Abstract
Since the Iranian revolution of 1978–1979, Iran has been in the news continuously. The revolution culminated in the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The complexities of dealing with Iran’s post-revolutionary regime continue to be an enigma for the West. Although there is a wealth of literature that contributed to unraveling the complexities, the policy-makers usually overlook them. In fact, Iran is viewed as a threat to regional order and security in the Middle East, but a proper mechanism to deal with it effectively and meaningfully has always been lacking.
A good overview for those seeking a better understanding of Iran can be found in Michael Axworthy’s Revolutionary Iran. The author undertakes a valuable attempt to narrate the background and origins of the current Islamic regime, and challenges many of the misconceptions, misunderstandings, and distortions originating in the West. It provides the reader with new information from primary sources about specific events, such as the Iran–Iraq war. The volume is a major contribution on Iranian studies as the road in the Middle East goes through Tehran, not just through Iran’s continued commitment to a nuclear program, nor even because of its persistent support for the Assad regime in Syria, but because it is, as Axworthy says, “less a country than a continent, more a civilization than a nation” (p. xviii).
Chapter 1 of the book starts with the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty, the coup against Mohammad Mossadegh and the beginning of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s reign. The author then moves on with the various factors behind the 1979 revolution: the oil boom and the subsequent economic downturn as well as Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s magnificent schemes; his autocracy and his claims to be the “light of the Aryans.” He presents a detailed description of the Iranians’ fearless defiance of the monarchy, inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini’s charisma and leftist ideologies. Axworthy offers a number of accounts from people who participated in it or witnessed the “people unwaveringly prepared to sacrifice themselves […] even if some would lose their lives” (p. 122). The author describes that the chaotic occupation of the US Embassy in Tehran led to pull out its allies, leaving Iran into “a twilight zone of diplomatic breakdown and international isolation from which the country has never really re-emerged” (p. 169). The author superbly explores the class dynamics of the revolution when he says that “the poor were more Iranian, more Islamic and more virtuous than the pampered, westward-looking middle classes and intellectuals. The revolution was not just a political revolution, […] many of the mostazafin stayed stuck in poverty” (p. 242).
The central theme of the book lies in the detailed and lengthy Chapter 4 on the Iran–Iraq War. Here, besides a range of secondary sources, Axworthy builds up a detailed narration by using the archival resources and information gathered from his own interviews with military personnel and soldiers’ memoires. The chapter examines the various stages of the 8-year war, explaining why forging peace proved so difficult for long. It also explains how both state and society in post-revolutionary Iran continued to be impacted by the conflict long after Khomeini’s declaration of a cease-fire in 1988. The author also illustrates the sense of muddle that overwhelmed the soldiers when they returned from the front: “having just returned from the world of bombs and combat, we [were] avid spectators of ordinary life; but we ourselves have become an ordinary sight for the people, one of the dozens of mud-spattered buses loaded with wounded that pass by everyday” (p. 261) is the sad statement of one of them. The author also examines war literature and films and the sense of betrayal that the cultural works of janbazan and veterans transmit. His analysis of Khomeini’s personality and political temperament in this chapter is impressive. The war, the challenge of domestic dissent, and the implementation of reforms are examined with constant reference to Khomeini’s attitude, highlighting the complexity of his vision.
Importantly, the book’s discussion of the Iran–Iraq War offers some indications of how Iran would pursue its military goals in the future. Axworthy maintains that the Iranians never responded with chemical weapons in retaliation to Saddam Hussain’s use of mustard gas against their troops. He also stresses that the Iranian human wave attacks that were represented at the time as examples of either fanaticism or martyrdom were, on the contrary, “rather like the young men of Kitchener’s army preparing for similar infantry attacks against prepared defences on the Somme in 1916 or elsewhere” (p. 219). Overall, he draws a picture of Iranians as rational beings, wary of using military capabilities in a hostile and expansionist manner. This is an important point to note, especially in view of the ongoing tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.
Chapters 5, 6, and 7 deal with the change and continuity of post-war Iran. Between 1989 and 2012, the Islamic Republic that transformed radically, especially from Rafsanjani’s postwar economic reconstruction to Khatami’s attempt at political liberalization and Ahmadinejad’s reinstatement of a neo-conservative polity are brilliantly analyzed by the author. The analysis of these three different presidential phases and their foreign policy or the protests in the aftermath of 2009 presidential elections result makes the book thoroughly interesting.
Axworthy commands a better understanding of the revolutionary history than that of the postwar period. His use of large number of primary sources appears to be worthwhile in deconstructing a number of well-established assumptions about the role of the Islamic Republic in international politics. First, Axworthy effectively challenges the idea that a nuclear Iran would be an existential, indeed even a significant threat to Israel. Second, the author ponders over the crucial issue of sectarian conflicts growing alarmingly in the Middle East. On this issue, he rightly argues that Iran has no role in the proliferation of Shi’a/Sunni divide or “Shi’a Crescent,” which is more a consequence of involvement of international actors, such as the United States in the Gulf and in Central Asia. The author’s discussions on pre-revolutionary Iran rely on secondary sources and his descriptions of events are hardly new. This is visible in the description of the fall of Mossadegh’s government regarding which Axworthy dismisses the hypothesis of a foreign-backed coup, to endorse the hypothesis of a genuinely internal expression of dissent against Mossadegh. Despite the fact that the matter is highly disputed by historians, the author is reluctant to refer to such a debate.
Revolutionary Iran does a good job at sorting out the underlying roots of this sensitivity, and it also shows that some of the Iranian actions against the Western world is due to Iran’s apprehension of losing its hard-won independence and self-determination and that it is “a real concern—no abstruse clerical obsession” (p. 418). The spread of Western culture and the advance of the forces of globalization are feared not only because of the implications they could have for the survival of the regime as it currently stands, but also in the light of a broader Iranian desire for autonomy and independence. It is heartening that a former head of the Iran section in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1998–2000) has been able to paint such a balanced portrait of the Islamic Republic; one can only hope that his successors are equally able to appreciate the intricacies of this complex state.
On the whole, the book is an important contribution for those who are interested in Iranian affairs and those who wish to learn more about the revolutionary Islamic Republic. It can be a valuable resource for researchers on the story of the complex series of events that left their imprint on Iran’s view of the world, from the origins of the revolution of 1978–1979, right up to the closing months of Ahmadinejad’s presidency.