Prosper Center December 2003: Fill & Download for Free

Lenin addressing public atop crates.The Soviet Union is often portrayed in the world as an “Evil Empire”, as described famously by President Reagan. The Soviet Union was indeed not a leader for human rights nor did it have the glamour of consumer products which the U.S. would so tout in the world. But, the Soviet Union did serve a certain purpose and it did manage to make the former Russian Empire into the second largest economy in the world, a global military super power and great supporter of post colonial nations across the globe. The Soviet Union had it’s faults and these should not be overlooked even with feelings of Nostalgia. From the very beginning of it’s establishment in 1917, violence was used a method to further the ideological aims of the world’s first socialist state. There were purges,policy failures and political imprisonments, which resulted in the death of nearly 30 million people, and it is probable that there were more victims. At the same time, a nation which was in 1917, defeated by a much smaller Germany, would become the nation most responsible for allied victory in Europe in 1945. The Red Army would go on to become the second military to possess atomic weapons. And, by the 1970’s the Soviet Union would actually possess more nuclear war heads than any nation. Industrial production would increase in the Soviet Union even while much of the world suffered in the Great Depression in the 1930’s. The Soviet Union would also be the first nation to go into space and to launch satellites. Much of this technological advancement would later be shared with many developing states such as India, and from these interchanges of technology humanity was greatly helped in many cases. At the same time the Soviet Union would also be responsible for putting down popular revolts in Eastern Europe and would later invade Afghanistan in support of a socialist government in 1979. This is the enigma of a state which contrary to popular history had great positive achievements as well as the more well known negative aspects.From it’s beginning the Soviet Union would put an emphasis on education for the masses. Contrary to the Czarist regime it effectively replaced, the establishment of the Soviet Union went against the concept of racism and privilege. Property was assigned to the state and a complete reorganization of the economy occurred. The concept of private business was completely finished. Production of food after Joseph Stalin assumed leadership in the early 1920’s created one of greatest shifts in world history to a collective model. This model by simple implementation proved to be a disaster as production fell and morale dropped in the agricultural sector.However at the same time Stalin’s reforms in the industrial sector were immensely successful. As Soviet production in all fields climbed faster than anywhere in the world. Observers came from all over the world to see the fast pace of development. Of course a negative portrayal was soon painted in Western Democracies, as fear set in workers demanding similar results in the West during the Great Depression. At the same time purges were happening in Stalin’s Soviet Union, and a truly negative side was ever present. These purges would largely be responsible for the lack of leadership in the Red Army when Hitler would attack in 1941.The Soviet Union would prize Ideology over practicality for most of it’s existence. The system, as setup went again the basic desires of human nature for the most part. As a sense of ownership was taken away. Instead, this was replaced with assumed role as the State being omnipresent and ultimate benefactor, in a seemingly ideological and religious sense. However, this state would turn on individuals just as quickly, and in these cases there was no recourse for the cause. Thus, the ideological magnanimity of the state could easily be stained by issues which would begin as personality clashes between high and low ranking members of the party alike. False accusations could be made and individuals lost their life, liberty and future over this abuse of an establishment which itself was relatively new in Stalin’s day. The Soviet Union in later times would curb much of this, but in the age of Stalin this aspect of the state grew out of control with no attempt at mitigation. Nobel Prize winning author Rabinder Nath Tagore, would on his journey to the Soviet Union for exhibitions of his literature, remark upon his arrival back in India at the lack of humanity he felt, in this system he once idealized.In June 1941, when the Soviet Union was invaded by German forces. The Soviet Union would fight it’s great Patriotic War, no nation would loose as many people in World War II as the U.S.S.R. It would be because of this epic struggle and the push to the limits of human struggle that World War II would be brought to an end. The methods of implementation were once more unlike anything seen in world history, as Stalin ordered machine gunners behind troop lines to fire on deserters. The cost of life was never a factor even until the very end, in the taking of Berlin, Soviet Rockets were falling on Red Army troops as well as there were orders in place to take Berlin without delay.Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premiere Joseph StalinSoviet Troops occupy Berlin, April 1945.After World War II, the Soviet Union began a new chapter in it’s history. In 1951, at Stalin’s direct orders the U.S.S.R. would be the first nation to offer Food Assistance to an India which could not feed itself, after it’s partition by the British Empire. India had been denied Food Assistance from even the U.S. at that time, as India would not commit to having foreign bases on it’s soil nor embrace a free market economy. Later in the 1950’s the Soviet Union would become a leader in the space race and launch Sputnik in 1957. It began assisting newly independent nations. In the 1950’s large hydroelectric projects were launched in India with Soviet Assistance and educational exchanges became common place. The first modern jets were supplied to the Indian Air force by the U.S.S.R. A similar pattern developed for many former colonized nations. In Egypt similar assistance was offered and this benefited millions of people with electricity and modernization. During the 1962 Sino-India war once more, a Communist Soviet Union played a beneficial role for a democratic nation such as India. As the Soviet Union agreed to supply arms after another American refusal.First Satellite in Space, the Soviet Union’s Sputnik (1957)Premiere Khrushchev and P.M. NehruBy the 1970’s the Soviet Union had a foreign policy and economic presence in the entire post colonial world. At the same time a thawing of relations began with West and in political sense a balance was seen in the world. This was a uneasy peace and there was a great distrust between the socialist system and the capitalist world. In 1971 the Soviet Union would once again participate in supporting Indian democracy in the third Indo-Pakistan war. As the Pakistani army committed a campaign of genocide in East Pakistan against the Hindu minority and Bengali freedom fighters, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took the issue to the world stage. Both the United States and United Kingdom remained committed to supporting Pakistan. As war loomed the Soviet Union signed a treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with India. The U.S. administration after engaging China was asking for the Chinese to open a front against India, if a conflict broke out between India and Pakistan. In the war that followed, the Soviet Union would prove instrumental in thwarting Communist China from opening a front with India. In the three week war which followed, the Soviet Union would surface it’s nuclear submarines in the Indian Ocean as a show of force to prevent an Anglo-American naval action against India. Additionally it would threaten a border war with China if it interfered in the war.Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi and Premiere BrezhnevA complete Indian victory followed three weeks later in December 1971. The victory is ever more enigmatic as this could not have happened if a Communist U.S.S.R. had not supported an Indian Democracy. The end result was the end of a genocide in Bangladesh and establishment of a democracy there. Pakistan would continue as a dictatorship and China as a communist state. By the end of the 1970’s India would finally become a food sufficient nation and food exporter for the first time since colonialism began in India in 1757. This accomplishment would not have happened without the actions of the of U.S.S.R., as a decade of peace followed in India. In 1974 India would go on to become an atomic power in it’s own right, further balancing the power structure in Asia.Soviet Premiere Mikhail Gorbachev and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in the final decade of the Soviet Union.As the the 1980’s dawned the global economy began changing due to mainly to technology. The Soviet Union needed massive reforms to build new industries. These reforms were implemented in a backward approach, as political freedom would come before economic freedom. Thus, the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991. Following this collapse, the world has had only one super power the United States. The situation in the world, may not have really improved as much as often discussed. Had the world had more balance in 2003, the invasion of Iraq would have certainly not happened. The later Arab Spring would also not have occurred and the radicalization of Islamic societies would not be at the levels we see today. There also would have been a curb on the reliance of the manufacturing capacities of China, which after the fall of the Soviet Union has been the main beneficiary. Today the same uni-polar world policy is pushing China and Russia together in a way not imaginable even a decade ago. Continued sanctions on Russia have made it more reliant on Chinese power consumption. This process has led to China getting the last pieces of Russian Arm production know how. This coupled with China’s manufacturing capability will make it a first world military power sooner than later.Truly there were positive aspects to the Soviet Union in terms of global balance. It lacked much in giving actual freedom to it’s citizens, the shear loss of life and talent was never replaced from it’s purges. But none the less, the collapse of the Soviet Union made possible a uni-polar world order which has not been so successful. This order will slowly yield to a multi-polar world. The blunders of American foreign policy in the two decades of complete dominance have not made the world a safer or better place. A new age of geopolitics is dawning and it is one where the rules of engagement are now unwritten and no certainty exists. It can only be hoped that a collective approach may come to balance the interests of humanity over those of narrow self interest. This new age is not about replacing one dominance with another but giving a broader viewpoint a center place for continued peace and prosperity for the globe as a whole.1971 war: Why Nixon, Kissinger hated India, Indira Gandhi1971 War: How Russia sank Nixon’s gunboat diplomacy

What is the biggest misconception the West has about China?The formation of misconception comes from misunderstanding. The difficulty in understanding each other between the West and China causes mutual misconception about each other. In today’s world, to avoid misunderstanding of China come from not only knowing China not the country in the 1840s, but also realizing China is not the same as the West. A lot of traditional thinking/ideals are still taught and learned in China, and interacted with imported ideas.So, I’ll take a different approach to answer this question by revealing the thoughts of a modern day Chinese entrepreneur Mr. Sun Dawu, who was recently arrested the fourth (?) time by the government. The reason that I pick Sun Dawu story is because I personally believe his story as an entrepreneur tells a lot about how China is doing in her transformation from a traditional society to modernity. And this process is indeed the origin of all kinds of misconception.The story below is a translation of a reporting by Zhang Zhiqing. It’s collected in 《影响中国社会经济进程的新闻当事人》(News Subjects Who Influence the Social and Economic Process of China) published in January, 2005. It’s about but not limited to Sun’s first arrest 17 years ago when he was charged “raising capitals” in violating regulations by local government. He was ordered to be freed by upper level government. He is currently in custody again. Check on the following reference to have a back ground idea about the story:Who is Mr. Sun Dawu?Sun Dawu’s arrest the fourth (?) time by the governmentOne late night in May, 2004, Sun Dawu and we met in person face to face. Sun is not a smoker. We handed him the cigarette, but he did not refuse. Sun also lit his cigarette after we lit ours. Two faint clouds of smoke rose slowly. (Hereinafter, Reporters referred to as reporter Zhang, Sun referred to as Sun Dawu.)Reporter: Do you remember the day you were arrested?Sun: Of course I remember, May 27, 2003.Reporter: Can you tell us about the situation of being arrested?Sun: I was in the company at the time. The Xushui county government (Hebei Province) called and said that a new county party secretary had come and asked me to meet him.Reporter (interrupting): Do you have a hunch?Sun: No. At that time, I only felt a little flattered, and I brought with me the manuscript I wrote about the understanding of the three issues with rural area, and prepared to talk to the secretary of the new county party committee.Reporter: Unexpected to be arrested?Sun (laughs): Right.Reporter: Do you know why you were arrested?Sun: I don't know. I absolutely believe that I am innocent.Reporter: Then where were you detained?Sun: The local detention center, the Xushui County Detention Center.Reporter: Had you never been transferred?Sun: No.Reporter: What is your situation after being arrested?Sun: Right after being arrested, I was detained in a solitary confinement cell. Later, I was locked up with 23 prisoners, including 6 death row prisoners. The confinement room was called Devil One. I was detained in solitary confinement again and was later with two prisoners with very light sentences. I named these three types of confinement as Large, Alone, and Smaller-Large.Reporter: Are there any particular reasons about being imprisoned in three different confinements at different times?Sun: When I first came in, of course I had to be locked up as a felon in the Alone. Later, I stopped resisting, so they locked me up in the "Devil One"; finally they put me in the Smaller-Large with a couple guys. One of the reasons was that I was no longer resisting, and the other might be related to public opinions outside.Reporter: Are you scared in "Devil One"?Sun: No. As soon as I was brought in I bought the inmates towels and soap.Reporter: Why did you buy them something, to protect yourself?Sun: No. Because I was the only rich person in there, most of them were very poor. I was willing and sincere to do that.Reporter: Have you ever been beaten up by prison guards working there?Sun (easy): No. They just intentionally humiliated me.Reporter: How did they humiliate you?Sun: They said, you are a billionaire. If you don't spend a little money to satisfy the other party, you should be punished. Who else should be punished if not you?Reporter: How did you feel?Sun: I was very tough at the beginning. I am not guilty. They interrogated me and said I had committed a crime. I thought it was as incredible as "the hail falling in the spring". I knew that a crime must be judged by: 1. It has a criminal motive; 2. It has a criminal action; 3. It causes a criminal consequence. But there are not victims (in my case). So, my action was not a crime. They couldn’t convict me. I am clean, and I can walk around naked.Reporter: But later you were still convicted.Sun: At the beginning, I always thought that I should never go there. Later, the reality that I faced changed me.Reporter: What kind of reality changed you?Sun: They came to work on me repeatedly. Then, I thought, well, so long I would be allowed to work out of the jail (why not to give in). The value to spending my life there is too low.Reporter: But, what about if they didn’t let you go after you admitted that you committed a crime?Sun: Nothing I can do.Reporter: Have you thought about it?Sun: I only thought about getting out but nothing else.Reporter: There seemed to be more than that. It is said that they also worked on your parents and younger brothers.Sun (voice louder suddenly): I am not a Fang_Xiaoru. (Pauses) I am a very affectionate person, and they are all my loved ones.Reporter: I heard that you cried.Sun: Yes. It’s very painful. When they mentioned my parents, I melted down.Reporter: At that time, were you a little bit unable to hold on? Began to admit guilty?Sun: (silence)Reporter: Now, when you look back and think about it again, what do you think --- right or wrong?Sun: I don't want to think about it, guilty or not guilty.Reporter: Are you numb, or you don't want to touch it anymore now? Or, you have really thought it through?Sun: I was thinking about getting out at the time. One concern is for the two elderly people in their 80s. (Sun’s father and mother was 84 and 86 respectively.) Second, thousands of people in the company were waiting for me. The charge they brought up was about a company at most, even it's convicted, why did they arrest my family? (Sun’s two younger brothers were arrested, and his wife escaped late at night wearing slippers.)Reporter: You haven't answered my question about your mentality at the time.Sun: I'm not numb at all, but soberer after getting out.Reporter: Can you be more specific?Sun: I feel there is a power. I saw the reaction of society, public opinion, and the media reporting, which gave me a sense of justice.Reporter: From this perspective, your ending today is considered lucky.Sun: I can't agree completely. If I did have a stain, I couldn't get out. After I came out, many entrepreneurs said to me: If it were me, I wouldn’t be able to get out of there. So many opportunities to get into crimes and who could keep up with an integrity except you? No one can get out if not absolutely clean. Only you but no one else could come out of there.Reporter: Aren't you afraid of being retaliated after coming out?Sun: I feel I am absolutely safe. I don't have an enemy. Nobody would want to fix me in a normal world. I should be absolutely safe. Some people of the underworld are eyeing at me and want to rob me. Later they only snatched my two German Shepherds and sold them for several thousand yuan. Later, they passed me a message that they knew everything about me ---- where my wife liked to hangout, how many sons I have and what they looked like, and so on. But they didn’t hit me. I heard that they argued between themselves whether they should rob a guy like me. Our Dawu Group is rich now. We want to help all our neighbors to become rich together.Reporter: You still don’t know who set you up?Sun (in an unhesitant tone): No. I think it's a joke. Some people say that I spoke too loudly and it got me into the trouble. But I don't feel that way. I was speaking for the interest of the public.Reporter: In the eyes of some people, your behavior is unusual. For example, as an enterprise, your company’s goal is not for profit first, but advocates for humanity and social conscience.Sun: We can be praised but not to be learned. After I was arrested on May 27, all the company’s financial accounts, books, safes, etc. were sealed and hacked, but the company still survived for 6 months while almost all senior managers were arrested. The accounting book of our company was not re-established until December 2003. During that time period no funds were embezzled, none of the stakeholders left. No other companies have that kind of strong vitality. (His tone was firm when speaking of this.) Had it happened to another company, it would longer exist.Reporter: Did you reflect on your behavior after you came out? For example, the charges they put on you ---- illegal fundraising, will you do it again?Sun: Before we had a middle man (trustee) to raise capital but not doing it that way any more.Reporter: How is it different now?Sun: Now it is voluntary, directly borrowing from employees, whoever wants to come, no entrustment system.Reporter: Do you think that the "Original Sin Document of Private Enterprises" issued by Hebei Province that sensationalizes the whole country has anything to do with you?Sun: I can't comment on that. You figure it out.Reporter: In your opinion, whether should the "original sin theory" be accepted?Sun: The enterprise has no original sin, only the system has original sin. Get rid of the moral shackles on entrepreneurs, let them free from these shackles. I am not noble and others are not mean.Reporter: Any reactions from the local government after your coming out?Sun: Many functional departments of the local government invited me to dinner, including those who arrested me.Reporter: Is there any change in local financing environment (for private business)?Sun: Still can't get money.Reporter: How do you deal with it?Sun: Well, slowly move forward. And I don't want to grow the company too big very quickly anyway.Reporter: You haven't forgotten that you are a criminal with a three-year sentence in a four-year probation?Sun (silence, a long silence, suddenly said): But, I am still a member of the Communist Party.The reporter noticed that from beginning to end, Sun had only inhaled his cigarette twice while letting it lit. One late night in 2004, we faced Sun again.Reporter: In your opinion, expulsion from the party is a more severe punishment than the legal punishment?Sun: I don't think about it, no. To me, I don't think I should think about these issues. Expulsion from the party is just a talk. I think I am still a qualified party member. I stayed in the detention center for 158 days, and my pressure came from two aspects: First, I was worried that I would never see my parents again. They were all approaching to their 90. In fact, when I was in the prison, my 86-year old mother-in-law had in critical condition twice in the hospital. Second, the development of Dawu Group. Debt can't overwhelm me. So long they let me get out and develop our business. The company is beneficial to the individuals and the locality both.Reporter: You don't care about "honor" anymore?Sun: I didn't care about " being famous" long ago. I have been criticized and denounced before. I was beaten up on New Year's Eve and my "fame" had been destroyed. When the heart is selfless, there is a big world for the heart.Reporter: You become numb with the reality.Sun: No, I'm sober, but I still don't know who sent me into the prison. I don't want to talk about this matter anymore, I will not appeal anymore and let it be by default to the conviction. Don't care about personal grievances, true or false, right or wrong. This mentality can make me bear any blow. In many cases, keeping silent is also necessary. It is more important to invest your energy in the enterprise and to do a good job in the enterprise that is more important than personal honor or disgrace.Reporter: You really don't want to know the truth?Sun: It’s meaningless. When things pass, let them pass forever. I believe the incidents of last year won’t occur again, no one will rectify me again. I really work for the common people. Those who want to persecute me will end in disgrace and pay more price than me.Reporter: You are escaping from the reality, or unwilling to face the reality.Sun: No, I did not escape. What happened to me is a normal phenomenon.Reporter: Normal phenomenon?Sun: In the Spring Festival of 2003, before the incident, I attended a gathering of entrepreneurs in Baoding city (Hebei province). At that time, someone said to me with a serious looking, "Sun, many companies do not pay taxes according to regulations, but you pay taxes honestly. Are you sick?” I said that I was sick. It can be demonstrated but not learned. I don’t ask other companies to be like me. I admit that I am a different kind of business operator. Either we are sick or others are sick. I am willing to take the risk for what I’m doing. I do not regret what I do.Reporter: When you gave a speech at Peking University in March 2003, you said a very famous sentence, "It seems to be gratifying and congratulatory, but in reality it is sad and lamentable." Where is the sadness and lament?Sun: I am isolated, not compatible with the society, and not compatible with the general environment. But I can't give up my principles of doing things. I understand the unspoken rules. If I don't adapt, keep going on my own way, I may succeed but I will not end well. But, after the prison disaster last year, I feel that I am a gratifying figure.Reporter: Why?Sun: The media, scholars, and people from all walks of life have given me full sympathy, support and affirmation. Is this not enough? What wronged left with me? I am stronger now, and my behavior is both commendable and learnable. The right path in the world is the vicissitudes of life, let's go down together.Reporter: This road is full of risks and destined to be lonely.Sun: There are risks, but more sympathy and the power of support. I am not alone.Reporter: For you, there is already a kind of "path dependence"? There is no choice but to continue doing what you want.Sun: It's hard to be a good person, so you have to do it with persistence; it's hard to do good things, so you have to do it.Reporter: To move away from the common society, to build a "non-conventional village", what is the significance of the existence of the Dawu Group? How do you "share prosperity" with the surrounding environment?Sun: The significance of the existence of Dawu Group? In a barren land, free labor produces considerable wealth, and this accumulation of wealth is the direct result of mutual laboring. The geographical separation is caused by history, and our place used to be a barren land. However, Dawu Group and I have deeply integrated into this society. You may feel that the corporate attributes of Dawu Group are weakening, but in fact, only the manifestation of wealth has changed. Dawu Group’s wealth performance is an overall image, more than 20,000 trees, this is also wealth. Dawu Group is a coordinated development of a rural society. Its wealth is the maximization of corporate wealth, its environmental value, human value and profit value.Reporter: Is it possible to reproduce "Dawu Mode" model elsewhere?Sun: It is very possible. All needed is a policy and a reasonable administrative division, nothing else.Reporter: When will Dawu Group’s administrative division problem be solved?Sun: I don't know, this is not my consideration.Reporter: After all, this is your most realistic top priority.Sun: Unrealistic. It's not my problem.Reporter: This current state of existence is undesirable to you, because it even carries traces of "illegal settlement".Sun: This is indifferent. I carry my duty to do my best. When it becomes true, it should have been so. I won't be overjoyed. If it doesn't happen, I won't be sad, it's not my sorrow. Seven or eight years ago, the land department of the government announced that it would level the Dawu Group. I said do it. I don’t feel the pain if they use explosives (to wipe it out). This is a social behavior.Reporter: What are your criteria for judging a good company?Sun: To put it plainly, its products have a market and has the cash flowing smooth, this is a good company. Good products, good character, and good profits are my requirements for Dawu Group. Conscience does not speak being smart and stupid, poor and rich. Conscience is the duty of life, and conscience is the bottom line for working together among people. Li Ka-shing said that he was afraid of being simply defined as a successful businessman. The businessman positioning is only an affirmation of his wealth, it ignores his value of being human. I particularly understand what he says.Reporter: Do you believe that character determines fate?Sun: I don't believe it. I believe that fate is in my own hands.Reporter: You are stubborn, upright and paranoid. Such a character has led to your many hardships. Don't you think this is a fate?Sun: There is indeed a factor in my personality that gives the character of no-stop-until-hitting-the-wall.Reporter: After experiencing the incidents of the past year, how do you guarantee your safety?Sun: Continue to be a good person. Good people are rewarded, and I am a lucky one.(End)

Azerbaijan's Cooperation with Israel Goes Beyond Iran Tensions“In recent years, Israel and Azerbaijan have intensified their security cooperation and military trade. At the same time, tensions between Azerbaijan and Iran have increased. Yet these two developments have been largely independent of each other, despite Tehran's efforts to promote misconceptions to the contrary.ISRAELI-AZERBAIJANI RELATIONSIsrael recognized Azerbaijan's independence in 1991 and opened an embassy there in 1993. Since then, several Israeli delegations have visited the country: in 1997, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with then-president Heydar Aliyev; in 2009, three Israeli ministers and fifty businessmen joined President Shimon Peres to visit current president Ilham Aliyev, with whom Peres is close; and former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman visited in February 2010 and April 2012.Baku has not reciprocated by opening an embassy in Israel, citing fears that Muslim-majority states in the UN would vote unfavourably on its conflict with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Yet several Azerbaijani officials have visited Israel, including Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Huseyn Bagirov (December 2002 and November 2006), Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov (November 2003), Minister of Emergency Situations Kemaleddin Heydarov (March 2007), and Transportation Minister Ziya Mammadov (June 2007). Moreover, the Azerbaijani national airline AZAL has had regular flights to Tel Aviv since 1993, and Israelis are among the few passport holders eligible for visas at the Baku airport.More broadly, Israel has been among Azerbaijan's top five trade partners in recent years. Baku is Israel's top oil supplier, providing around 40 percent of its annual consumption, while Israel is the sixth highest importer of Azerbaijani oil exports. The oil arrives via a pipeline through Turkey that continued to function even when Israeli-Turkish relations hit rock bottom in recent years. In addition, a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) participates in oil and gas exploration off Israel's coast. The project is the first of its kind for SOCAR outside the Caspian region and could contribute to the firm's quest to become an international oil company.Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has become a major consumer of Israeli armaments and military expertise. In February 2012, the two countries confirmed the signing of an arms-supply agreement valued at $1.6 billion, to include Israeli drones and antiaircraft/missile-defense systems. Israeli firms are also involved in technology transfers as part of Azerbaijan's efforts to establish an indigenous arms industry; one joint company is already producing unmanned military vehicles in Baku.On the cultural front, Azerbaijan has been home to a Jewish community for over 2,000 years, based in Baku and the northern city of Quba. Today, this community numbers around 20,000-25,000, similar to the Jewish populations in Iran and Turkey. Azerbaijani Jews enjoy safety and freedom of worship and culture; President Aliyev visits their community institutions in Quba annually and issues regular greetings on Jewish holidays and a solidarity statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day.IRANIAN-AZERBAIJANI RELATIONSIranian officials and media outlets have attempted to portray Tehran's hostility toward Azerbaijan as a response to Baku's close ties with Israel, depicting the Islamic Republic as the victim of cooperation between the two states. History does not support this claim, however -- Tehran has acted against independent Azerbaijan from its inception in 1991, long before it formed close links with Israel.The most plausible explanation for this antagonism is fear that Azerbaijani nationalism and prosperity could incite Iran's own Azerbaijani community, which comprises a full third of the country's population. Whatever the reason, Tehran has long threatened its neighbor's security and economic progress, supporting Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh war during the early 1990s and attempting to thwart Azerbaijan's energy export projects. In a recent conference at Johns Hopkins University, Armenian diplomats openly acknowledged Iranian support.Tehran also sponsors or maintains ties with Islamist and other anti-government groups next door. Baku has thwarted a number of local terrorist plots by Iranian-connected groups targeting the U.S. and Israeli embassies as well as Jewish community institutions in the capital. In 2008, for instance, officials announced that they had foiled a plan to explode car bombs near the Israeli embassy; two Lebanese citizens with ties to Iran were later convicted for the plot in an Azerbaijani court.And in 2011, Iranian-connected operatives attempted to assassinate the U.S. ambassador in Azerbaijan (for more details on the plot, see Matthew Levitt's recent study Hizballah and the Qods Force in Iran's Shadow War with the West).For its part, Baku has been largely cautious in its policy toward the Azerbaijani minority in Iran. For instance, Iranian delegations have been conspicuously excluded from officially sponsored diaspora conferences in Baku for two decades. During periods of intense Iranian hostility, however, Baku often uses the "South Azerbaijan" issue to remind Tehran that it has the means to threaten Iran's stability. In July 2001, for example, Iranian gunboats threatened a BP exploration vessel in the Azerbaijani-controlled sector of the Caspian Sea, and Iranian warplanes violated the country's airspace several times. Baku responded by publishing schoolbooks containing maps of Azerbaijan that encompassed northwestern Iran, while television outlets renewed broadcasts of a series on the culture of "South Azerbaijan."More recently, Baku allowed the South Azerbaijan National Liberation Movement to hold a conference in the capital on March 30, highlighting the latest spike in tensions with Tehran. In response, Hossein Shariatmadari -- the publisher of Kayhan (Iran's largest newspaper) and a close advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei -- demanded that Azerbaijan hold a referendum on whether to join Iran.As described above, however, the particularly tense atmosphere of late is not exceptional. Tehran has clashed with Baku numerous times over the past two decades, and the character of their relations has not been a direct result of Azerbaijan's dealings with Israel. To be sure, Azerbaijani-Israeli rapprochement is a function of the wider strategic challenges Baku faces (including frequent destabilization attempts from Iran and Russia as they attempt to regain control over the Caspian region), but Tehran is only part of this calculus.In short, Azerbaijan has good, independent strategic reasons for its cooperation with Israel and poor relations with Iran. Notwithstanding Tehran's rhetoric to the contrary, Baku and Israel share a common regional orientation, strong strategic cooperation with the United States, and a potent security threat from Iran.”Brenda Shaffer is a visiting researcher at Georgetown University's Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies, a political science professor with the University of Haifa, and a former visiting professor at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Her publications include the 2002 book Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity.