Rimland. Now predominantly Continentalist geopolitical orientation.
80% - Eurasianist, 20% Atlanticist.
Russia, Syria, Iraq, Yemen (Houthi government), Lebanon (Hezbollah), India, China, Venezuela, North Korea.
USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Great Britain, NATO, Saudi-backed government of Yemen.
Turkey, Continental Europe (changing balance), Africa, Central Asia.
Territorial disputes:
Persian, Azeri, Kurd, Lur, Baloch, Arab, Turkmen and Turkic tribes. Officially Iran does not present information on ethnical proportions of its society. Languages:
Muslim (official) 99.4% (Shia 90-95%, Sunni 5-10%), other (includes Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian) 0.3%, unspecified 0.4% (2011 est.)
Iran has its own political ideology based on Shia doctrine Velayat-e faqih (rule of Islamic clerics). It was recognized as a state ideology after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Iran’s ideology combines a revolutionary social element with a strong religious conservatism and goes beyond the traditional dichotomy of Left-Right. It has its own version of oppressors-oppressed distinction -mustazafin ('weak') and mustakbirin ('proud and mighty') and supports social equality as well as a profound religious interpretation of all spheres of life. The ruling doctrine of Iran is revolutionary conservative, theocratic, and is the closest to the Fourth Political Theory.
State of semi-periphery. The second world.
The economy of Iran is a mixed and transition economy with a large public sector. Some 60% of the economy is centrally planned. It is dominated by oil and gas production, although over 40 industries are directly involved in the Tehran Stock Exchange, one of the best performing exchanges in the world over the past decade. With 10% of the world's proven oil reserves and 15% of its gas reserves, Iran is considered an "energy superpower".
Main security threats:
Traditional values:
Predominantly Shia, Muslim.
Iranian civilizational identity is multidimensional. The first level is ancient Iranian identity, imperial, Apollonian and Indo-European. The second – Islamic Shia identity, which in the case of Iran integrated the majority aspects of earlier pre-Islamic ideology.
The Shia version of Islam is oriented more toward the contemplative, mystic and metaphysical.
The strong feeling of its own otherness as well as its closeness to other Shia communities dominates Iran’s perception of the outer world.
After the Islamic Revolution, the state has used common Islamic rhetoric.
Traditional values are dominant in villages and small towns. In big cities the set of values is more liberal and secular. Anti-Westernization is an axis of official cultural policy
International Monetary Fund, BRICS (observer), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (observer), United Nations, World Trade Organization (observer), ALBA (observer), Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
