Download or read book Dynamics of Power in Contemporary Iran written by Anoushiravan Ehteshami and published by Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. This book was released on 2010-08-25 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iran’s 1979 revolution has stood out as one of the 20th century’s most intriguing and unusual social uprisings. This revolution defied the socialist radicalism of its day, which had been making in-roads as the “non-capitalist path to development” in several African and Asian countries, and had created social change without reliance on the East or in the name of socialism. It had, by the same token, rejected the Western premises of liberalism and individualism as its guiding principles. Its leader, an aging cleric, even used an apparently alien discourse as he chastised the “great Satan” (United States) for its socio-cultural sins and for its crimes against humanity. In speaking of the plight of the “downtrodden,” and in condemning the alien and morally corrupt values of the uptown living Iranian taghutis, he accused the reigning monarch, a Western-educated urbane man, for taking the country down the “path of Satan”. How could an aging mullah, with little international experience, be challenging the survival of a modern, powerful and internationally well-connected monarchy? How could a cleric, whose views of an Islamic state were arguably abstract at best, proceed to establish a revolutionary Islamic theocracy where there had previously been, apparently, entrenched Western-style modernity? The answers could be sought in a number of places: In the deep-rooted struggle of the Iranian people for freedom which dated back to before the Bolshevik revolution in Russia; the ruling Pahlavi establishment’s inability to manage the economic and cultural crisis that engulfed Iran in the 1970s; the disenchantment of the monarchy’s potential middle class and bourgeois allies; the critical role of a radicalized clerical group which emerged to provide a legitimate alternative to the Pahlavi order; and finally in the nature of the modern Iranian state itself. Prospects for change are historically good but change is likely to take time. Nor can the direction of change be easily predicted despite the country’s choices increasingly narrowing between that of a naked military regime on the one hand and a pluralistic republic on the other. However, given the country’s vibrant and defiant civil movement and their progressive social democratic program for change, Iran again could become a trendsetter for the rest of the region, were these forces to return to the corridors of power. Having been the first country in the world to have marched political Islam into power in the 20th century, Iran’s people could again be in the long process of trading political Islam for a truly open and democratic system in the 21st century.

Download or read book Power and Change in Iran written by Daniel Brumberg and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-04 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “By a wide margin, this book is the most sophisticated treatment of the internal dynamics and paradoxes of Iranian politics that I know of.” —Nader Hashemi, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies This volume provides an unparalleled and timely look at political, social, economic, and ideological dynamics in contemporary Iran. Through chapters on social welfare and privatization, university education, the role and authority of the Supreme Leader, the rule of law, the evolving electoral system, and the intense debate over human rights within and outside the regime, the contributors offer a comprehensive overview of Iranian politics. Their case studies reveal a society whose multiple vectors of contestation, negotiation, and competition are creating possibilities for transformation that are yet to be realized but whose outcome will affect the Islamic Republic, the region, and relations with the United States. “Offers a realistic, nuanced, and perceptive analysis of Iran’s complex and evolving political system . . . This book would be appropriate as required or recommended reading for any courses dealing with the Islamic Republic of Iran or with the politics of the Middle East, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.” —Mohsen Milani, author of The Making of Iran’s Islamic Revolution

Download or read book Contemporary Iran written by Ali Gheissari and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-02 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iran is a key player in some of the most crucial issues of our time. But because of its relative diplomatic isolation and the partisan nature of conflicting accounts voiced by different interest groups both inside and outside the country, there is a shortage of hard information about the scale and depth of social change in today's Iran. In this volume, and imposing roster of both internationally renowned Iranian scholars and rising young Iranian academics offer contributions--many based on recent fieldwork--on the nature and evolution of Iran's economy, significant aspects of Iran's changing society, and the dynamics of its domestic and international politics since the 1979 revolution, focusing particularly on the post-Khomeini period. The book will be of great interest not only to Iran specialists, but also to scholars of comparative politics, democratization, social change, politics in the Muslim world, and Middle Eastern studies.

Download or read book Capitalism in contemporary Iran written by Kayhan Valadbaygi and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-05 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the patterns of capital accumulation and the changes in class and state formation emanating from it in Iran during the global neoliberal era. It demonstrates how there are inner connections between the nature of contemporary development in Iran, the form of the state, the ongoing sociopolitical transformations in society and the geopolitical tensions with the West. Simultaneously, it highlights that these issues should be explored in terms of their internal relations to the motions and tendencies of neoliberal global capitalism and resulting geopolitics. Accordingly, the book demonstrates that Iranian neoliberalisation has brought about new contested class dynamics that have fundamentally reconstructed the Iranian ruling class, aggressively shaped and reshaped the working class and the poor, and drastically impacted the state form and its foreign policy.

Download or read book Inside the Islamic Republic written by Mahmood Monshipouri and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2016 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The post-Khomenei era has profoundly changed the socio-political landscape of Iran. Since 1989, the internal dynamics of change in Iran, rooted in a panoply of socioeconomic, cultural, institutional, demographic, and behavioral factors, have led to a noticeable transition in both societal and governmental structures of power, as well as the way in which many Iranians have come to deal with the changing conditions of their society. This is all exacerbated by the global trend of communication and information expansion, as Iran has increasingly become the site of the burgeoning demands for women's rights, individual freedoms, and festering tensions and conflicts over cultural politics. These realities, among other things, have rendered Iran a country of unprecedented-and at time paradoxical-changes. This book explains how and why.

Download or read book Dynamics of Change in the Persian Gulf Political Economy War and Revolution written by Anoushiravan Ehteshami and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Persian Gulf has come to represent one of the most strategically significant waterways of the world. In terms of geography, geopolitics, resources, global political economy, and regional influence, the Gulf is perhaps home to the world's most significant group of countries. Focusing on the complexities of the interplay between domestic-level changes and region-wide interactions, this book presents the reader with the first comprehensive survey of the dynamics of change in this crucial area. Systemic-oriented in its approach, the impact of war and revolution on the countries of the sub-region is discussed, and the ways in which these factors have shaped the security dilemmas and responses of the Gulf States is also explored. The role of oil is examined in terms of the impact of its income on these states and societies, and the manner in which oil has shaped the integration of these states into the global system. Oil has shrunk developmental time in these countries, and has accelerated generational shift. At the same time, it has created the dialectical relationship which now characterizes the difficult balance between prosperity and instability which is at the heart of the sub-region. Casting new light on the workings of a strategically significant part of the international system, this book will be an essential resource for students and scholars of international relations, international security and Middle Eastern politics.

Download or read book Who Rules Iran written by Wilfried Buchta and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Drugs Politics written by Maziyar Ghiabi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-20 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers new and cutting-edge research on the role of drugs in Iranian society and government. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Download or read book Islamic Law and Governance in Contemporary Iran written by Mehran Tamadonfar and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-05-20 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current rise of Islamism throughout the Muslim world, Islamists’ demand for the establishment of Islamic states, and their destabilizing impact on regional and global orders have raised important questions about the origins of Islamism and the nature of an Islamic state. Beginning with the Iranian revolution of the late 1970s and the establishment of the Islamic Republic to today’s rise of ISIS to prominence, it has become increasingly apparent that Islamism is a major global force in the twenty-first century that demands acknowledgment and answers. As a highly-integrated belief system, the Islamic worldview rejects secularism and accounts for a prominent role for religion in the politics and laws of Muslim societies. Islam is primarily a legal framework that covers all aspects of Muslims’ individual and communal lives. In this sense, the Islamic state is a logical instrument for managing Muslim societies. Even moderate Muslims who genuinely, but not necessarily vociferously, challenge the extremists’ strategies are not dismissive of the political role of Islam and the viability of an Islamic state. However, sectarian and scholastic schisms within Islam that date back to the prophet’s demise do undermine any possibility of consensus about the legal, institutional, and policy parameters of the Islamic state. Within its Shi’a sectarian limitations, this book attempts to offer some answers to questions about the nature of the Islamic state. Nearly four decades of experience with the Islamic Republic of Iran offers us some insights into such a state’s accomplishments, potentials, and challenges. While the Islamic worldview offers a general framework for governance, this framework is in dire need of modification to be applicable to modern societies. As Iranians have learned, in the realm of practical politics, transcending the restrictive precepts of Islam is the most viable strategy for building a functional Islamic state. Indeed, Islam does provide both doctrinal and practical instruments for transcending these restrictions. This pursuit of pragmatism could potentially offer impressive strategies for governance as long as sectarian, scholastic, and autocratic proclivities of authorities do not derail the rights of the public and their demand for an orderly management of their societies.

Download or read book The Geopolitics of Iran written by Francisco José B. S. Leandro and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-09-13 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book assesses Iran’s role in contemporary geopolitics. In particular, it examines three main intertwining circles: Iran’s development and political challenges, its relationships with neighbouring countries, as well as its relations with the major global powers — China, the European Union, Russia, and the United States. With contributions from over 20 authors, the book spans such critical aspects of contemporary geopolitics as modern history, natural resources, the economy, the social-political context, and strategic thinking. Particular focus is placed on Iran’s relations with its neighbours - Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Pakistan, and the Persian Gulf States. Furthermore, the book offers both a bilateral and multilateral dimension on how nuclear sanctions imposed on Iran have impacted its strategic planning, from the economic and military perspectives.

Download or read book The Mystery of Contemporary Iran written by Mahnaz Shirali and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "More than thirty years after Islam Republic's inception, the mystery remains. Nearly every day, Iranian leaders surprise the world; doubts remain as to the precise nature of a regime that calls itself both a Republic and Islamic but is neither one nor the other. While the Ayatollahs' unpopularity reaches unprecedented heights, their power seems more secure. The paradoxes weigh heavily and judgments diverge. While public opinion wonders how an archaic regime such as the mollahs could survive, some observers speak of Iran's modernization and of the clergy's ability to reconcile itself with politics. Understanding this specific modernization process that began with the Constitutional Revolution is difficult and raises a number of questions. How and why could ideological Islam dominate Iranian society since the late 1970s? How could it gain power and overcome the reform molded by the Constitutional Revolution? How did it gain influence in Iran and in the rest of the Muslim world? Mahnaz Shirali analyzes twentieth-century Iranian history to understand the role of the Shiite clergy in the social and political organization of a country that began its modernization. What enabled the clergy to take over politics and gain control of the State? How did it replace other prevailing political forces? Studying the past hundred years of Iranian history reveals the force of a religious conservatism opposing political modernity and repelling the slightest attempt at democracy by Iranians, thanks to constant metamorphoses. This book studies the curse of the Shiite clergy on political modernity. It is one of the most in-depth criticisms of the ideological Islam imposed on Teheran"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book The Military in Post Revolutionary Iran written by Hesam Forozan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-14 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the 'Sepah', has wielded considerable and increasing power in Iran in recent decades. Established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini as a paramilitary organisation charged with protecting the nascent Islamic regime and countering the untrustworthy Imperial army (or 'Artesh'), the Sepah has evolved into one of the most powerful political, ideological, military and economic players in Iran over recent years. The Sepah is entrusted with a diverse set of indoctrination apparatus, training programmes and system welfare provisions intended to broaden support for the regime. Although established as a paramilitary organisation, the Sepah developed to have its own ministry, complex bureaucracy and diversified functions, alongside its own network and personnel. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the Sepah and its role. It examines the position of the Sepah in Iranian state and society, explores the nature of the Sepah's involvement in politics, and discusses the impact of the Sepah's political rise on Iran's economy and foreign policy. Contemporary Iran can only be fully understood by an awareness of the ongoing in-fighting among regime factions and increasing popular demands for social change – knowing about the Sepah is central to all this.

Download or read book Media and Power in Modern Iran written by Emily L. Blout and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-01-26 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Successive Iranian leaders have struggled to navigate the fraught political-cultural space of media in the Islamic Republic–skirting the line between embracing Western communications technologies and rejecting them, between condemning social networking sites as foreign treachery and promoting themselves on Facebook. How does a regime that originally derived its hegemony from the ability to mass communicate its ideology protect its ideological dominance in a media environment defined by hybridity, hyper-connectivity, and near constant change? More broadly, what is the role of media in the construction and maintenance of power in Iran? This book addresses these questions by examining the institutions, policies, and discourses of two political regimes over the course of nearly eight decades. Drawing from over 3,000 primary source documents and digital artifacts in Persian and English, including formerly classified material hidden deep in the archives, this book offers a history of media in Iran across political regimes and media paradigms– from the public's first encounter with mass communication in the 1940s, to the dawn of digital media in the 1990s, to internet and mobile telephony today. At the same time, the book trains a keen eye on contemporary politics. With foundations in sociology and political science, Media and Power in Modern Iran offers trenchant insight into the present ruling establishment– a political regime born from what has become known as the "first televised revolution."

Download or read book Music and the Play of Power in the Middle East North Africa and Central Asia written by Dr Laudan Nooshin and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-01-28 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it about the history, geographical position and cultures of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia that has made music such a potent and powerful agent? This volume presents the first direct look at the complex relationship between music and power across a range of musical genres and countries. Discourses of power in the region centre on some of the most contested social issues, most notably in relation to nationhood, gender and religion. Individual chapters examine the ways in which music serves as a forum for playing out issues of power, ideology, resistance and subversion. How does music become a space for promoting - or conversely, resisting or subverting - particular ideologies or positions of authority? How does it accrue symbolic power in ways that are very particular, perhaps unique? And how does music become a site of social control or, alternatively, a vehicle for agency and empowerment, at times overt and at others highly subtle? What is it about music that facilitates, and sometimes disrupts, the exercise and flows of power? Who controls such flows, how and for what purposes? In asking such questions in the context of countries such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Tunisia and Tajikistan, the book draws on a wide range of relevant theoretical and critical ideas, and many disciplines including ethnomusicology, anthropology, sociology, politics, Middle Eastern studies, globalization studies, gender studies and cultural and media studies. The countries and areas explored share a great deal in historical and cultural terms, including a legacy of colonial and neo-colonial encounters and predominantly Judeo-Muslim religious traditions. It is hoped that the volume will contribute ultimately to a richer understanding of the role that music plays in these societies.

Download or read book Modern Iran written by Ali Ansari and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-22 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today’s Iran is rarely out of the headlines. Labelled by George W Bush as a part of his ‘axis of evil’ and perceived as a real nuclear threat by some, Iran is increasingly seen as an enemy of the West. And yet for many Iran remains shrouded in mystery and incomprehensible to Western analysis. Modern Iran offers a comprehensive analysis and explanation of political, social and economic developments in Iran during the 20th century. Since it first published in 2003 Modern Iran has become a staple for students and lecturers wishing to gain a clear understand of the history of this strategically important Middle Eastern Country. The new edition will bring us up to dateand will include: an analysis of the successes and failures of the Khatami Presidency; an examination of the effect of 9/11; the rise of the Reform Movement and the efforts to promote Islamic Democracy; the resistance to democratisation among the hardline elites.

Download or read book Factional Politics in Post Khomeini Iran written by Mehdi Moslem and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2002-11-01 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insightful and informative, Mehdi Moslem's is the first book to provide a detailed account of Iran's post-revolutionary politics. A profound analysis of the diverse political, sociocultural, economic, and foreign policy issues that have engulfed revolutionary Islamic Iran since its inception, this book is not only a must read for those interested in contemporary Iran but also an indispensable book for teachers of contemporary Middle East affairs and scholars of Islamic politics. Since the landslide victory of President Mohammed Khatami in May 1997, the official line of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been a study in contradictions. On one hand, Khatami condemned Iran's past fanaticism, declaring his nation eager to embrace global standards based on mutual respect between nations regardless of ideologies: on the other hand, an opposing faction continues to perpetrate Iran's enmity toward the West, America in particular. These two main factions also present competing versions of current national policies, and consequently the regime appears simultaneously to be practical and ideological—and to outsiders unfathomable.

Download or read book Hidden Iran written by Ray Takeyh and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-10-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher description