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Democracy or State-Building? 1906–1941

Ali Gheissari and Vali Nasr

in Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty

This chapter discusses the Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911 and subsequent efforts to balance the demand for a viable state with the demand for democracy and rule of law. It then traces the ... More

This chapter discusses the Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911 and subsequent efforts to balance the demand for a viable state with the demand for democracy and rule of law. It then traces the rise and triumph of the Iranian state under Reza Shah between 1925 and 1941.Less

Reza Shah, the Modernizing Strongman

Ariane M. Tabatabai

in No Conquest, No Defeat: Iran's National Security Strategy

This chapter explores the legacy of Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty—the last dynasty to rule over Iran. It provides an overview of key military and other reforms undertaken by the king ... More

This chapter explores the legacy of Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty—the last dynasty to rule over Iran. It provides an overview of key military and other reforms undertaken by the king to modernize his country, as well as their implications for the advent of the modern state of Iran. The chapter also discusses how Reza Shah’s reign laid out the foundations for the rise of the Islamic RepublicLess

Ascending the Throne

Gholam R. Afkhami

in The Life and Times of the Shah

In 1939, as war broke out in Europe, Russia was Iran's main worry. Communism, a mystery to most Iranians, was generally disliked because it was “godless,” clearly to be shunned and condemned. Its ... More

In 1939, as war broke out in Europe, Russia was Iran's main worry. Communism, a mystery to most Iranians, was generally disliked because it was “godless,” clearly to be shunned and condemned. Its creed ran counter to Iranians' sense of authenticity. The war caught Iran in a bad time. An inflationary spiral had taken hold while salaries had remained fixed. Oil revenues had gone down, retarding industrial growth. The Germans buttered up the shah; the British fought with him. At the time, the only major power the shah was able to pressure was England, because of England's dependence on the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). The last days of Reza Shah on the throne were traumatic for him and for his son. His policy was to accommodate the Allies while maintaining Iran's neutrality. But he had misread the Russians and particularly the British.Less

Father and Son

Gholam R. Afkhami

in The Life and Times of the Shah

This chapter describes the relationship between Mohammad Reza and his father Reza Kahn. Mohammad Reza was his father's love. His birth eclipsed all else in the household, including his twin sister, ... More

This chapter describes the relationship between Mohammad Reza and his father Reza Kahn. Mohammad Reza was his father's love. His birth eclipsed all else in the household, including his twin sister, Ashraf. Mohammad Reza was two years old in 1921 when the coup d'état occurred. Later, Reza Shah, sent his son to Switzerland to study. When the crown prince returned to Iran, his father told him to be a good soldier in order to be a good king. After his son's graduation, Reza Shah made him the inspector of the Imperial Armed Forces, a job the young man was made to take very seriously. He also included his son in his royal activities, making decisions about important matters of state. On 15 March 1939, the crown prince and Princess Fawzieh of Egypt were married in the Abedin Palace in Cairo.Less

Nationalizing Oil

Gholam R. Afkhami

in The Life and Times of the Shah

If Reza Shah was the greatest influence on his son's attitude toward power and governance, Mohammad Mosaddeq was a close second. Reza Shah was father, Mosaddeq father figure. Reza Shah had told his ... More

If Reza Shah was the greatest influence on his son's attitude toward power and governance, Mohammad Mosaddeq was a close second. Reza Shah was father, Mosaddeq father figure. Reza Shah had told his son to beware of anyone securing uncontrolled, independent political power, giving his own career as evidence; Mosaddeq inadvertently proved the truth of Reza Shah's advice by almost deposing the son. Both men left legacies of politics and power the shah struggled to match, and residues of thought and feeling he struggled to discard throughout his reign. This chapter notes that the relationship between Mosaddeq and the shah, as it developed in the years after World War II, became for Iranians a tragedy of biblical proportion. It also describes the value of Iranian oil, looking at the AIOIC in particular and the relations with British policy.Less

The Road to Officialdom

Reza Zia-Ebrahimi

in The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism: Race and the Politics of Dislocation

Chapter 7 covers the rise of dislocative nationalism in the aftermath of the constitutional period and the rise of the Pahlavi state. It shows how dislocative nationalism, initially a marginal ... More

Chapter 7 covers the rise of dislocative nationalism in the aftermath of the constitutional period and the rise of the Pahlavi state. It shows how dislocative nationalism, initially a marginal doctrine, became part of the official Pahlavi ideology.Less

Iran, 1979

Zoltan Barany

in How Armies Respond to Revolutions and Why

This chapter explains why Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s Imperial Armed Forces (IAF) were unwilling or unable to prop up the crumbling edifice of his regime. It draws on the main contours of the ... More

This chapter explains why Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s Imperial Armed Forces (IAF) were unwilling or unable to prop up the crumbling edifice of his regime. It draws on the main contours of the political and socioeconomic setting of Iran in the late 1970s, followed by a more detailed outline of the conditions of the Iranian military and its relationship to the Shah as well as to the population. Next, the chapter focuses on the main events of the January 1978–February 1979 period that led to the regime’s collapse and then considers the role of the armed forces during the revolutionary period, explaining the reasons behind their actions or lack thereof. Finally, the chapter sums up the reasons for the success of the uprising and ponders whether experts should have been able to foresee the military’s response to the revolution and, if so, at what point.Less

The Man

Gholam R. Afkhami

in The Life and Times of the Shah

Mohammad Reza acquired many of his father's habits, though Mohammad Reza was shy and reserved even when at the apogee of power. As crown prince, Mohammad Reza had been taught to be Spartan in his ... More

Mohammad Reza acquired many of his father's habits, though Mohammad Reza was shy and reserved even when at the apogee of power. As crown prince, Mohammad Reza had been taught to be Spartan in his personal life; he remained so as king. His father slept on the floor in an unadorned room. The son also lived in relative simplicity. He was punctual, disciplined, and given to daily routines he followed almost religiously, even when he was on vacation. Of his three brides (Fawzieh, Soraya, and Farah), it was Farah that bore the shah a male heir in less than a year, which made her position secure and the shah's relation with her unique. The shah's circle of friends was small and over the years remained relatively unchanged. The shah's childhood religious beliefs remained with him to the end. He insisted on honoring the Islamic tenets.Less

Women and Rights

Gholam R. Afkhami

in The Life and Times of the Shah

The “woman question” in Iran was only sporadically touched on in the nineteenth century. Patriarchy dictated the norms by which woman lived, and the clerics, managing education, justice, and culture, ... More

The “woman question” in Iran was only sporadically touched on in the nineteenth century. Patriarchy dictated the norms by which woman lived, and the clerics, managing education, justice, and culture, dictated the content and form the norms took. Women were led to defend themselves using the two main weapons available to them: motherhood and sex. Under Reza Shah, the first Pahlavi king, the nation set out to modernize, but the process left family law largely undisturbed. Reza Shah used the historical need for progress to open education to women, but he did not relish the prospects of his wife and daughters appearing unveiled in public. He sent his sons to Europe to study, but he would not countenance the same for his daughter, Ashraf. Women continued to have a hard time, though in the fifty years of the Pahlavis they made considerable progress against considerable odds.Less

Introduction

Mikiya Koyagi

in Iran in Motion: Mobility, Space, and the Trans-Iranian Railway

The introduction provides an overview of the book. Rather than seeing the Trans-Iranian Railway exclusively in the context of national integration under an authoritarian state, this book analyzes the ... More

The introduction provides an overview of the book. Rather than seeing the Trans-Iranian Railway exclusively in the context of national integration under an authoritarian state, this book analyzes the project as a series of contestations over mobility and weaves together multiple interconnected stories. The introduction explains that this book uses the concept of “mobility” both spatially and qualitatively to study physical movement, such as travel and migration, as individual embodied experience. By taking this approach, it shows how the railway project reorganized the movement of the nation in both senses, which in turn produced new spatial categories and differentiated mobile subjects. This story is situated in studies of globalization, infrastructure, and space. The introduction’s last section provides brief summaries of the seven main chapters.Less

Azerbaijan

Gholam R. Afkhami

in The Life and Times of the Shah

The Allied invasion of Iran on 25 August 1941 made the preservation of Iran's independence and territorial integrity the government's most urgent task. Reza Shah's letter to President Roosevelt had ... More

The Allied invasion of Iran on 25 August 1941 made the preservation of Iran's independence and territorial integrity the government's most urgent task. Reza Shah's letter to President Roosevelt had not produced an immediate effect; but the response it had elicited at least placed on record the United States' assurances about the Allies' commitment to Iran's independence. The Tripartite Treaty placed Iran on the side of the Allies, but the relationship remained strained. Many Iranians considered the treaty necessary but also an imposition. The declaration and the treaty were meant to help Iran, at the conclusion of the war, to make demands on behalf of its national interests on strategic, legal, and moral grounds. However, such grounds for appeal were conditioned by the exigencies of the emerging Cold War, Soviet expansionism, and British intransigence.Less

A One-Man Coup: February 1921

Hazem Kandil

in The Power Triangle: Military, Security, and Politics in Regime Change

This chapter examines the formation of the Pahlavi regime in Iran during its first two decades, beginning with the 1921 coup that enabled Colonel Reza Khan to seize power and ending with his downfall ... More

This chapter examines the formation of the Pahlavi regime in Iran during its first two decades, beginning with the 1921 coup that enabled Colonel Reza Khan to seize power and ending with his downfall following the Allied invasion in 1941. It first provides an overview of Khan's rise to power, focusing on how he reinvented himself as a modern state-builder and became Reza Shah. It then considers why Reza scrapped republicanism in favor of monarchism as part of his modernization program, along with his creation of the First Imperial Army. It also discusses Britain's control of Tehran following the Bolshevik Revolution and the Shah's attempt to check British influence by forging a regional power bloc with Turkey, Iraq, and Afghanistan and later with Germany. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the collapse of the Pahlavi regime as a result of the Shah's abdication in 1941.Less

Triumph

Reza Zia-Ebrahimi

in The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism: Race and the Politics of Dislocation

The epilogue traces the evolution of dislocative nationalism throughout the twentieth century.

The United States and Iran in the Cold War

Roham Alvandi

in Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah: The United States and Iran in the Cold War

This chapter discusses the origins of the US-Iran relationship during World War II and the 1946 Azerbaijan crisis. In the early days of the Cold War, Mohammad Reza Shah and his prime ministers ... More

This chapter discusses the origins of the US-Iran relationship during World War II and the 1946 Azerbaijan crisis. In the early days of the Cold War, Mohammad Reza Shah and his prime ministers succeeded in drawing a reluctant United States into Iran in order to balance the influence of Britain and the Soviet Union. Pahlavi Iran emerged as a US client state following the Anglo-American-sponsored coup that toppled Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953 and transformed the shah into a dictator. This Cold War relationship was established by the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s, but continued into the 1960s under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. The dynamics of the US-Iran relationship in the 1950s and 1960s, with Iran as a US client state, would sharply differ from the US-Iran partnership that the shah would forge with Nixon and Kissinger in the 1970s.Less

The Iranian Revolution

Milo Jones and Philippe Silberzahn

in Constructing Cassandra: Reframing Intelligence Failure at the CIA, 1947-2001

This chapter presents an overview of the CIA's analysis of events in Iran that led to the Islamic revolution in 1978–79. It first documents the scale and scope of the intelligence failure concerning ... More

This chapter presents an overview of the CIA's analysis of events in Iran that led to the Islamic revolution in 1978–79. It first documents the scale and scope of the intelligence failure concerning Iran, and then describes how the CIA's internal culture and collective identity distorted its views of Iran prior to and during these events. It contrasts Agency views of the situation in Iran with those of Cassandras, people outside the Agency who anticipated the possibility of a revolution. It documents how the Agency's homogeneity of personnel, scientism, its preference for secrets and its drive for consensus led to a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation there, and thereby created the proximate conditions for an intelligence failure.Less

A Light Footprint in Bahrain

Geoffrey F. Gresh

in Gulf Security and the U.S. Military: Regime Survival and the Politics of Basing

After declaring independence in 1971, Bahrain signed a basing agreement with the United States, prompted by external security fears associated with Iran’s desire to annex the tiny island nation. But ... More

After declaring independence in 1971, Bahrain signed a basing agreement with the United States, prompted by external security fears associated with Iran’s desire to annex the tiny island nation. But when the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973 with the U.S. supporting Israel in the war, Bahrainis violently voiced their outrage over the U.S. naval presence. In late 1973, the Bahraini government announced that the U.S. naval basing agreement would be terminated. The U.S. lost its homeport at Jufair, but it was able to negotiate the maintenance of a light footprint including the presence of an administrative support unit for U.S. naval regional logistics. This chapter examines both the domestic security challenges faced by the Khalifas during this period and the politics involved in the homeport expulsion.Less