Guardians of the Revolution

Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-975410-6
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 563 g

A truly authoritative - and accessibly written - history of Iran and the world since the 1979 revolution by one of the world's foremost scholars on the subject.
Iran will remain in the headlines for the foreseeable future, and this book will serve as a foundation for anyone trying to find out the history behind the headlines.
With a new afterword by the author covering the Green Revolution of 2009

Revolutionary guards chanting against the Great Satan, Bush fulminating against the Axis of Evil, Iranian support for Hezbollah, and President Ahmadinejad blaming the U.S. for the world's ills--the unending war of words suggests an intractable divide between Iran and the West. But as Ray Takeyh shows in this accessible and authoritative history of Iran's relations with the world since the revolution, behind the famous personalities and extremist slogans is a nation that is far more pragmatic--and complex--than many in the West have been led to believe. Takeyh explodes many of our simplistic myths of Iran as an intransigently Islamist foe of the West. He shows that three powerful forces--Islamism, pragmatism, and great power pretensions--war against one another in Iran, and that Iran's often paradoxical policies are in reality a series of compromises between the hardliners and the moderates, often with wild oscillations between pragmatism and ideological dogmatism. The U.S.'s task, Takeyh argues, is to find strategies that address Iran's objectionable behavior without demonizing this key player in an increasingly vital and volatile region. Updated with an afterword that covers the momentous protests following the 2009 Iranian elections, Guardians of the Revolution will stand as the standard work on this controversial--and central--actor in world politics for years to come.

Zielgruppe

Readers of Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Nation; students and scholars of Iran, International Relations, Comparative Politics, US Foreign Policy, Religion and Politics

Autoren/Hrsg.

Takeyh, Ray

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Theokratische und religiöse Ideologien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten

Über Autor(innen)

Ray Takeyh is a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of Hidden Iran and The Origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine. He lives near Washington, D.C.