Iran
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Why Iran Is Not Iraq
The author argues that Iran is not Iraq: a unified, largely Shia ‘fortress civilisation’ whose legitimacy lets it adapt under attack. He holds that foreign regime change or a Pahlavi…
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Israel, India, and the Rise of Defensive Asymmetry
The author argues that Israel’s offensive against Iran and India’s against Pakistan are stalling against tenacious defences, and sees a new ‘defensive asymmetry’ built on information shields, narrative resilience and…
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Norouz or Nowhere: The Identity Pakistan Can’t Claim
X.T.M asks why Pakistanis who claim a Persianate high culture ignore Norouz, noting that Aurangzeb abolished it, and argues that Pakistan’s post-colonial elite curates rupture rather than heritage, even though…
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Are You Sri Lankan?
Recounts being asked by a Persian friend whether he was Sri Lankan, and coins the “Azizam Effect” for a longing among light-skinned, Westernised Middle Easterners to distance themselves from darker…
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Sizdeh Bedar, Identity Whiplash & the Gandharan Delusion
After a break around Sizdeh Bedar, the author reflects on being a 1.5-generation migrant who is neither quite immigrant nor native. He also dismisses Pakistani claims to be the last…
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Twelve Days of Norouz
A personal reflection on Nowruz as a twelve-day ritual of recalibration, written by a part-Persian Bahá’í of distant Zoroastrian descent. The author describes cutting a cake at the equinox, calendars…
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The Mirage of Exoticism & The Curse of the Almighty Dollar
Argues that places easily digestible to Western tourists lose their character fastest, and that the Persianate world feels more distinct than Japan. The author says India’s chaos shields it, while…
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Browncast: Hussein Ibish on Middle East
Omar Ali and Mukunda Raghavan talk to Hussein Ibish about recent events in Syria and their impact on the wider Middle East. Ibish raises India as a possible host for…
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Browncast: Dr Edward Luttwak on Israel and the Grand Strategy of Iran
Omar Ali and Amey talk to Edward Luttwak, described as famously pro-Zionist, about the Iran and Israel clash and each side’s strategy, giving the pro-Israel view of the crisis, with…
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Iranic-origin dynasties of the Christian Caucasus
X.T.M traces dynasties of Iranian origin in Armenia and Georgia, including the Orontids, Artaxiads and Armenian Arsacids, as evidence of how closely the Christian Caucasus was tied to Greater Iran,…
