Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic

Description

On the fortieth anniversary of the 1978-79 Iranian revolution, a definitive political picture of the Islamic Republic When Iranians overthrew their monarchy, rejecting a pro-Western shah in favor of an Islamic regime, many observers predicted that revolutionary turmoil would paralyze the country for decades to come. Yet forty years after the 197

Amin Saikal is Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Public Policy Fellow, and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University. He is the author of The Rise and Fall of the Shah (Princeton) and Modern Afghanistan. He lives in Canberra.

"One of 20 essential books about the Middle East, compiled by the Middle Eastern Studies community at Anhui University in central China" "[A] lucid exposition of the Islamic Republic's two main ideological and policy axes: the jihadists, embodied by the country's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the ijtihadists, the more flexible and rational pragmatists, two of whom, Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani, have been elected president."---John Waterbury, Foreign Affairs "A welcome and discerning primer. . . . It should be studied carefully by all students of Middle Eastern politics and especially by diplomats, military leaders, and political decision-makers who wish to rectify or avoid repeating the current flawed policies toward the Islamic Republic of Iran."---Robert L. Tignor, Michigan War Studies Review "Scholarly portrait of a nation that resists easy categorization-and containment. . . . Useful reading for students of contemporary geopolitics, in which Iran has proven a constant, often destabilizing presence." * Kirkus * "Saikal . . . offers a critical but not unsympathetic perspective on the 'unique and multi-dimensional, and at times tragic, theopolitical story' of Iran. . . . Saikal's convincing bottom line is that open confrontation with Iran is unwise and unlikely to be productive, whereas a policy of careful engagement, while risky, could enable progress on the margins. The author's careful, analytic approach privileges trade statistics and governmental communiques over stories of human interest; as such, this is for readers who seek an understanding of strategic considerations, rather than a sense of what daily life is like for the Iranian population." * Publishers Weekly * "Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic is a clearly written, well-researched, and scholarly work that will be of benefit to anyone with a genuine interest in this strong and influential nation."---Robert Fantina, New York Journal of Books "Iran Rising is well written, laid out in a logical format, and well sourced with citations. It is an excellent primer on the country of Iran and offers a look behind the curtain on how the Iranian government is organized and administered. The book also illustrates the multifaceted nature of the elements of national power and that nothing is ever as simple as it seems. I highly recommend this book for all military and nonmilitary audiences because of its insight into one of the lesser understood countries that has been a thorn in the side of the United States for over forty years."---George Hodge, Military Review