Research for Iran
This report addresses the major security issues associated with the Arabian Sea. It includes three separate papers that address three central issues: Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, examined in an essay by RADM (ret.) Michael A. McDevitt, Senior Fellow at CNA and Long Littoral Project Director, and Dr. Michael Connell, Director of CNA’s Iran Studies Program; piracy in the Arabian Sea, explored in a comprehensive assessment by Mr. Martin Murphy of the U.S. Atlantic Council; and the India-Pakistan maritime rivalry in the Arabian Sea, addressed by Dr. Satu Limaye, Director of the East-West Center’s Washington, D.C., office.
This paper focuses on the Dardanelles Campaign (the navy portion), and compare it to a modern-day naval scenario—potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz (SoH). Although such comparisons are not new, arguments have been made that greater attention should be paid to the Dardanelles as a learning tool for littoral warfare.
The free flow of oil is critical to world commerce and global economic prosperity. Oil trade requires the use of maritime trade routes, which can span from hundreds to thousands of miles. Hence, oil tankers often travel through straits and canals to reduce transport costs. These passageways—referred to as chokepoints—are narrow channels along the most widely used global sea routes. This study evaluates how potential disruptions at critical chokepoints could affect the U.S. economy and economies around the world.
On July 29, 2010, CNA China Studies hosted a half-day roundtable to discuss China’s relations with and activities in Iran. Participants, who included academics and analysts from think-tanks in Washington, were asked to address the following issues: the interests and actors involved in the China-Iran economic relationship; security issues in China-Iran relations; the larger context of China-Iran relations; and, the implications of this relationship for the U.S. and regional security.
CNA convened several of the country’s leading experts on Persian history and contemporary Iran for a workshop to examine some of the factors shaping Iranians’ view of themselves and of the West. In Iran, the past is very much present—tangibly, in the pre-Islamic and Islamic monuments, which are among the world’s cultural treasures, and metaphorically, in the collective consciousness.
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