Jerrold D. Green

The U.S. ability to "read" the Iranian regime and formulate appropriate policies has been weakened by lack of access to the country and by the opacity of decisionmaking in Tehran. To improve understanding of Iran's political system, the authors describe Iranian strategic culture; investigate Iran's informal networks, formal government institutions, and personalities; assess the impact of elite behavior on Iranian policy; and summarize key trends.

In an analysis grounded in the observation that although Iranian power projection is marked by strengths, it also has serious liabilities and limitations, this report surveys the nature of both in four critical areas and offers a new U.S. policy paradigm that seeks to manage the challenges Iran presents through the exploitation of regional barriers to its power and sources of caution in the regime's strategic calculus.

Religion, nationalism, ethnicity, economics, and geopolitics all are important in explaining Iran's goals and tactics in its relation-ship with the outside world, as are the agendas of key security institutions and the ambitions of their leaders.

A compact, user-friendly handbook for U.S. Policymakers interested in understanding the Islamic Republic of Iran. It synthesizes existing analysis on Iran and draws from non-American experts with a different interpretive lens for viewing the seemingly opaque Iranian system. It provides short analytic observations about the processes, institutions, networks, and actors that define Iran's politics, strategy, economic policy, and diplomacy.A detailed and insightful, yet compact and user-friendly guide to the Islamic Republic of Iran for U.S. policymakers.

A summary of two RAND studies on options for facilitating successful Palestinian development. A summary of two RAND studies on options for facilitating successful Palestinian development, MG-146-DCR and MG-327-GG. The former examines options for strengthening governance, security, economic development, access to water, health and health care, and education. The latter examines options for addressing housing, transportation, and related infrastructure needs. Both studies estimate the financing needed for successful development.

A critical mass of Palestinians and Israelis, as well as the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations, remain committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The authors, examine in objective fashion the requirements for creating and maintaining successful statehood during the first decade of Palestine's independence.