The Revolutionary Of The Underworld

Iran cut all ties with the United States and lost its dominance in the area; it’s army was disorganized and weak. The Iranian Revolution created disorder in many Iranian military units and Iranian confrontation with the U.S. ensured it would be cut off from its primary weapons supplier. During the year after the fall of the Shah, many areas of Iran were approaching civil war; this frenzy in Iran made the country seem much more vulnerable than it really was, and led Saddam Hussein to feel he had his first genuine opportunity to make Iraq the dominant power in the area and the Arab world (Cordesman & Wagner, 1990).

They remember Greeks, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, and most recently Saddam Hussein’s forces, all invaded their homeland. Iranians also remember that the British and Russian empires exploited them economically, subjugated them politically, and invaded and occupied their country in two World Wars (Ramazani 2009). Through this all, Iran’s geographical area and its people identity have remained more or less the same. The vast land– three times the size of France and twenty times that of the Czech Republic – is demarcated to the North by the Caspian Sea (740 km of coastline) and to the South by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman (2,440 km of coastline). Three-fifths of the country, especially the central plateau, lacks the rainfall to sustain permanent agriculture. Farming is confined to rain-fed Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and the Caspian coast, to irrigated villages and oases scattered throughout the county, especially at the foot of the mountain ranges (See Map 1 & 2) (Abrahamian 2008, p. 1). Iran is a neighbour to seven countries (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan), which makes it a natural crossroad of civilizations and trade flows. Its rich history shows that for many centuries Iran has been a key land bridge between Europe and Asia through the renowned Silk Road and Spice Route (Central Intelligence Agency 2015, Thompson 1983, UNESCO

The purpose of this paper was to gather research of the topic called illicit drug trafficking. It explores 10 online research articles and websites that relate to illicit drug trafficking. These articles however, vary in their research about the topic. It begins by stating how illicit drug trafficking is considered an organized crime. Two of the main drugs that are trafficked are cocaine and heroin. As a result of drug trafficking, the war on drugs has been a problem for many decades in different countries.

One would think that with one of the largest oil reserves and the second largest gas field in the world Iran would be one of the most prosperous countries. After all during Reza Shah’s reign from 1941 to 1979 new modern buildings and massive infrastructure projects were being built, the army was a equipped with the latest military

Since the drug wars kicked off, Mexico's economy has weathered some of the worst violence in the western hemisphere — and some of the worst years of the global economy at large. Another huge factor was the re-capture of Chapo Guzman in 2014 who has been labeled the world’s most notorious drug lord. The violence ramifying from the capture of Chapo Guzman and the resurgence of the brutal Los Zetas cartel has hit the areas most crucial to a post-privatization Mexican oil boom. This event fueled and increasingly violent power vacuum and after his second prison escape is sure to stir the drug world intensely.

The relationship between terrorist organizations and drug cartels creates a unique challenge for financial institutions and government entities. The two criminal organizations work together to capitalize on their specific skills or assets (Noriega, 2015). In addition, the globalization of business trade, communications, and logistics has aided in their expanded growth and sophistication (Noriega, 2015). This creates a large and complex web of relationships, criminal activity, and financial transactions that are difficult to detect, deter and prosecute. As documented in the National Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment of 2015, the “ongoing links between drug trafficking networks and terrorist organizations, and their facilitators continue to present a residual terrorist funding risk to the United States through “narco-terrorism” (Department of the Treasury, 2015).

There is evidence of settlements in the area from almost 5,000 years ago” (The World Book Encyclopedia, 2015, p. 398). Therefore, it is only natural that this country has had its share of military conflict. One major conflicted occurred more recently. During 1979, “Ayatollah Ruhollah KOMEINI established a theocratic system of government” (The World Factbook, 2016, Background, para. 1) after his conservative clerical forces overthrew the ruling Monarch. Iran and Iraq were engaged in a war over territorial disputes that lasted from 1980 to 1988. Prior to KOMEINI’S rise to power, according to GlobalSecurity.org (n. d.), “In July 1972 the Imperial Iranian Air Force signed a foreign military sales (FMS) case for 24 batteries of Improved HAWK materiel totaling nearly $280 million, one of the largest sales of missile materiel that MICOM had ever negotiated with a foreign country” (para. 1). Most of Iran’s Air Defense centered around 30 Improved HAWK fire units by the mid-1990s. They also had some Rapier and Tigercat SAM launchers. Also stated by GlobalSecurity.org (n. d.) “In December 2005 Iran entered into a contract to purchase 29 TOR-M1 (SA-15 Gauntlet) mobile surface-to-air missile defence systems from Russia worth more than USD 700 million (EUR 600 million)” (para. 7). Because of Iran’s geography, its Air Defense has remained porous and centered on key installations and infrastructures to include its nuclear

death sentence, which was handed out last year to Mah-Afarid Khosravi, a businessman linked to a $2.8 billion fraud case (Bozorgmeh, Najmeh). These rare occasions of cases that are brought to court are not part of the effort to fight corruption, but are actually for show. Put on to relieve people’s frustration over their economic difficulties. Despite the fact that these cases are often closed, or the sentences are kept hidden from the public, people are still punished for corruption. Some believe Zanjani is a scapegoat of Hassan Rouhani’s government, which is a supposed crackdown on corruption because the government wants to attract foreign investment. Zanjani’s case could also be a distraction from other corruption cases. Iran’s seemingly closed society is due to the 1979 revolution when Islamic rulers denounced capitalism and pushed for an economy based on an amalgamation of Islamist and socialist ideology. Mousa Ghaninejad, an economist at Iran’s Petroleum University of Technology said “We have fallen into an oil trap since 1974, which has increasingly put the economy under state control and keeps creating new rich classes who are linked to oil rents and political power” (Bozorgmeh, Najmeh). Essentially creating a class of oligarchs that operates in the private sector, dependent on the regime’s survival. But the private sector is about 20 % of the economy, which prevents the independent business community from attempting to influence politics (Bozorgmeh, Najmeh).

Within the past ten years, there has been a large increase in the trafficking of drugs. Trafficking in these and other materials is usually distinguished as very high levels of corporation and the existence of powerful society of criminals. While such hobbies had a presence in the past, the pair on the scale and the geographic scope of the modern challenge are revolutionary. The worth of drug trafficking around the world was approximated at $1.3 trillion and it is still growing.

Thirty years after the notorious Islamic Revolution of 1979, the United States has become a haven to “the largest and most prosperous population of Iranians” (Bagherpour). A constant amount of Iranians immigrated to the U.S. during the 1980s, but the number reached its climax in the 1990s (Bagherpour). When Iranians migrated to the United States, they thought it would be a temporary sojourn, but that was not the case. The Iranian society has gradually changed in the last thirty years. Iranians are now a part of American life, and they are continuing to prosper and adapt. This loss of accomplished people has greatly affected Iran’s socioeconomic status negatively.

It 's important to understand a nation’s history and culture to assess its intention, capabilities, threats and strategies. Therefore, I would like to describe Iran 's history, government structure, and key institutions briefly.

On the other hand, the authors outline the importance of drug trafficking as the most significant and current source of income for both terrorist and international criminal organizations. Similarly, The Jamestown Foundation cites the example of how profits of narcotrafficking have been used to strengthen international links between terrorist organizations: ‘ETA has been training FARC members in explosives and weapons. In exchange, the FARC compensated the Basque terrorists, using financial revenues obtained through drug trafficking’ . Thus, one could affirm that the market of illegal drugs and narcotics produce enormous revenues which often support criminal organizations, revolutionary groups, and terrorist organizations among many other illegal forms of crime.

The series of disappointments that have harassed the growth of Iran began with a poor foundation, its leadership and government, and has then snowballed with each coming failure and conflict, however it is the people who choose to stand on that foundation and continue on or rebuild it. Iran, throughout the last decade has had several shifts in how government is deployed, the indecisive tug and pull of religiously kept sanctions or a move towards further westernization, and the maintenance of the tight control on its population to maintain diplomatic control.

When many people think of the Iranian government they automatically assume that it is a dictatorship. On paper, Iran’s government vaguely resembles a semi-presidential system with the Supreme Leader acting as the head of government and the President acting as the head of state. However, the large part that religion plays in Iran’s government in both an official and unofficial manner leads to the government resembling a theocracy in many aspects. While Iran’s government system is unique unto itself, it could best be described as a semi-presidential theocracy due to the distribution of power within the government and religion’s major role in government (O’Neil, Fields, Share, 522-523). While the Iranian government has tried to modernize its economy by pursuing an export oriented model its efforts has been stymied by trade sanctions from major foreign powers and the United Nations in response to various aggressive acts on the part of Iran that have only recently been lifted. As a result Iran has had little time to see the effects of modernization.

A middle-eastern country of over seventy-five million people (“World”), the country of Iran has undergone many government reforms in the past century and been a major force in international relations.