Iran in World Politics: The Question of the Islamic Republic - Softcover

Adib-Moghaddam, Arshin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199326622 ISBN 13: 9780199326624

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Why is Iran continuously in the news? How has the Islamic Republic developed ideologically since the 1979 revolution? What are the best ways of comprehending the country at this critical juncture in its history? These are some of the questions at the heart of Arshin Adib-Moghaddam's book, which offers novel methodological and theoretical insights in explaining the foreign relations and domestic politics of post-revolutionary Iran. From the nuclear issue, to the perpetual stand-off with the United States, from the future of Iranian democracy to Iranian-Arab relations, from American neo-conservatism to Islamic utopian-romanticism, from Avicenna to Ayatollah Khomeini, the author guides the reader through the complexities that bedevil our understanding of contemporary Iran. In exposing the limitations of mainstream representations of the country and the wider Muslim world, Iran in World Politics makes a powerful case for 'critical Iranian studies', for a new system of thought that pluralises both the way we see Iran, and the international politics enveloping the country.

About this title

About the Author

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam is Reader in Comparative Politics and International Relations and Chair of the Centre for Iranian Studies at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of The International Politics of the Persian Gulf: A cultural genealogy (Routledge, 2006, 2009), Iran in World Politics: The question of the Islamic Republic (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2008, 2010), A metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations: Us and them beyond Orientalism (Oxford/Hurst, 2011) and the forthcoming On the Arab Revolts and the Iranian Revolution: Power and Resistance Today (Bloomsbury). Educated at the Universities of Hamburg, American (Washington DC) and Cambridge, where he received his MPhil and PhD, he was the first Jarvis Doctorow Fellow in International Relations and Peace Studies at St. Edmund Hall and the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. Since 2007, Adib-Moghaddam is based in the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS. His writings have been translated into many languages and he is a frequent contributor to leading newspapers and TV channels around the world.

Review

"Arshin Adib-Moghaddam has made great contributions both to the study of Iran, as a case study, and to the study of world politics as a field of inquiry. Not only does he show the importance of the domestic sources of foreign policy, he pays equal attention to the effect of extra-territorial groups and significant individuals on a country's domestic discourse regarding policy formulation. His study is a dynamic and analytical one, where both ideational and material dialectics shape the contemporary politics. Not only is this an original contribution, but it also serves as an in-depth critical analysis as well as a full description of the existing literature."--A. Reza Sheikholeslami, The American University of Sharjah

"The struggle to attain democracy is gaining a pluralistic momentum. For the sake of this momentum, Adib-Moghaddam's book is becoming central to any discussion about Iran"--Olga Dalaka and Panayiotis Tsitsis, Middle East Bulletin

"Adib-Moghaddam's engaging analysis of the Iranian politics is an effective antidote against the widespread characterisation of the Islamic Republic as the centre of the Shi'i crescent and a regime ruled by messianic fanatics who are soon to be armed with nuclear weapons."--Gunes Murat Tezcur, Insight Turkey

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0199326622
• ISBN 13: 9780199326624
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288