Triangulation: Dealing with the Hostile Context of Iran

Abstract

Chapter 4 discussed the embedded case study of Iran, the process-tracing methodology, and the qualitative strategy employed in this study. This chapter reports the methods for data collection, as well as the approach to the data analysis. It explains the use of triangulation as the strategy in directing the methods and analysis of the sources, which was carried out for reducing bias and strengthening the reliability of the data in the hostile context of Iran. Both the primary and the secondary sources have been applied to gain the most possible knowledge from the field. The chapter shows how the research was planned and carried out in a comprehensive and multi-dimensional way, different than those researches in the literature that one-sidedly focused on either states or NGOs.