Six sections are filled in: the parts that are stable and factual. Four are yours — evidence, perspectives, evaluation and the current connection. Those four are where the marks are, and they are deliberately empty. A case study only counts once you have completed them.
Marshall's chapter is an interpretation. Your job is to test it, including where it overstates what geography determines.
Islamic Republic of Iran
32.4°N 53.7°E · scale: National to regional
See this case in context on the case study map.
A large plateau state ringed by mountains, with deserts at its centre and its population concentrated in the wetter north and west. It sits on major energy reserves and beside one of the world's most important maritime chokepoints.
What is changing here, and the mechanisms driving it.
Find these, and write the year beside every figure. A statistic without a date is not evidence.
Who is affected, and separately, who holds the decision-making power.
Named above as a starting list. For each one, add what they actually want, and note where two of them want incompatible things.
Find two sources that disagree about this case — not two summaries of the same view. Record who each is, what they claim, and what interest they have. A perspective without a holder is not a perspective.
Which of the six apply here, and what each one reveals.
How significant is this? How effective was any response? What are the limitations of your evidence? What else could explain the pattern? Reach a judgement and defend it.
One dated development from the last twelve months. Does it strengthen, weaken or complicate the case as recorded above? Update this every time you revisit the case.
Built in sessions 4–6 as the template every later case study follows. Use it to practise evaluating an argument rather than repeating one.
Reading this page is not the same as having a case study. Take the template, find the evidence, and fill in sections 4, 6, 8 and 9 in your own words.
Start here. Prefer the organisation that produced the data over anyone summarising it.
Links checked 27 August 2026 · external links open in a new tab
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