Persian Cultural Foundation (PCF)

Announcement

This conference will study the domestic, regional and global issues that Iran faces in the next decade or so, specifically from the viewpoint of Iran’s national interests.

It is generally thought that a country’s national interests refer to a set of interrelated objectives, the preservation and promotion of which is the primary responsibility of its government. These objectives include the maintenance of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, the elevation of its international standing and influence, the promotion of the general well-being, morale and solidarity of its citizenry, and so on.

It is hoped that an informed discussion of these themes by a group of scholars and experts would help advance the understanding of a set of issues that are critical to Iran’s domestic development – political, economic as well as social – and its regional and international relations in the coming years.

The conference will be held at St. Anton’s College and Wadham College, University of Oxford, England on 5-6-7 April 2004. Other experts will be invited to participate in the conference and join in the general discussions.

The funding for this project is provided by Persian Cultural Foundation (PCF).

Editor's Note

It had been increasingly felt within the circles of the academic profession of Iranian studies that an extensive if not comprehensive study of the social, economic and cultural problems facing Iran, conducted with the utmost intellectual detachment and objectivity, was long overdue and had to be addressed by members of the profession. To this end an advisory program committee was formed consisting of Ahmad Ashraf, Ali Banuazizi, Hormoz Hekmat, Vahid Nowshirvani, Djavad Salehi-Esfahani, Reza Sheikholeslami and me who charged Sheikholeslami and me to arrange a conference on this theme at Wadham College, which was also sponsored by St. Anthony’s College and the Oriental Institute, all of the University of Oxford. I took on the task of organizing and coordinating the conference as well.

The international conference entitled “Iran facing the new century” was duly held at Wadham between 4 and 7 April 2004. It was attended by about 45 guest speakers, chairs and discussants from distances as far apart as Hawaii and Afghanistan. And they presented papers and partook in discussions on Iranian national identity, domestic economic problems and issues, Iran’s foreign and regional relations, issues regarding reforms and political development, the position of women, the Iranian Diasporas, etc.

From the earliest conception of the conference it had been intended that its proceedings should be gathered in final drafts and edited by me and Hossein Shahidi for publication as a book, a book which both because of its subject and in view of the prominence of its authors is likely to become a standard text for the relevant academic courses. We also decided as a first and quicker step to publish a number of the articles in a special issue of Iranian Studies, both because their authors were keen on this project and in the hope of reaching a wider audience and providing a foretaste of the whole collection when it reaches the market.

I should point out however that the last article in this issue was presented to another conference, the conference on economic history and Iranian economic history held in early December 2004 at the Teacher Training University of Tehran. They asked me to be the keynote speaker and I was otherwise engaged. They then suggested that I send them the paper and it would be presented by someone else, and as it turned out by Hossein Shahidi, to whom I am grateful both for this and for acting as joint editor of the collection as well as this volume. Since the paper had been written in English, I thought it would be appropriate to include it in this volume as a critical view of issues arising both from economic history and especially from the economic history of Iran.

It is because of the great importance of the matter that I mention last the extremely generous financial support of the Persian Cultural Foundation, without which nothing like the scale and distinction of the conference could have been attempted let alone achieved. And all the more so because not only is Dr. Akbar Ghahary, the Foundation’s Managing Director, terribly keen on the promotion of Persian and Iranian studies, but, equally helpfully, he does so with good humor, the minimum of fuss and no undue intervention in the running of the programs and projects which he supports. He therefore deserves a large vote of thanks and a big round of applause from all those who are involved in this process, be they lay or academic.

Program

Monday 5 April 2004
09.00-09.15
Opening Remarks

Eugene Rogan
The Middle East Centre, St. Antony's College, and Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford
Reza Sheikholeslami
Wadham College & Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford

09.15-10.45
National Identity & National Interests: Defining a Framework

Chair: Farhad Kazemi (New York University)
Farideh Farhi (University of Hawaii): National Identity
Hamid Ahmadi (University of Tehran): National Interests
Discussant: Mohammad Nafissi (London Metropolitan University)

11.15-13.00
The Economy

Chair: Homa Katouzian (St. Antony's College and Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford)
Djavad Salehi-Isfahani (Virginia Tech): Human Resource Potentials and Constraints
Ahmad Jalali-Naini (Institute for Research in Planning and Development, Tehran): Capital Formation and Economic Growth: Past Experience and Future Prospects
Discussant: Hassnali Mehran (formerly IMF and the Central Bank of Iran)

14.00-15.30
Economic Reform & Nuclear Power

Chair: Mohammad Nafissi (London Metropolitan University)
Hassan Hakimian & Massoud Karshenas (SOAS, University of London): Economic Reform and Democratization Process
Mehdi Askarieh (United Kingdom Nirex Limited):Nuclear Power
Discussants: Ahmad Jalali Naini & Saideh Lotfian

16:00-18.00
Foreign Relations: US, Europe & Japan

Chair: Hossein Shahidi (University of Oxford)
Mohsen Milani (University of Southern Florida): Relations with USA Anoush Ehteshami (University of Durham): Relations with Europe and Japan
Saideh Lotfian (University of Tehran): Nuclear Policy and International Relations
Discussant: Hossein Shahidi

Tuesday 6 April
9.00-10.45
Persian Gulf & the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Chair: Anna Enayat (St. Antony' s College, Oxford)
Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh (SOAS, University of London): Relations with the Persian Gulf
Sadegh Ziba Kalam (University of Tehran): Parliamentary Elections and their Consequences for Iran's Middle East Policy
Discussant: Hossein Heirani Moghadam (University of Oxford)

11.15-13.00
Ethnic Issues and Central Asia

Chair: Houshang Keshavarz (Paris, formerly Institute of Social Studies, Tehran University)
Touraj Atabaki (University of Amsterdam, International Institute of Social History): Ethnic Diversities and Territorial Integrity: Domestic Harmony and Regional Challenges
Farhad Atai (University of Tehran): Relations with Central Asia
Discussant: Ali Ansari (University of Exeter)

14.00-16.00
Major Social Issues

Chair: Bernard Hourcade (Monde Iranien, CNRS)
Mahmoud Sadri (Texas Women's University): The Ideological Sphere
Mansour Farhang - The Behavioral and Subjective Impediments to the Growth of Democracy in Iran
Azadeh Kian (CNRS, France): Gender Relations
Discussant: Hossein Bashirieh (University of Tehran)

16:30-18.00
The Iranian Diaspora

Chair: Ahmad Karim-Hakkak (University of Washington, Seattle)
Mohammad Tavakoli-Targhi (University of Toronto and Illinois Sate University): Diasporic Communities and the De-territorialization of Iran?
Maboud Ansari (William Paterson University): From the Immigrant to the Ethnic, The Iranian American Experience
Discussants: Fariba Adelkhah (CNRS and St Antony's College, Oxford)

Wednesday 7 April
9.15- 12.15
General Discussion
Joint Chairs: Homa Katouzian & Reza Sheikholeslami

12.15-12.30
Closing remarks Akbar Ghahary (The Persian Cultural Foundation)

Opening Speech by Akbar Ghahary, Ph.D., PCF President

Friends, Ladies, and Gentlemen,

I wish to welcome you to this gathering and hope you find the exchange of ideas in the coming days constructive and inspiring. As scholars in various fields of knowledge with a common concern about Iran, you are focused on the task of comprehending the political, economic, and cultural challenges facing the Iranian society with the purpose of proposing appropriate responses to them.

The current popular attention to the prospects for democracy in Iran is an unprecedented occurrence in our history. To be sure, since the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, there have always been some farsighted individuals who viewed the establishment of democratic norms as the central challenge of our time. Such public figures never occupied the center stage in the struggle to end the scourge of tyranny in our country.

The unique aspect of the ongoing democratic discourse among Iranians, both inside and outside the country, is its pervasive and decentralized character, for it clearly embraces large sectors of our society representing individuals of both secular and religious orientation or sensibility. It is, indeed, a turning point in our history that recognition of the need for political equality, popular sovereignty, majority rule, dispersion of points of authority and respect for human rights is no longer the preference of the few but the demand of the many.

The most promising component of this happy development is the sustained and increasingly sophisticated role of Iran's university students, particularly women, in shaping its substance and growth. It is no longer in dispute that democracy, defined as a set of rules that treats all Iranians - yes, all Iranians, as truly equal is a pre-condition of a social order that would enable our educators, entrepreneurs, public officials, and governing institutions, to manage the process of social and economic transformation in modernizing Iran.

I am aware that the road from tyranny to democracy is long and rugged, but experience shows that there is a threshold in the transition phase. I believe Iran is nearing this threshold, and thus, our progressive specialists in the fields of politics, economics, law, religion, and foreign relations, ought to have a caring, but non-partisan engagement with realities, as they are, and try to provide our people with an understanding of what is actually involved in the multifaceted, and at times paradoxical, experience of transition to democracy. The intricate circumstances of this task should deepen our respect for the inevitable plurality of responses.

I am, by training and profession, a chemist. Chemists are able to: control; measure; duplicate; and finally predict the outcome of their experiments. Social scientists cannot do this. In your fields, only through discussion and clash of ideas, we have a chance to maximize the accuracy of our diagnosis for societal ailments.

We need to remind ourselves that the inequalities and conflicts plaguing the Iranian society are too complex to be solved quickly or easily - regardless of what regime is in power. Indeed, when we pass the threshold to democracy, and our people elect the kind of rulers who are not afraid of the ruled, our country will still face many of the same predicaments it encounters today. It is in the context of this reality that the interaction of concerned scholars, representing diverse perspectives, can generate a pragmatic appreciation for what awaits us in the new century.

The Persian Cultural Foundation, while maintaining a non-partisan position on political matters, is deeply committed to the promotion of democratic norms and civil dialogue. The Foundation supports the kind of projects whose goal is to advance the culture of pluralism and inclusiveness in the Iranian society. We have no relationship, directly or indirectly, with any state agency or official. The Foundation is registered as a non-profit organization and accepts contributions only from those who identify with its mandate.

I respectfully suggest to all of you that at the end of this gathering, consider the value of issuing a statement to affirm the necessity of spreading the spirit of democracy among Iranians. I look forward to learn from your presentations and hope to see us all leaving this place with a sense of accomplishment and optimism.

Respectfully,
Akbar Ghahary, Ph.D.