Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos By Michael Rubin and Patrick Clawson Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, $24.95

As Washington and Tehran clash openly over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, its violent opposition to the Middle East peace process, and its sponsorship of terrorism, Iran specialists and Persian-speakers Michael Rubin and Patrick Clawson offer an essential guide to the history of one of America’s adversaries. Written for policymakers, journalists, students, and lay-readers alike, Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) details the rise of the modern nation-state, and the development of Iranian nationalism. The authors explore in particular detail how Iranian pride and a sense of victimization combine to influence Tehran’s contentious and potentially dangerous politics.

Rubin and Clawson examine not only the history of Iran’s central government, but also the regional and ethnic histories often ignored in Western accounts of Iran, yet vital to understanding Iran’s internal politics. They note, for example, that the recent troubles in Iran’s outlying provinces of Khuzistan and Baluchistan are not a new phenomenon, but rather part of a traditional pattern in which long-neglected hinterlands assert autonomy during periods of weakening central government rule.

Using original archival sources, the authors survey Iranian history both to understand the trends that impact Tehran’s decision-making, and to separate the constancy of Iranian culture from the anomalies of the Islamic Republic. They explain Iranian actions from the inside out in order to better understand Tehran’s decisions as the nuclear standoff deepens.

Theocracy is the core of the Islamic Republic’s ideology. But religion in Iran is not static. Rubin and Clawson trace the development of religion in Iran, from the pre-Islamic beliefs that still color Iranian culture and literature to its Islamization. The authors discuss Iran’s relatively late conversion to Shi‘ism and examine the evolution and only tenuous hold of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s religious theories.

Rubin and Clawson dissent from the conventional wisdom of English-language histories of Iran that treat the Islamic Revolution as the natural apex of Iran’s political evolution. The authors argue that Islamic Republic was not the inevitable result of that process and suggest that the West should not take the Islamic Republic’s stability for granted. They then evaluate the new regime’s politics and foreign policy, as well its treatment of its own population. They detail how the Islamic Republic increased suppression of ethnic and religious minorities and worked to undermine the position of women. Understanding the mosaic of Iran’s population and social groupings is key to understanding the Islamic Republic’s domestic and international behavior.

Finally, given the serious challenges the Islamic Republic continues to pose to U.S. national security, Rubin and Clawson analyze the diplomatic initiatives already tried by U.S. and European policymakers and make suggestions for the future. They outline the merits and downsides of the various strategies proposed, including the grand bargain, step-by-step diplomacy, military action, and promotion of regime change. Although every strategy has drawbacks, none should be pursued without a firm understanding of both its context and how the Iranian leadership will perceive U.S. actions. Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos is the perfect vehicle to allow the reader to rise above the simplified dichotomies of hardliner versus reformer, military versus civilian, and dissident versus government.

MICHAEL RUBIN, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is editor of the Middle East Quarterly and a former Iran-watcher at the Pentagon. He has spent several months in Iran conducting archival research and fieldwork. PATRICK CLAWSON, an economist by training and deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is the leading U.S. specialist on Iran’s economy and the economics of Iran’s military programs.

What Others Have Said about Eternal Iran:

“Eternal Iran is a sophisticated book, a seamless narrative of Iranian history and contemporary politics. A book of careful scholarship, yet accessible to a wide readership. One of the best accounts of recent years on that important and problematic country.”
--Fouad Ajami, director of the Middle East Studies program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced and International Studies and author of The Dream Palace of the Arabs

“Clawson and Rubin offer a clear picture of a people and a political culture that too often has seemed opaque to American observers.”
--Dennis Ross, former Special Middle East Coordinator and author of The Missing Piece: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace