Daily Archives: March 10, 2026

Why Iran Is Unlikely to Fragment: A Structural Analysis of Political Cohesion

Posted on March 10, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract This paper advances a structural argument against the proposition that the Iranian state is likely to fragment into its constituent ethnic or regional components, drawing on the four principal factors that make such fragmentation structurally implausible: the integrative logic … Continue reading →

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The Plateau Empire Diagnostic Instrument: A Structured Framework for Identifying and Analyzing Highland Imperial Formations

Posted on March 10, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract This paper develops and presents the Plateau Empire Diagnostic Instrument (PEDI), a structured analytical tool designed to enable systematic identification of highland imperial formations conforming to the plateau-state model developed across this paper series. The instrument operationalizes the model’s … Continue reading →

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Other Imperial Plateau States: A Comparative Analysis of Highland Imperial Formations

Posted on March 10, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract This paper extends the imperial plateau state model developed across this series through systematic comparative analysis of four additional cases: the Anatolian Plateau, which generated the Hittite, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires across a span of more than three thousand … Continue reading →

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The Memory of Territorial Loss in Iranian Political Culture: History, Trauma, and the Politics of Territorial Integrity

Posted on March 10, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract This paper examines the role of historical territorial loss in shaping Iranian political culture’s distinctive preoccupation with territorial integrity and its deep suspicion of external powers perceived as promoting the fragmentation of the Iranian state. Focusing primarily on the … Continue reading →

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The “Seven Pieces of Iran” Map as Geopolitical Myth: A Structural Critique

Posted on March 10, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract This paper examines and critiques the “seven pieces of Iran” cartographic scenario — a recurring geopolitical proposition that imagines the fragmentation of the Iranian state into a series of ethnically defined successor states corresponding to its major peripheral communities … Continue reading →

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The Imperial Bargain: Ethnic Accommodation and Political Integration in Plateau Empires

Posted on March 10, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract This paper examines the political arrangements through which plateau-based empires have historically managed the relationship between their dominant core ethnic groups and the diverse peripheral peoples sharing the plateau’s bounded geographic space. Advancing the concept of the “imperial bargain” … Continue reading →

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