Iran's Afghanistan Strategy/Policy Research Issues and Questions

Hello everyone! First time poster, long time reader here.

I'm currently doing research for a graduate seminar paper on Iranian and Afghani foreign relations post 2001. And I've hit a wall. I've developed a bibliography on the Hazara and Tajiks in addition to developing a decent understanding of Iranian policy towards the Taleban during the 1990s.

Entering the 2000s and then the US Invasion, the sources on Iran fall thin and weak. Iran's strategy and policy are always told thru a US, Pakistan, or Taleban lense and not Iran itself.


Does anyone know of any sources: books, papers, websites, blogs that deal with Iran and Afghanistan post 2000?

Thank you

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Originally Posted by RejectionKing

Does anyone know of any sources: books, papers, websites, blogs that deal with Iran and Afghanistan post 2000?
u

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There is always custom search too, yet the dates do not sort.

Hello and welcome!

Are you a federal, state or local government employee or a government contractor? If so, get yourself an opensource.gov account which will provide access to translated world media, including Farsi. If not, perhaps you can access the BBC monitoring service database through a library or your educational institution.

You can also try the various official Iranian press sources, many of which are also published in English.

good luck.

RK:

The place to start is with the Wiki on Amb. Ryan Crocker who served as Ambassador to Afghanistan, then Pakistan, during that period.

His prior career included Persian (in addition to Arabic) language training, and postings to Iran.

I don't know if it has been published, but he tells a story about ongoing negotiations with Iran about Afghanistan's future, which were terminated midstream after the "Axis of Evil" speech, which explains why you have reached a dead end. US relations halted after that.

Scout some of his published work and articles about him, or contact Univ. of Texas.

There is some useful stuff in USIP's Iran Primer:

http://bookstore.usip.org/books/Book...oductID=278856

You could try:http://www.enduringamerica.com/ which is a UK-based website that watches the world and has a strong Iranian theme.

Israel watches Iran closely, so perhaps there is help there? In the university research centres.

There was a large Afghan refugee population in Iran, many of whom did return after the USSR exit and perhaps the UNHCR etc can help. I'm not sure if after violence increased that the return was completed.

At one time there were press stories about the extent of Iranian influence in Herat, might they help? IIRC Karzai removed the local warlord, sorry governor who leant too far towards Iran.