Interesting to note that once you claim to be holding an ‘election’, or that your country is a ‘democracy’, it makes it possible to put you on the hook for things you wouldn’t normally want to be on the hook for.
So, Iran is now making ‘reluctant concessions’ with regard to the farce of election they just held.
I wouldn’t push too hard on this point, but it’s the reason why neo-insitutional folks push back against the myth-versus-real construction. Here, the myth actually makes changes to the real more viable.
“Iran is seeking membership in the SCO, which is consistent with Tehran’s “looking East” foreign policy, says Mohsen Sazegara, a Washington-based Iranian dissident and founding member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Experts say Iran wants to forge closer relationships with states vital to its interests in Central Asia, including Russia, India, and China, and views the SCO as a potential guarantor of future security.”
http://www.cfr.org/publication/10883/
SCO’s official languages are Russian and Chinese, but they are nice enough to provide an English presentation here:
http://www.sectsco.org/EN/
We tend to see the world from our point of view, naturally enough. Apparently five other nations also have to live with Iran, as well. They may care less about elections, but more about the consequences of a new nuclear power in their region.
Fair enough. My point, though, was that if you say you are a theocratic autocracy that says you are holding an ‘election,’ you are making yourself vulnerable to the rites and rituals of that election. Other autocratic places manage this just fine (China, Cuba, N Korea), but occasionally it forces you to justify your actions in terms you would not normally be forced into.
Like when a company says it’s ‘going Green’ as lipservice to environmentalism – it allows others, in some circumstances, to hold you to that in a way that you didn’t originally intend.
PL: “… occasionally it forces you to justify your actions in terms you would not normally be forced into. Like when a company says it’s ‘going Green’ as lipservice to environmentalism …”
I agree that, like individuals, nations sometimes must accede to peer pressure or surrender to the dreaded triple-dog-dare. Consider, however, that Governor George Bush of Texas was elected President of the United States in a vote that hinged on victory in the province controlled by his brother Governor John Bush. As acrimonious as the conflict was in the editorial pages of the newspapers, it mattered little on the streets.
It is pretty easy to figure that among the many who have some interest in the outcome in Iran right now are the USA, Saudi Arabia, and Israel as well as Egypt, Syria, or Pakistan … or any of the central Asian states.