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| Mark Gasiorowski, LSU political science professor LSU Professor Sheds Light On Misunderstood Culture The guards tersely informed him that the building he was photographing was a military installation and demanded his camera. Gasiorowski, an expert on the Middle East, had grown quite comfortable in Iran, but he was well aware that he had stumbled into a potentially dangerous situation. He quickly relinquished his camera and attempted to make conversation with the guards. As the two fumbled in their attempts to remove the camera's film, the mood lightened. When they discovered that Gasiorowski was an American, they became excited and conversational. Ultimately, Gasiorowski ended up keeping his camera and film, as well as adding to an already long list of Iranian friends and acquaintances. It is, he says, an excellent example of the hospitable nature of Iran's people and Middle-Eastern culture—something many Americans are not aware of, because they are exposed only to television images of the region's strife, struggles, and violence. "They are tremendously welcoming and warm," he said of the Iranian people. "They like American people. They see us as open and friendly.” Gasiorowski explained that Iranians make a clear distinction between people from the United States and the government of the United States. They may not trust the U.S. government, but these feelings are not transferred to the country's citizens. This is one of the many lessons Gasiorowski has learned from his studies and travels, and through his work with Iranian graduate students as a visiting professor at University of Tehran. It is also one of the lessons he tries to convey to LSU students who fill his courses on Middle East politics and international relations. Gasiorowski, who earned his doctorate in political science from the University of North Carolina in 1984, specializes in Third World politics, Middle East politics, and comparative and international political economy. He became fascinated with Iran while he was in graduate school in the late ‘70s, and he watched the country's revolution—with all of its anti-American elements—play out in the media.
He turned this fascination into a thesis on the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran and his downfall. His thesis, in turn, eventually became a book, U.S. Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a Client State in Iran, which was published by Cornell University Press in 1991. Through the years, Gasiorowski has gained some renown for his knowledge of Iran and the surrounding region. He has been asked to provide information on Iran for a number of government agencies and non-government organizations, as well as British government officials and major companies such as Shell Oil. During the 2001–02 academic year, he served as a Visiting Fellow at the Middle East Centre at Oxford University's St. Antony's College. In 2000, Gasiorowski was asked by the U.S. Department of State to write a report on Iran and what U.S. policy should be toward the country. The purpose of the report was to inform the new presidential administration, and it was eventually read by Secretary of State Colin Powell, among others. Gasiorowski does not know how much attention the administration paid to his recommendations, but he said he did not view the president's mention of the country as member of an "axis of evil" during his 2002 State of the Union address as a positive sign. A month or so after the speech, Gasiorowski visited Iran. He found that the Iranians he spoke with were shocked by the label and felt a sense of betrayal. Many believed that their government had attempted to be helpful during the United States' war on the Taliban and terrorists in Afghanistan and that what the president had said was like a "slap in the face." "Iranians are very connected to the U.S., and they hate the Taliban," he said, explaining that the country had come close to entering its own conflict with the former ruling party of Afghanistan. Whatever the case, Gasiorowski said that he believes the United States should be more supportive because the democracy movement that emerged in Iran over the last decade may be in danger. Indeed, one of the friends he made during his teaching trips to
Tehran—a once-powerful In the meantime, he continues to keep in touch with Iranian friends and associates and to pass on what he has learned from them—as well as what he has learned from his research and experiences—to those at LSU and beyond. Written by Rob Anderson| University
Relations Related Links Mark
Gasiorowski homepage |
During
one of his numerous trips to Iran over the past decade, LSU political
science professor 
Iranian
government official who had become a leader in the pro-democracy
movement—was shot in an assassination attempt and paralyzed.
Gasiorowski has not been back to Iran recently, and he is not sure
exactly what effect current events in Iraq will have on the country
or the region, but he isn't optimistic in the short-term. However,
he said, there are "plenty of positive things" that could
be done in the long term, if all goes reasonably well. 
