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Iranian Intellectuals in the 20th Century
by Ali GheissariSince the middle of the nineteenth century, Iranian intellectuals have been preoccupied by issues of political and social reform, Iran's relation with the modern West, and autocracy, or arbitrary rule. Drawing from a close reading of a broad array of primary sources, this book offers a thematic account of the Iranian intelligentsia from the Constitutional movement of 1905 to the post-1979 revolution. Ali Gheissari shows how in Iran, as in many other countries, intellectuals have been the prime mediators between the forces of tradition and modernity and have contributed significantly to the formation of the modern Iranian self image. His analysis of intellectuals' response to a number of fundamental questions, such as nationalism, identity, and the relation between Islam and modern politics, sheds new light on the factors that led to the Iranian Revolution--the twentieth century's first major departure from Western political ideals--and helps explain the complexities surrounding the reception of Western ideologies in the Middle East.
Iranian Masculinities: Gender and Sexuality in Late Qajar and Early Pahlavi Iran
by Sivan BalslevThe transition from Qajar rule in Iran (c.1789–1925) to that of rule by the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979) set in motion a number of shifts in the political, social, and cultural realms. Focusing on masculinity in Iran, this book interweaves ideas and perceptions, laws, political movements, and men's practices to spotlight the role men as gendered subjects played in Iranian history. It shows how men under the reign of Reza Shah dressed, acted, spoke, and thought differently from their late Qajar period counterparts. Furthermore, it highlights how the notion of being a "proper Iranian man" changed over these decades. Demonstrating how an emerging elite of western-educated men constructed and promoted a new model of masculinity as part of their struggle for political, social, and cultural hegemony, Balslev shows how this new model reflects wider developments in Iranian society at the time including the rise of Iranian nationalism and the country's modernisation process.
Iranian Media: The Paradox of Modernity (Routledge Advances in Internationalizing Media Studies)
by Gholam KhiabanyThe post-revolutionary state in Iran has tried to amalgamate ‘Sharia with electricity’ and modernity with what it considers as ‘Islam’. While sympathetic to private capital, through quasi anti-capitalist politics, the state began to restrict market-relations, confiscate major assets of sections of the Iranian bourgeoisie, and nationalize major aspects of Iran’s industry, including its communications system. Since the end of war with Iraq and the start of the process of ‘reconstruction’, market-driven development and economic policies have been key aims of the state.
Iranian Music and Popular Entertainment: From Motrebi to Losanjelesi and Beyond (Iranian Studies)
by Sasan Fatemi Gj BreyleyThe word motreb finds its roots in the Arabic verb taraba, meaning 'to make happy.' Originally denoting all musicians in Iran, motrebi came to be associated, pejoratively, with the cheerful vulgarity of the lowbrow entertainer. In Iranian Music and Popular Entertainment, GJ Breyley and Sasan Fatemi examine the historically overlooked motrebi milieu, with its marginalized characters, from luti to gardan koloft and mashti, as well as the tenacity of motreb who continued their careers against all odds. They then turn to losanjelesi, the most pervasive form of Iranian popular music that developed as motrebi declined, and related musical forms in Iran and its diasporic popular cultural centre, Los Angeles. For the first time in English, the book makes available musical transcriptions, analysis and lyrics that illustrate the complexities of this history. As it presents the findings of the authors' years of ethnographic work with the history's protagonists, from senior motreb to pop-rock stars, the book reveals parallels between the decline of motrebi and the rise of 'modernity.' In the twentieth century, the fate of Tehran's motrebi music was shaped by the social and urban polarization that ensued from the modern market economy, and losanjelesi would be similarly affected by transnational relations, revolution, war and migration. Through its detailed and informed examination of Iranian popular music, this study reveals much about the values and anxieties of Iranian society, and is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Iranian society and history.
The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: Avoiding worst-case outcomes (Adelphi series #Vol. 398)
by Mark FitzpatrickThis paper explains how Iran developed its nuclear programme to the point where it threatens to achieve a weapons capability within a short time frame, and analyses Western policy responses aimed at forestalling that capability. Key questions are addressed: will the world have to accept an Iranian uranium-enrichment programme, and does having a weapons capability mean having the Bomb? For nearly two decades, Western strategy on the Iran nuclear issue emphasised denial of supply. Since 2002, there has also been a demand-side dimension to the strategy, aimed at changing Iran’s cost–benefit calculations through inducements and pressure. But the failure of these policies to prevent Iran from coming close to achieving a nuclear-weapons capability has promoted suggestions for fallback strategies that would grant legitimacy to uranium enrichment in Iran in exchange for intrusive inspections and constraints on the programme. The paper assesses these ‘second-best’ options in terms of their feasibility and their impact on the proliferation risks of diversion of nuclear material and knowledge, clandestine development and NPT break-out, and the risk of stimulating a proliferation cascade in the Middle East and beyond. It concludes that the risks are still best minimised by reinforcing the binary choice presented to Iran of cooperation or isolation, and strengthening denial of supply.
The Iranian Reform Movement: Civil and Constitutional Rights in Suspension
by Majid MohammadiThis book analyzes the reform movement in Iran and traces its political roots from the beginning of the 20th century to its relative demise with the purging of the Green Movement after the 2009 disputed elections. The author explains how this movement was shaped in a country with an authoritarian Islamist regime, how it grew, and what its achievements are, including its failures and setbacks. The project will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of Middle Eastern politics and sociology, Iranian politics, democracy, and the US-Iran relations.
The Iranian Revolution and Modernization: Way Stations to Anarchy
by Jack C. MiklosTo many observers in the West, events in Iran leading up to the revolution in 1979 took a mystifying and seemingly irrational course. In this National Security Essay, Jack Miklos, a foreign service officer who served in several key assignments in Iran, discusses the Iranian Revolution. He looks at theories of social modernization as applied to the history and culture of Iran, and then focuses in depth on the effects of land reform and the pervasive influence of what he identifies as the Iranian national character. His purpose is to examine social science theorizing with a case study of US-aided modernization which exploded in a traditional counter-reformation. Based on firsthand observations as well as theory, the author offers insights into how modernization may have contributed to the Iranian Revolution. These insights can broaden our understanding of nations culturally much different from our own and perhaps help us appreciate the complexity of national behavior and some of its determinants.
The Iranian Revolution and the Resurgence of Islam
by Barry RubinThe Iranian Revolution and the Resurgence of Islam examines the history and ideology of the modern Islamist movement, discussing the Iranian Revolution, other examples of revolutionary Islamism during the 1980s and 1990s, and the state of jihadism today.
Iranian-Russian Encounters: Empires and Revolutions since 1800 (Iranian Studies)
by Stephanie CroninOver the past two hundred years, encounters between Iran and Russia have been both rich and complex. This book explores the myriad dimensions of the Iranian-Russian encounter during a dramatic period which saw both Iran and Russia subject to revolutionary upheavals and transformed from multinational dynastic empires typical of the nineteenth century to modernizing, authoritarian states typical of the twentieth. The collection provides a fresh perspective on traditional preoccupations of international relations: wars and diplomacy, the hostility of opposing nationalisms, the Russian imperial menace in the nineteenth century and the Soviet threat in the twentieth. Going beyond the traditional, this book examines subaltern as well as elite relations and combines a cultural, social and intellectual dimension with the political and diplomatic. In doing so the book seeks to construct a new discourse which contests the notion of an implacable enmity between Iran and Russia Bringing together leading scholars in the field, this book demonstrates extensive use of family archives, Iranian, Russian and Caucasian travelogues and memoirs, and newly available archives in both Iran and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Providing essential background to current international tensions, this book will be of particular use to students and scholars with an interest in the Middle East and Russia.
Iran's Deadly Ambition
by Ilan BermanAre we on the cusp of détente with Iran? Conventional wisdom certainly seems to believe so. In the aftermath of the interim nuclear deal struck in November 2013 between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 powers (the United States, France, England, Russia, China and Germany), hopes are now running high for a historic reconciliation between Iran's clerical regime and the West. Yet there is ample reason for skepticism that the United States and Europe can truly curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions by diplomatic means. Moreover, the current focus on Iran’s nuclear program not he part of the Western governments is deeply dangerous, because it fails to recognize--let alone address--Iran’s other international activities, or its foreign policy ambitions. Those objectives reveals Ilan Berman, are global in scope, and they are growing. Iran's Deadly Ambition explains how America's retraction from the Middle East has created significant breathing room for an Iranian regime that not long ago was on the political ropes. Economically, the Islamic Republic is "out of the box" that was erected over the past decade-and-a-half by Western sanctions, thanks to the "interim" nuclear deal. As a result, Iran's leaders are again thinking big about their country and its place in the world. America faces stark choices: to confront Iran's nuclear ambitions andglobal activities, or to accept and accommodate the region's newest hegemon, with all that that portends for American security and the safety of its allies.
Iran's Deadly Ambition: The Islamic Republic's Quest for Global Power
by Ilan BermanAre we on the cusp of détente with Iran? Conventional wisdom certainly seems to believe so. Since the start of diplomacy between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 powers (the United States, France, England, Russia, China, Germany) in November 2013, hopes have been running high for a historic reconciliation of Iran's clerical regime with the West.Yet there is ample reason for skepticism that the United States and its allies can truly curb Iran's nuclear ambitions by diplomatic means. Moreover, the West's current focus on Iran's nuclear program is deeply dangerous insofar as it fails to recognize-let alone address-Iran's other international activities or its foreign policy aims. Those objectives are global, and they continue to grow in scope and menace.In this sobering book, Ilan Berman illuminates the multiple dimensions of the Iranian threat and exposes the perils of lodging confidence in diplomacy with the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s Foreign Policy After the Nuclear Agreement: Politics Of Normalizers And Traditionalists (Middle East Today Series)
by Farhad RezaeiThe book offers the first systematic account of Iran’s foreign policy following the nuclear agreement (JCPOA) of July 14, 2015. The author evaluates in what ways the JCPOA, in conjunction with the dramatic changes taking shape in the international order, have affected Iran’s foreign policy. Known as Normalizers, the moderate leadership under President Hassan Rouhani had planned to normalize Iran’s foreign relations by curtailing terrorism and reintegrate Iran into the community of nations. Their hardline opponents, the Principalists, rejected the JCPOA as a tool of subjection to the West and insisted on exporting the Islamist revolution, a source of much destabilization and terror in the region and beyond. The project also analyzes the struggle between Normalizers and their hardline opponents with regards to global and regional issues and Iran’s foreign policy towards global powers including the U.S., Russia, EU, and regional countries including Iraq, Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Iran's Influence in Afghanistan: Implications for the U.S. Drawdown
by Alireza Nader Ali G. Scotten Ahmad Idrees Rahmani Robert Stewart Leila MahnadThis study explores Iranian influence in Afghanistan and the implications for the United States after most U. S. forces depart Afghanistan in 2016. Iran has substantial economic, political, cultural, and religious leverage in Afghanistan. Although Iran will attempt to shape a post-2014 Afghanistan, Iran and the United States share core interests: to prevent the country from again becoming dominated by the Taliban and a safe haven for al Qaeda.
Iran's Nuclear Diplomacy: Power politics and conflict resolution (Routledge New Diplomacy Studies)
by Bernd KausslerThis book examines the dynamics of relations and the substance of the negotiations between the international community and Iran over the latter's nuclear programme. Iran’s nuclear programme and the alleged threat to international peace and security remains one of the most important issues in the United States, as well as in European foreign affairs. In the US, Iran has dominated the political discourse for over three decades and Europe has spent considerable political capital in finding a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. While relations between both states remain subject to mutual hostility, the EU remains a channel of communication and since 2003 has maintained a multilateral negotiation framework. By and large, the narrative on nuclear negotiations is dominated by constructivist and realist literature, portraying relations between the US and Iran in ideological terms as a prolonged struggle for regional influence. Embedded within conflict resolution and diplomatic theory, this work attempts to bridge this gap. Drawing upon primary documents and interviews, the text examines negotiation behaviour, and strategies and tools of statecraft, as well as analysing technical aspects of initiatives concerning the nuclear programme. This book will be of much interest to students of nuclear proliferation, international diplomacy, Middle Eastern politics, security studies and IR in general.
Iran's Nuclear Future: Critical U.S. Policy Choices
by Jeffrey Martini Dalia Dassa Kaye Alireza Nader James T. Quinlivan Lynn E. DavisAs Iran's nuclear program evolves, U.S. decisionmakers will confront a series of critical policy choices involving complex considerations and policy trade-offs. These policy choices could involve dissuading Iran from developing nuclear weapons; deterring Iran from using its nuclear weapons, if it were to acquire them; and reassuring U.S. regional partners. The U.S. Air Force will need to prepare to carry out whatever policies are chosen.
Iran's Nuclear Option: Tehran's Quest for the Atom Bomb
by Al J. Venter“The most systematic exposition to date about Iran’s nuclear program and its role in world affairs” (Middle East Quarterly).Since the Islamic Republic of Iran admitted that it was secretly producing highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium, nations have struggled to react appropriately. For the first time, and in full detail, this book explains exactly what the Europeans and United Nations have been trying to forestall.Iran could shortly have the ability to strike its immediate Middle Eastern neighbors—and more distant nations—with nuclear weapons. With the size to dominate its region, Iran also has an avowed mission to export its theocratic principles, and in recent decades, has been a notorious supporter of terrorist organizations. Its parallel development of atomic bombs represents the greatest threat to the balance of world power we’ve seen in the new millennium.Here, defense expert Al Venter reveals the extent to which Iran’s weapons program has developed and the clandestine manner in which its nuclear technology has been acquired. He demonstrates how Tehran has violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and details the involvement of several countries shown by the IAEA to have trafficked in illegal nuclear materials. He proves, for the first time, a direct link between the now-defunct South African apartheid regime’s nuclear program and Tehran’s current nuclear ambitions.Venter digs deep into subjects such as Iran’s fervor on behalf of Shiite Islam, its missile program—developed alongside its nuclear one—and the role of the Pasdaran, the Revolutionary Guards, whose tentacles have spread throughout the Middle East and increasingly farther afield. While noting Tehran’s support of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Venter follows closely how the Persian homeland itself has progressed toward a strategic nuclear capability that would make recent terrorist attacks look obsolete. Iran’s Nuclear Option is essential reading for anyone with an interest in global security, the perilous volatility of the Middle East, and America’s options, should it be willing and able to counter the threat while time remains.
Iran’s Nuclear Program and the Global South: The Foreign Policy Of India, Brazil, And South Africa
by Michal OndercoThis book studies the reactions of India, Brazil, and South Africa the three main non-proliferation actors of the Global South to Iran's nuclear program. Their responses are explained and situated in wider foreign policy context.
Iran's Nuclear Programme: Strategic Implications (Routledge Global Security Studies)
by Joachim KrauseThis book examines the strategic implications of Iran’s nuclear programme, providing an inventory of the negotiations and a discussion of possible solutions to this pressing international security issue. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear programme has been the cause of one of the most extended international crises of the past decade. Multilateral institutions have been unable to resolve the issue, which has the potential to derail the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. Recent failures of diplomatic offers for an extended Iran-EU cooperation and projected US arms sales to Iran’s neighbours suggest an imminent escalation of the issue, which has been simmering since first reports about Iranian nuclear fuel-enrichment activities emerged in 2002. Since then, the topic has been the subject of intense media coverage as well as academic and diplomatic debate. This volume brings together analysts and authors with diverse backgrounds, including international diplomats formerly involved in negotiations with Iranian officials. The various chapters bring together different perspectives and empirical analyses, and include detailed assessments of both US and European efforts in diplomatic relations with Iran, as well as of the domestic politics in Iran itself. This book will be of interest to students of Iranian politics, Middle Eastern politics, strategic studies, nuclear proliferation, international security, foreign policy and IR in general.
Iran's Political Economy since the Revolution
by Suzanne MaloneyOver three decades after the Iranian Revolution reconfigured the strategic landscape in the Middle East, scholars are still trying to decipher its aftereffects. Suzanne Maloney provides the first comprehensive overview of Iran's political economy since the 1979 revolution and offers detailed examinations of two aspects of the Iranian economy of direct interest to scholars and non-specialist readers of Iran: the energy sector and the role of sanctions. Based on the author's research as both a scholar and government advisor, the book also features interviews with American and Iranian government officials. Moving chronologically from the early years under Khomeini, through the economic deprivations of the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war, through liberalization under Khatami to the present, Maloney offers fascinating insights into Iran's domestic politics and how economic policies have affected ideology, leadership priorities, and foreign relations.
Iran's Quiet Revolution: The Downfall of the Pahlavi State (The Global Middle East #9)
by Ali MirsepassiOffering a new perspective on Iran's politics and culture in the 1960s and 1970s, Ali Mirsepassi challenges the prevailing view of pre-Revolution Iran, documenting how the cultural elites of the Pahlavi State promoted a series of striking 'Gharbzadegi' or 'Westoxification' discourses. Intended as ideological alternatives to modern and Western-inspired cultural attitudes, these influenced Persian identity politics, and projected Iranian modernity as a 'mistaken modernity' despite the regime's own ferocious modernisation programme. Focusing on the cultural transformations which defined the period, Mirsepassi sheds new light on the Pahlavi State as an ideological gambler, inadvertently empowering its fundamentalist enemies and spreading a 'quiet revolution' through secular and religious civil society. Proposing a new theoretical framework for understanding the anti-modern discourses of Ahmad Fardid, Jalal Al-e Ahmad, and Ali Shari'ati, Iran's Quiet Revolution is a radical re-interpretation of twentieth century Iranian political history which makes sense of these events within the creative, yet tragic Iranian nation-making experience.
Iran's Reconstruction Jihad: Rural Development and Regime Consolidation after 1979
by Eric S. LobBased on over one hundred and thirty interviews with government officials, revolutionary activists, war veterans, and development experts, this is the first full length study in English to examine the significant yet understudied organization and ministry, Reconstruction Jihad, as a basis for understanding the political and social changes and continuities that have transpired in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) over the last four decades. Exploring the success of the Iranian revolution, the state's development policies, its overall resilience and the conflicting dynamics of its attempts to mobilize and institutionalize activists, Iran's Reconstruction Jihad is one of the few studies that adopts an institutionalist approach toward analyzing critical aspects of the IRI's history and politics, with comparative implications for analyzing revolutionary processes and outcomes across other geographic regions and time periods.
Iran's Rise and Rivalry with the US in the Middle East
by Mohsen M. MilaniThe 1979 Islamic Revolution triggered a cold war between Iran and the United States – former fast friends. Despite the US&’s relentless efforts at containment, Iran has risen as a formidable power in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza. Its newfound status not only frustrates the US but has swiftly become a thorn in the side of Israel and Saudi Arabia. How did Iran rise so rapidly? And as it faces ever increasing pressure at home and abroad, can it hold onto its power? Mohsen Milani guides us through the twists and turns of the Iran–US rivalry in the battlefields of the Middle East. Going from the fall of the Shah to revolutionary Iran&’s alliances with Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraqi militias, and the Houthis in the Axis of Resistance, Milani lifts the veil on Iran&’s foreign policy strategy and its implications for the region, the US and Iran itself.
Iran's Troubled Modernity: Debating Ahmad Fardid's Legacy (The Global Middle East #5)
by Ali MirsepassiAhmad Fardid (1910–94), the 'anti-Western' philosopher known to many as the Iranian Heidegger, became the self-proclaimed philosophical spokesperson for the Islamic Republic, famously coining the term 'Westoxification'. Using new materials about Fardid's intellectual biography and interviews with thirteen individuals, Ali Mirsepassi pieces together the striking story of Fardid's life and intellectual legacy. Each interview in turn sheds light on Iran's twentieth-century intellectual and political self-construction and highlights Fardid's important role and influence in the creation of Iranian modernity. The Fardid phenomenon was unique to the Iranian story, and yet contributed to a broader twentieth-century Heideggerian tradition that marked the political destiny of other countries under a similar ideological sway. Through these accounts, Mirsepassi cuts to the nerve of how deadly political 'authenticity movements' take hold of modern societies and spread their ideology. Combining a sociological framework with the realities of lived experience, he examines Iran's recent and astonishing upheavals, experiments, and mass mobilizations.
Iraq: A Political History from Independence to Occupation
by Adeed DawishaWith each day that passed after the 2003 invasion, the United States seemed to sink deeper in the treacherous quicksand of Iraq's social discord, floundering in the face of deep ethno-sectarian divisions that have impeded the creation of a viable state and the molding of a unified Iraqi identity. Yet as Adeed Dawisha shows in this superb political history, the story of a fragile and socially fractured Iraq did not begin with the invasion--it is as old as Iraq itself. Dawisha traces the history of the Iraqi state from its inception in 1921 following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and up to the present day. He demonstrates how from the very beginning Iraq's ruling elites sought to unify this ethnically diverse and politically explosive society by developing state governance, fostering democratic institutions, and forging a national identity. Dawisha, who was born and raised in Iraq, gives rare insight into this culturally rich but chronically divided nation, drawing on a wealth of Arabic and Western sources to describe the fortunes and calamities of a state that was assembled by the British in the wake of World War I and which today faces what may be the most serious threat to survival that it has ever known. Iraq is required reading for anyone seeking to make sense of what's going on in Iraq today, and why it has been so difficult to create a viable government there.
Iraq: A Political History
by Adeed DawishaWith each day that passed after the 2003 invasion, the United States seemed to sink deeper in the treacherous quicksand of Iraq's social discord, floundering in the face of deep ethno-sectarian divisions that have impeded the creation of a viable state and the molding of a unified Iraqi identity. Yet as Adeed Dawisha shows in this superb political history, the story of a fragile and socially fractured Iraq did not begin with the American-led invasion--it is as old as Iraq itself. Dawisha traces the history of the Iraqi state from its inception in 1921 following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and up to the present day. He demonstrates how from the very beginning Iraq's ruling elites sought to unify this ethnically diverse and politically explosive society by developing state governance, fostering democratic institutions, and forging a national identity. Dawisha, who was born and raised in Iraq, gives rare insight into this culturally rich but chronically divided nation, drawing on a wealth of Arabic and Western sources to describe the fortunes and calamities of a state that was assembled by the British in the wake of World War I and which today faces what may be the most serious threat to survival that it has ever known. Featuring Dawisha's insightful new afterword on recent political developments, Iraq is required reading for anyone seeking to make sense of what's going on in Iraq today, and why it has been so difficult to create a viable government there.