Iran in World Politics: The Question of the Islamic Republic » (New Edition)

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam is lecturer in the politics of West Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Previously, he held the Jarvis Doctorow Junior Research Fellowship at Oxford University, and is the author of The International Politics of the Persian Gulf.

How has the Islamic Republic developed ideologically since the revolution of 1979? What are the best ways of comprehending the country at this critical juncture in its history? In his book, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam combines theory and lived experience to explain the foreign relations and domestic politics of post-revolutionary Iran. He guides the reader through the country's complex identity and actions, from the nuclear issue to Iran's perpetual political standoff with the United States, from the future of Iranian democracy to Iranian-Arab relations, from American neoconservatism to Islamic utopian-romanticism, and from Avicenna to Ayatollah Khomeini.

An Iranian born in Turkey but educated in Germany and England, Adib-Moghaddam shows a unique empathy towards the understanding of both Eastern and Western cultures. His thoughtful analysis engages the existing literature on Iran and Islam and exposes the limitations of mainstream representations of the country and the wider Muslim world. He addresses not only what caused the war between Iran and Iraq but also its dangerous consequences; the impact of neoconservative policy on Iranian political rhetoric; and the pluralism of Iran's civil society, in which factionalism among the ruling class and peripheral representation in government have encouraged free discourse among its people.

Preface     vii
Introduction: The Question of the Islamic Republic     1
Islamic Utopian Romanticism and the Foreign Policy Culture of Iran     31
Inventions of the Iran-Iraq War and the Myth of Endemic 'Persian-Arab' Enmity     83
Iranian-American Encounters: The Islamic Republic in the Neoconservative Mind     123
Iran's Pluralistic Momentum and the Future of Iranian Democracy     155
In Place of a Conclusion: Towards Critical Iranian Studies     185
Notes     195
Bibliography     243
Index     265