Iran captured world attention with the 1979 revolution and the the following invasion by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which touched off the longest conventional war of the twentieth century. In Iran, the war had far-reaching consequences. The scope of its destruction prompted the leadership of the Islamic Republic to shift from revolutionary idealism to a more pragmatic course in the 1990s. Rapid shifts in education, urbanization and democratization swept over the nation, culminating in a landslide victory of reformist Mohammad Khatami to the presidency in 1997. The ensuing years have seen heightened internal struggle within a nation that increasingly finds itself once more the focus of the world's attention. We will explore the recent history and likely future of the Islamic Republic in Iran, using the following outline as a rough guide. We will attempt to move rapidly through the opening two segments so we can focus discussion on the final three.
1 Introduction
a. Background of Iran: history, population, geography
b. Context of 1979 revolution
i. Operation AJAX: 1953 coup
ii. Uprising in 1963
c. 1979 Revolution
i. causes and preconditions
ii. factions that mobilized against the shah
iii. role of Khomeini
d. Establishment of the Islamic Republic
i. Factions that vied with one another after collapse of the Shah
ii. Downfall of the Marxists and Nationalists
iii. Balance between traditional left and traditional right wings of the Islamists
e. war with Iraq, 1980-88
2. Power Structure in Iran
a. Elements of Divine Sovereignty: supervisory positions
b. Elements of Popular Sovereignty: elected positions
c. “Dual Governance”: constant struggle between Islamic and Republican elements of the Constitution
d. Foreign Policy
i. Hezbollah in Lebanon
ii. Iran-Syria Alliance
iii. Palestinian Conflict
iv. The Northern Alliance in Afghanistan
3. 1989-1997: from Revolutionism to Pragmatism
a. 1989: Hashemi Rafsanjani becomes president
b. Social, Educational & Economic Reforms: liberalization, urbanization, education
c. Corruption
d. Emergence of a third powerful faction within the Islamic Republic: a middle class and a generation of technocrats
e. Conservative reaction: religious reformation begins
4. 1997-2005: Experimenting with Reform
a. Presidency: only institution not controlled by right
b. Khatami elected president by landslide in 1997
i. Background
ii. Platform
c. Conservative backlash
d. Reform movement
i. Causes and preconditions
ii. Goals and campaign promises
e. Achievements
i. Changed political discourse
ii. Social freedoms
f. Setbacks
i. Failure to implement most campaign promises
ii. Failure to change core power structure
iii. Economy neglected
iv. Mass disenchantment
5. Looking ahead
a. Ninth Presidential Elections, June 2005
i. Election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, conservative
ii. Conservative platform
b. Nuclear stand-off with United States
c. Geopolitics in a changed Middle East
d. Possible future directions
PRESENTER BIO
I was born in Tehran in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war. I remained in Iran until the summer of 1999, when I was arrested briefly by the Revolutionary Guards as I participated in the student uprising at Tehran University. Following this, I emigrated to continue my education in the United States. For the past year I have been facilitating an introductory course to Iranian politics at UC Berkeley titled "ABC's of Iran: 26 years of revolution." I am also a board member of the Iranian Student Alliance in America (ISAA), the largest Iranian student group on the west coast. Currently I am working with a group of UC Berkeley and Harvard professors on a research project comparing the development trajectories of Iran and Turkey.
