Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs

321 Pages·2009·3.08 MB·English

by  Ray Takeyh

Guardians of the Revolution
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Guardians
of the Revolution
Iran and the World in the Age
of the Ayatollahs
ray takeyh
A Council on Foreign Relations Book
1
2009
1
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
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Copyright © 2009 by Ray Takeyh
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Takeyh, Ray, 1966–
Guardians of the revolution : Iran and the world
in the age of the Ayatollahs / Ray Takeyh.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-532784-7
1. Iran—Foreign relations—1979–1997. 2. Iran—Foreign relations—1997–
3. Iran—Politics and government—1979–1997. 4. Iran—Politics and government—1997–
I. Title.
DS318.83.T362009
327.55—dc22 2008045035
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents
Introduction, 1
PART I. THE REVOLUTIONARY YEARS
1. Khomeini’s Ideology and Iran’s Grand Strategy, 11
2. Relations with the “Great Satan,” 35
3. Turmoil in the Levant: Iran, Israel, and the Politics
of the Arab East, 61
4. Iran-Iraq War, 81
PART II. THE RISE OF PRAGMATISM
AND THE NEW PRIORITIES
5. Pragmatic Restraint: Iranian Politics during the Rafsanjani Era, 111
6. Reconciliation Diplomacy and Its Limits, 129
7. The Satans, 161
vi contents
PART III. THE AGE OF REFORM
8. The Odyssey of the Reform Movement, 181
9. September 11 and the Politics of Fear, Hope, and Necessity, 205
PART IV. HEGEMONY AT LAST?
10. The Rise of the New Right, 223
11. The Ahmadinejad Era, 237
Conclusion, 261
Notes, 267
Index, 297
Acknowledgments
Writing a book can be a difficult and taxing process. As
such, I am grateful to the Council on Foreign Relations for provid-
ing me with a remarkable place in which to work. The Council’s president,
Richard Haass, and the director of studies, Gary Samore, have been a source
of support and countless constructive suggestions about how to improve
this book.
A number of colleagues and friends read through the manuscript with
care and offered important comments. Ruhollah Ramazani, the dean of
Iran’s foreign policy study, was an early and enthusiastic supporter of this
project and proved generous with both his time and patience. As always,
Ervand Abrahamian bravely went through the entire manuscript and
kindly entertained my numerous queries of requests. Farideh Farhi and
Vali Nasr similarly shared with me their many useful suggestions that did
much to improve this book. I am grateful to Houchang Chehabi for pro-
viding me some rare Persian sources from his own collection that would be
nearly impossible to track down in the United States.
Through researching this book I spent some time at the Library of
Congress and its meticulously maintained Persian language collection. It is
to the credit of the entire staff, particularly Hirad Dinavari, that the Library
is such an impressive depository. Hirad went beyond the call of duty and
assisted me with the process of transliteration, whose complexities I have
never been able to properly master.
This book could not have been completed without the generous sup-
port of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Under the imaginative
viii acknowledgments
leadership of Vartan Gregorian and Stephen Del Rosso, the Carnegie Cor-
poration has done much to advance the study of international relations.
A number of my friends at the Council on Foreign relations deserve
special mention. Steven Simon, Charles Kupchan, Steven Cook, Peter
Beinart, Charles Ferguson, and James Goldgeier have proven generous with
both their time and ideas. All of them cheerfully tolerated the fact that
I routinely spent many hours in their offi ces. My time at the Council has
been much richer and vibrant due to the presence of these individuals.
My agent Larry Weissman reposed his role as advisor and counselor as
he good-naturedly worked with me to conceptualize and develop this proj-
ect. David McBride proved a remarkable editor. With his easygoing man-
ner and careful eye for detail, he frequently rescued this book from traps
and pitfalls that too easily eluded me.
As always, I owe much to Suzanne and Alex as well as our most recent
arrival, Nick.
Guardians of the Revolution