The Foreign Service Journal, June 2007

26 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 7 hree years ago, a front-page editorial in Shargh , an Iranian daily newspaper, observed that “The reformist camp trusts Europe more than America because they are concerned that American pragmatism might sell the reform enterprise to the conservatives like any other business commodity. … Yet while in the Balkan War the Europeans supported the Croats and the Russians the Serbs, only America supported the Muslims because the multi- ethnic nature of America has prevented the emergence of the notion of a pure race.” F O C U S O N I R A N B ET ON THE O PTIMISTS : P ROSPECTS FOR R EFORM A SOCIETY WHERE THE GENIE OF DISSENT HAS BEEN LET OUT OF THE BOTTLE CANNOT REMAIN SILENT IN PERPETUITY . B Y M EHRZAD B OROUJERDI T Julia Vaskar