Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) Historical Context; (3) Overview of Iran¿s Economy; (4) Econ. Policy and Reform Efforts; (5) Iran and the Recent Global Econ. Turndown; (6) Econ. Stakeholders: Bonyads; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Private Sector; (7) Econ. Sectors: Oil and Natural Gas; Ag.; Mfg.; Financial Sector; (8) Internat. Trade: Major Goods Traded; Key Trading Partners; U.S.-Iranian Trade; Internat. Sanctions and Internat. Trade; Trade Liberalization; (9) Internat. Financial Flows: Foreign Exchange Reserves; Foreign Invest. in Iran¿s Economy; Internat. Loans and Assistance; (10) Congress. Issues and Options: Unilateral and Multilateral Approaches to Sanctions; Impact of Sanctions on Iran¿s Economy and Policy; Action in the 110th and 111th Cong.

After detailed discussions of the economy's basic sectors, major national economic trends, and the government's economic policies, the author offers an assessment of the economy's overall performance against the regime's initial agenda. The final chapters discuss the extent of the dilemma confronting the government.

This study entails a theoretical reading of the Iranian modern history and follows an interdisciplinary agenda at the intersection of philosophy, psychoanalysis, economics, and politics and intends to offer a novel framework for the analysis of socio-economic development in Iran in the modern era. A brief review of Iranian modern history from the Constitutional Revolution to the Oil Nationalization Movement, the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and the recent Reformist and Green Movements demonstrates that Iranian people travelled full circle. This historical experience of socio-economic development revolving around the bitter question of “Why are we backward?” and its manifestation in perpetual socio-political instability and violence is the subject matter of this study. Michel Foucault’s conceived relation between the production of truth and production of wealth captures the essence of hypothesis offered in this study. Foucault (1980: 93–94) maintains that “In the last analysis, we must produce truth as we must produce wealth; indeed we must produce truth in order to produce wealth in the first place.” Based on a hybrid methodology combining hermeneutics of understanding and hermeneutics of suspicion, this monograph proposes that the failure to produce wealth has had particular roots in the failure in the production of truth and trust. At the heart of the proposed theoretical model is the following formula: the Iranian subject’s confused preference structure culminates in the formation of unstable coalitions which in turn leads to institutional failure, creating a chaotic social order and a turbulent history as experienced by the Iranian nation in the modern era. As such, the society oscillates between the chaotic states of socio-political anarchy emanating from irreconcilable differences between and within social assemblages and their affiliated hybrid forms of regimes of truth in the springs of freedom and repressive states of order in the winters of discontent. Each time, after the experience of chaos, the order is restored based on the emergence of a final arbiter (Iranian leviathan) as the evolved coping strategy for achieving conflict resolution. This highly volatile truth cycle produces the experience of socio-economic backwardness and violence. The explanatory power of the theoretical framework offered in the study exploring the relation between the production of truth, trust, and wealth is demonstrated via providing historical examples from strong events of Iranian modern history. The significant policy implications of the model are explored. This monograph will appeal to researchers, scholars, graduate students, policy makers and anyone interested in the Middle Eastern politics, Iran, development studies and political economy.

Iran and the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council and Germany (P5+1) reached a deal on July 14, 2015 that limits Iranian nuclear activity in return for lifting all international sanctions that were placed on Iran (Box 1). This issue of the MENA Quarterly Economic Brief (QEB) traces the economic effects of this development--removing sanctions on Iran--on the world oil market, on Iran's trading partners, and on the Iranian economy.

The Political Environment of Economic Planning in Iran, 1971-1983: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic Hossein Razavi and Firouz Vakil Based on both research and first-hand experience, this book provides a politico-economic analysis of the operation of Iran's economy before and after the revolution of February 1979. The authors discuss the function and effectiveness of economic planning during the shah's tenure and relate the shortcomings of plan preparation and implementation to the explosive psycho-economic instability of the regime. They then discuss the institutional problems that the revolutionary regime has been facing in operating the economy and foresee the possible consequences of its failure to appropriately deal with these problems. Finally, analyzing the economic postures of important opposition groups, the authors outline future prospects for economic planning in Iran.

Iran has received much attention from a geopolitical and regional standpoint, but its economic challenges have not attracted a similar degree of interest. With a population of 69 million, considerable hydrocarbon resources, a dynamic and entrepreneurial middle class, and a relatively well-educated labor force, Iran's economic potential is considerable. This volume takes stock of critical developments in the Iranian economy in recent years. The study reviews the key issues and policy responses, highlights the nature of the challenges ahead, and draws implications for the next phase of reforms. The authors conclude that major challenges remain, although significant advances have been made in recent years in opening up the economy to international trade and foreign direct investment, encouraging the private sector, removing exchange restrictions, reforming the tax system, and enhancing macroeconomic management.