Original scientific paper
THIRTY YEARS AFTER THE REVOLUTION: IRAN AT THE CENTRE OF WORLD POLITICS
Dejan Jović
orcid.org/0000-0002-1383-0789
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The article puts forward an answer to the following question: why is Iran, thirty years after the 1979 revolution, still at the centre of world politics, and why is it, on top of that, a legitimate candidate for the status of one of global powers in the new, multi-polar international order. The author stresses that Iran has been the main obstacle to global ambitions of liberal democracy since 1989, and that it has developed a specific ideological and political system based on the idea of theocratic-republican dualism. Furthermore, after the end of the Cold War, it was convenient to the West to have Iran as the Antagonistic Other (and vice versa). The relative American failure in the war against Iraq (2003-) opened up for Iran the options of connecting on a wider basis with Russia, China, Venezuela and the countries of “Old Europe” (Germany and France). Since the relatively prosperous neighbouring countries – China and the four Asian tigers – are also founded on dualistic principles, Iran did not have to be liberalized in the way that Eastern Europe was liberalized after the Cold War. As the author concludes, the election of Barack Obama for American president presents a new opportunity to normalize relations between Iran and the West, but the opportunity will be seized only if the USA is willing to accept the multi-polarity of international relations and to renounce the doctrine of liberal interventionism. Regardless of the outcome, however, there is still a very real danger of a conflict between Israel and Iran.
Keywords
Iran; political Islam; Iran Revolution (1979); theocracy; US foreign policy; Israel
Hrčak ID:
41517
URI
Publication date:
9.10.2009.
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