Éditeur : Palgrave Macmillan | Date & Lieu : 2005, New York |
Préface : | Pages : 204 |
Traduction : | ISBN : 1–4039–6276–6 |
Langue : Anglais | Format : 135x230 mm |
Code FIKP : Liv. En. | Thème : Politique |
Présentation
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Table des Matières | Introduction | Identité | ||
Eternal Iran Continuity and chaos
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Acknowledgments In our day jobs at our respective think-tanks, we are each wrapped up with current policy concerns and U.S.-Iran relations. Having a deadline to produce this manuscript forced us to carve out more time for exploring Iran’s history, a topic for which we both have great affection. The Iranian fashion is to apologize that we humble servants are not fit to speak when there are so many more knowledgeable than we. Indeed, the list of those who have helped us learn more is so long that we can only mention but a few. Yale University historian Abbas Amanat has been invaluable, as has the noted historian Willem Floor with whom Mr. Clawson had the privilege of working on several coauthored articles. We have learned much from many of our colleagues at the American Enterprise Institute and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and our gratitude is due to those two institutions and especially our supervisors, Danielle Pletka and Robert Satloff. We had the invaluable help of our assistants, Suzanne Gershowitz, Molly McKew, Naysan Rafati, and Haleh Zareei. Mr. Clawson owes a debt to his many Persian-language instructors, especially Simin Mohajer, and Mr. Rubin wishes to acknowledge the patient instruction of Fereshteh Amanat-Kowssar. Our editors, David Pervin and Barry Rubin, have been patient and understanding. Most important, in our respective visits to Iran, we owe much to the many Iranians who have helped us better understand their fascinating and complex land. Of course, the errors in what we have written are our own. Introduction A pivotal country at the juncture of the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia, Iran, with ambition, oil, the sheer size of its 70 million–strong population, is a regional power. Iran’s geography and history contribute much to its sense that it is a great country under siege. Whereas its neighbors only coalesced as countries and gained independence in the twentieth century, Iran in one form or another extends back to the centuries before Islam when it was among the ancient world’s great empires. Such self-conception does much to explain the proud nationalism that has remained at the center of Iranian politics as the country has gone from being an American ally, and what former President Carter called a “pillar of stability” in the Middle East, to a revolutionary state exporting terrorism, and thus a member of President Bush’s “axis of evil.” Iran has long surprised the West. A medieval monarchy until the midnineteenth century, Iranian shahs undertook ambitious drives to modernize their country helped along by Western investment, loans and, as the twentieth century dawned, growing oil wealth. In the first decade of the twentieth century Iranians fought a bitter civil war to win a constitution and parliament. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Iranian government raced ahead with economic, social, and legal reforms that paralleled and, sometimes, exceeded those implemented in Turkey. Despite the 1951–1953 confrontation over oil nationalization under Prime Minister Muhammad Musaddiq, Iran continued to modernize rapidly, experiencing growth rates that were among the world’s highest in the period 1953–1978. Then came the Islamic Revolution in 1979; Iranians shocked the world, though, not so much by overthrowing their increasingly autocratic and aloof shah, but by replacing him with a theocracy. Contradictions have accelerated under the Islamic Republic, though. Young men might chant “Death to America” in the morning, but return to home to watch American soap operas on their illegal satellite receivers. Woman sporting the cloaking chador might be concealing the latest Western fashions and hairdos. Millions of Iranian youth are more likely to argue about the Chicago Bulls’ NBA draft picks than about questions of religious jurisprudence. While officials of the Islamic Republic rail against the moral corruption of the West, Iranian municipalities seek to control burgeoning drug and prostitution problems. Even as President Muhammad Khatami called for a “dialogue of civilizations,” Iranian authorities paraded missiles draped with banners threatening the United States and calling for Israel’s ... |