Ayatollah ʿAli Hosseini Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is one of the most controversial and influential Muslim leaders in the world today. As Iran’s main decision-maker, his theocratic ideology and decisions carry global consequences. The Political Ideology of Ayatollah Khamenei is the first book to identify and analyze the development and evolution of the theocratic ideology of the Supreme Leader from 1962 to 2014, using his own writings, speeches, and biographies, as well as literature published in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This work provides new insights into Khamenei’s political thought and behavior and their impact on Iran’s domestic, regional, and international policies. Correlating the development of Khamenei’s personality, character, and political behavior with Iran’s internal and external challenges, this study explores key issues of the Middle East region, in particular Iran’s political posture toward Israel, the United States, and the Muslim world, and the diplomatic crises unfolding over Iran’s nuclear development program. This work provides a comprehensive chronological and thematic survey of Khamenei’s life. This book will be of interest to students, scholars, researchers, diplomats, and policymakers focusing on Middle Eastern politics, Iranian affairs, Islamic studies, and international relations; and could serve as an essential resource for those striving to understand Iran’s policies toward Israel, the United States, and the Muslim world, as shaped by its supreme autocrat.

In Revolutionary Iran, Michael Axworthy offers a richly textured and authoritative history of Iran from the 1979 revolution to the present.

Since his election, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has reversed the more moderate and pluralistic policies of his predecessor and projected himself onto the public scene with headline-grabbing speeches regarding Jews and the state of Israel, open defiance of the UN Security Council on the nuclear issue, and an apparent vision of his country becoming the dominant power in the Middle East. This book documents Ahmadenijad's background and rise to power. It explains the current structure of the Iranian revolutionary government—the competing centers of power and the major players. In separate sections, it details the terrorist groups funded and armed by Iran, primarily Hezbollah and Hamas. And it provides a comprehensive picture of Iran's apparent aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons, as well as the related implications for regional and global security concerns. Iran's nuclear ambitions are in direct conflict with the wishes of the United States, the European Union, and many of the governments of the Middle East, leading to consequences that remain uncertain. Iran is a focus of attention in the most recent war in Lebanon, expanding its influence as a (the?) major supporter and supplier of Hezbollah. And Iran is cited in the most recent annual U.S. State Department report on terrorism as the country that is the most active sponsor of terrorism.

Insightful and informative, Mehdi Moslem's is the first book to provide a detailed account of Iran's post-revolutionary politics. A profound analysis of the diverse political, sociocultural, economic, and foreign policy issues that have engulfed revolutionary Islamic Iran since its inception, this book is not only a must read for those interested in contemporary Iran but also an indispensable book for teachers of contemporary Middle East affairs and scholars of Islamic politics. Since the landslide victory of President Mohammed Khatami in May 1997, the official line of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been a study in contradictions. On one hand, Khatami condemned Iran's past fanaticism, declaring his nation eager to embrace global standards based on mutual respect between nations regardless of ideologies: on the other hand, an opposing faction continues to perpetrate Iran's enmity toward the West, America in particular. These two main factions also present competing versions of current national policies, and consequently the regime appears simultaneously to be practical and ideological—and to outsiders unfathomable.

The U.S. ability to "read" the Iranian regime and formulate appropriate policies has been weakened by lack of access to the country and by the opacity of decisionmaking in Tehran. To improve understanding of Iran's political system, the authors describe Iranian strategic culture; investigate Iran's informal networks, formal government institutions, and personalities; assess the impact of elite behavior on Iranian policy; and summarize key trends.

This book explores Khomeini’s position in the Iranian Shiite Hawza before the 1979 revolution and his position in the Shiite Hawza in general. The book is of great importance because it is one of the first to address Iran’s relations with Arab Shiism from a viewpoint that encompasses the controversial political constitutional jurisprudent theory—which is a point of disagreement in post-Khomeini Iran among the Arab jurists and the Marajaya [the Shiite religious authority]. The Authors