Source Notes
Iran, a Revolutionary State Pulled Toward War Source Notes
An intermediate note for organizing research material, evidence links, issue structure, and inclusion decisions before the reader-facing article is written.
Source Map
Primary sources
- IAEA Verification and Monitoring in Iran: baseline for inspection and safeguards context.
- IAEA GOV/2025/24: used for enrichment and stockpile evidence as of June 2025.
- IAEA Safeguards Report 2024: used for safeguards background and unresolved issues.
- OFAC Iran Sanctions: used for current sanctions scope and operational reach.
- IMF country page / DataMapper: used for 2026 growth and inflation forecasts.
- Iran constitution PDF: used for supreme leader, Guardian Council, and election structure.
Authoritative data and rights materials
- Freedom House, Iran 2026: used for political freedom, censorship, and repression.
- OHCHR fact-finding materials: used for post-2022 human-rights abuse context.
- HRW World Report 2026: used for women, minorities, and coercive governance.
Current reporting
- AP on Mojtaba Khamenei succession: used for the present leadership picture.
- AP on the Strait of Hormuz / mediation: used for September 2026 ceasefire and shipping context.
- AP on regional networks and Houthi ties: used as a supplemental bridge for proxy-network framing.
Secondary context
- Encyclopaedia Iranica: used for the constitutional-revolution background.
- Britannica: used for concise modern-history background.
- JSTOR / modern history survey: used for the long arc from 1979 to the current order.
Evidence Notes
- The article treats Iran’s news value as a combined system: nuclear politics, war, sanctions, repression, and regional networks.
- The current power structure is presented as layered authority rather than a simple elected-vs-unelected split.
- The economy section uses the IMF because macro estimates are more durable than short-lived market headlines.
- The society section keeps city, class, generation, ethnicity, religion, and diaspora separate because those categories do not collapse into one public mood.
Rejected or Downgraded Sources
- Broad background explainers were too generic for the article’s decision-useful frame.
- Fast-moving battlefield updates were downgraded because they age faster than the structural profile.
- Closed-source speculation about succession and negotiations was excluded unless it could be framed as public-information inference.
Open Questions
- How stable is the post-succession power balance.
- Whether ceasefire talks connect to Hormuz access and sanctions relief.
- How far IAEA access can recover.
- Whether regional proxy nodes weaken under war pressure or become more fragmented and autonomous.