http://informage.net/articles/2006/08/30/chatham-house en-us 40 tales from anglospheric la-la-land <p>The recent report <a href="http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/pdf/research/mep/Iran0806.pdf" title="Iran, Its Neighbours and the Regional Crises">Iran, Its Neighbours and the Regional Crises</a> by <a href="http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/">Chatham House</a> (a UK foreign policy thinktank described by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Chatham_House" title="Royal Institute for International Affairs - SourceWatch">SourceWatch</a> as "at the centre of the British Establishment") has received a good degree of media attention. In particular much note has been made of the opening sentence:</p> <blockquote>There is little doubt that Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the war on terror in the Middle East.</blockquote> <p>Less attention has been drawn to the further analysis of the report, in particular their characterisation of Iran's foreign policy: </p> <blockquote>Iranian regional foreign policy, which is often portrayed as mischievous and destabilizing, is in fact remarkably pragmatic on the whole and generally aims to avoid major upheaval or confrontation. </blockquote> <p>Consider that this is the closest thing to the official view of the UK establishment when examining media alarmism around Iran's growing strength in the region.</p> Wed, 30 Aug 2006 13:38:14 +0100 urn:uuid:e3622065-3a75-4db5-83de-805e91ede032 Sean http://informage.net/articles/2006/08/30/chatham-house worldage