Geopolitics of Iran
Publisher
:
Armand Colin
Parution date
:
EAN
:
9782200351168
Number of pages
:
295
Description
Sharing borders with Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkey, Iran is the center of attention not just of the Muslim world but also of the international community. Once considered a moderate voice in the region, it is now viewed as a threat to world stability. In this new and exhaustive study, Dr. Hourcade reviews the causes of this shift and answers tough questions about Iran today.
In 1979, the Islamic Revolution formed the basis of the new Iranian nationalism, which defines the modern identity of this 2,500-year-old civilization. The resulting Islamic Republic isolated the country not only from the United States and Israel but also from the surrounding Muslim countries. Because Iran is a Shiite country in a Sunni region, and thus needs to struggle for influence, tensions have increased. The author writes of a country confronted with war for thirty years, and whose foreign policy can be defined by four words: “independence, Islam, third-world, and globalization.”
Iran is now at the crossroads of the Muslim world and the West, with oil and control of its flow, as well as nuclear technology, at the core of its national security and foreign policy. Bernard Hourcade shows that Iranian society has knowledge of globalization but has not experienced it yet, and wonders if, with Iran’s high level of education and interest in new technologies, it will fully emerge as a global power in the decades ahead.
Author
Bernard Hourcade :
Bernard Hourcade is a research director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris and an international specialist on Iran. He received his doctorate in geography from University of Paris–Sorbonne, and was the director of the French Institute of Iranian Studies (IFRI) in Tehran (1978–1993). Dr. Hourcade is a board member for several scientific and editorial publications, including Iranian Studies (New York), L’Espace géographique (Paris), Iranian Journal of Geopolitics (Tehran), and Geographical Research Quarterly (Mashhad). He publishes widely on Iran and Iranian politics, most recently The rise to power of Iran’s “Guardians of the Revolution” (Middle East Policy Council, 2009), and L’Iran au XXe siècle (Paris, Fayard, 2007).
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