats to pursue arms control and democratization at the same time.

October 30, 2006
What Ahmadinejad Thinks He's Doing
Hezbollah is Iran’s tool in exporting revolution. But a lot of the power brokers in Tehran don’t want to risk their $70 billion a year in oil loot on a group of crazies in southern Lebanon. By Abbas Milani.

April 30, 2006
How Iran Can Yet Be Tamed*
Behind the scenes in Tehran, a fierce power struggle is now taking place. The West can exploit it. By Michael McFaul and Abbas Milani.

October 30, 2005
Iran’s New President
How can we deal with the nuclear threat from Iran? By encouraging democracy in Iran. By Abbas Milani.

July 30, 2005
The Passive Revolution
Hard-liners may have gained a near stranglehold over the political and judicial sectors in Iran, but there is one critical sector they do not control—the people. By Jared A. Cohen and Abbas Milani.

January 30, 2005
Give Diplomacy a Chance
In dealing with Tehran, diplomacy is a lot more likely to work than military action. By Michael McFaul and Abbas Milani.

January 01, 2005
Beyond Incrementalism: A New Strategy for Dealing with Iran
In the coming years, few if any countries will more preoccupy the foreign policy attention of the United States than Iran. The United States has long lacked a viable and coherent policy toward Iran. Perhaps for the first time since the fall of the Shah’s regime in 1979, the United States seems determined to try to forge one.

April 30, 2004
Solidarity with Iran
Iran’s hard-liners recently strengthened their hold on power by making huge wins in a rigged parliamentary election. In light of this electoral coup, are the prospects for democratic reform in Iran doomed? By Hoover fellows Michael McFaul and Abbas Milani.

October 30, 2003
A Revolution Betrayed
In the aftermath of pro-democracy protests in Iran this summer, some 4,000 people were arrested. Political reformers and religious hard-liners are now at a standoff. Who will prevail? By Abbas Milani.

October 30, 2003
Creating an Islamic Republic
Recalling the 1979 Iranian revolution through its propaganda posters. By Hoover exhibits coordinator Cissie Hill.

July 30, 2003
Hurley’s Dream
How FDR almost brought democracy to Iran. By Abbas Milani.

April 30, 2003
Can Iran Become a Democracy?
The last, best hope for democracy in Iran? Its burgeoning middle class. By Hoover fellow Abbas Milani.