Home › Books & Reviews › Capsule Reviews › Iran And The International Community

Iran And The International Community

Edited by Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Manshour Varasteh
Reviewed by By William B. Quandt
Spring 1992
Print Email
Login or Register to leave a comment.

Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com.
Edited by Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Manshour Varasteh
Routledge
1991
191 pp.
$45.00

For a look back at Iran's international role in the 1980s this collection of essays is comprehensive and generally of high quality. But Iraq's defeat in 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union fundamentally change Iran's strategic choices. Little in this volume helps the reader anticipate such changes or figure out their implications for Iran in the 1990s.

Related

Essay, Special 1979
The Middle East Crises
William B. Quandt

No area of the world had a greater impact on American politics, national security, and economic well-being than did the Middle East in 1979. With the fall of the Pahlavi regime in Iran early in the year, a profound change in the regional balance of power took place. In November, when the deposed Shah was admitted to the United States for medical treatment, militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and at the end of the year were still holding about 50 Americans hostage--with the support of Ayatollah Khomeini, the head of the new Iranian Islamic Republic. And in late December the Soviet Union used its own forces to replace one communist leader in Afghanistan with another more to its liking and subsequently sent over 50,000 troops to secure the new regime and to put down insurgents in the countryside.

Read