Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs [Hardcover]

Ray Takeyh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2009

Revolutionary guards chanting against the Great Satan, Bush fulminating against the Axis of Evil, Iranian support for Hezbollah, and President Ahmadinejad blaming the U.S. for the world's ills--the unending war of words suggests an intractable divide between Iran and the West. But as Ray Takeyh shows in this accessible and authoritative history of Iran's relations with the world since the revolution, behind the famous personalities and extremist slogans is a nation that is far more pragmatic--and complex--than many in the West have been led to believe. Takeyh explodes many of our simplistic myths of Iran as an intransigently Islamist foe of the West. He shows that three powerful forces--Islamism, pragmatism, and great power pretensions--war against one another in Iran, and that Iran's often paradoxical policies are in reality a series of compromises between the hardliners and the moderates, often with wild oscillations between pragmatism and ideological dogmatism. The U.S.'s task, Takeyh argues, is to find strategies that address Iran's objectionable behavior without demonizing this key player in an increasingly vital and volatile region. Updated with an afterword that covers the momentous protests following the 2009 Iranian elections, Guardians of the Revolution will stand as the standard work on this controversial--and central--actor in world politics for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Since the 1979 revolution that transformed Iran, some U.S. decision makers have treated the Islamic Republic as a political monolith, ignoring internal disagreements and political factions in favor of broadly painting Iran's leadership as evil. Takeyh (Hidden Iran) argues credibly that this approach has been to our own peril, as the foreign policies of Iran are often an expression of domestic politics, no matter how opaque these politics may seem to outsiders. Rather than continue to try to contain Iran by means of a broad-based Arab alliance, an approach that's been failing for decades, Takeyh argues that the U.S. must instead conceive a situation whereby Iran... sees benefit in limiting its ambitions. In his previous book, Takeyh expressed an unassailable optimism that Iran will change and was on an inexorable path to greater openness—almost regardless of who was in power. Takeyh is more pessimistic in his predictions now, writing that Iran has confounded the West's anticipation of a forward historical progression. By failing to acknowledge his own shifting understanding of the situation, Takeyh misses an opportunity to provide a genuinely honest—however inconsistent—assessment. (June)
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Review

"Superb...anyone wishing to understand why restored American-Iranian ties are so elusive, but also so critical, should turn to this important work, a riveting and consistently insightful study of revolutionary Iran and its still troubled place in the world."--he INew York Times

"Elegant anatomy of Iran's foreign policy since 1979."--Malise Ruthven, New York Review of Books

"An excellent, straightforward primer for anyone who has not explored Iran's history before and wants a fair and unsparing portrayal of its ambitions and a keen understanding of its internal politics."--The Jerusalem Post

"Lucidly written... Recommended for students and general readers who are tracking the U.S.-Iranian relationship."--Library Journal

"Guardians of the Revolution is a "must read' for policy makers in Iran, in the United States, and throughout the world. Thirty years after the Revolution, this is the only comprehensive book in any language on the dynamics of change in Iranian domestic and foreign policy since the revolution. Timely and balanced, it should command the attention of the Obama administration in reviewing America's policy toward Iran."--R. K. Ramazani, Edward R. Stettinius Professor of Government, University of Virginia

"Ray Takeyh is one of our country's most insightful observers of Iran. In this book, he offers an interesting portrait of how and why Iran's approach to the world has evolved since the revolution. His explanations of the interplay of different groups within the elite and the rise of the new right are thought provoking and raise important questions for policy-makers. If one wants to understand the different forces affecting Iranian foreign policy, Takeyh's book is a good place to start."--Dennis Ross, author of Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World

"Ray Takeyh has given us a succinct, well-written, and cool-headed analysis of Iran's foreign policy since the 1979 revolution. This book should be read by academics working on contemporary Iran as well as by foreign-policy experts in Washington grappling with the issue of how to deal with Tehran."--Ervand Abrahamian, author of A History of Modern Iran

" A useful aid.... [This book] provides a narrative background to the insights in his earlier Hidden Iran. Takeyh's two books together offer as instructive a portrait as one can find of politics in Tehran and why it generates sometimes maddening Iranian postures toward the outside world."--The National Interest

"Anyone who wants to understand whats going on in Iran must read the terrific ... Guardians of the Revolution ... a lucid, clear-headed explanation of Irans perplexing foreign policy since 1979."--Daily Beast

"An excellent way to take the measure of revolutionary Iran today is to read this up-to-date, well-researched, and perceptive history of its foreign policy since 1979."--Foreign Affairs

"[An] excellent history of Iran's foreign and security policies in the three decades since the revolution.... A highly successful balancing act between breadth and depth...[and] a first-class book."--Middle East Journal Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1St Edition edition (May 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195327845
• ISBN-13: 978-0195327847
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,033 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Already outdated?, November 30, 2010

By 

D. Harris - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs (Hardcover)

The book was written before the latest events in Iran -- namely the second "election" of Ahmadinejad, and the following suppression of the opponents of the authoritarian elements that are in power. They have only increased their power -- for now. These developments are not covered in the book.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much better than earlier reviews suggest., September 22, 2009

By 

Philip Hurst (Seville, Spain) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs (Hardcover)

Iran seems to be a topic that provokes strong, if not extreme, responses in readers. Hence the terse, highly unfavourable reviews already posted here on Amazon. I have given this book 5 stars because I strongly disagree with the abuse contained in those reviews, although if they had been more reasonable and considered, instead of hysterical, I would probably give the book 4 stars: very good but not ground-breaking.

Dr Takeyh has written a book with the policymakers in Washington very much in mind, focussing as he does on post-revolutionary Iran's foreign relations and its relations with the US in particular. I'm not interested in whether the author is an adviser to Obama, Sarkozy or Putin: what interests me is what he has written. If I were an American policymaker, or American Iran wonk, I might have different views on the book, but the book's great value to me is its succinct account of the development of Ayatollah Khomeini's thinking on the role of the clergy in an Islamic state, his role in forging the 1979 revolution, and the force of his personality that created a powerful legacy that resonates today, in the Iran of the 2009 presidential elections and their aftermath. Unlike Con Coughlin's recent "Khomeini's Ghost", which is written in a free-flowing, somewhat journalistic style (which is not to criticise it), Takeyh's approach is measured, considered, bordering on the prescriptive. Concurrently with the foreign policy considerations, he examines Iran post-1979 as falling into four distinct periods, more or less coinciding with the period up until Khomeini's death, the the three presidencies that followed: Rafsanjani, Khatami, and Ahmadinejad, each showing different approaches to the world and to the internal business of government in a revolutionary society. I found his explication of the origins of Khomeini's political "philosophy" (if one can call it that) to be more persuasive and realistic than that of Ervand Abrahamian in "Khomeinism", who seems to be at pains to depict the ayatollah not as a fanatic but as a "populist", almost as though to de-demonize him. Takeyh adverts to the populist elements in Khomeini's vision, but doesn't downplay the ruthlessness and, at times, duplicity, of the old man to achieve his single-minded aim of toppling the Persian monarchy. Certainly the creation of any sort of republican democracy was the last thing in Khomeini's mind. It seems that the revolutionaries, and Khomeini among them, had no ideas about governing the country other than getting rid of the Shah, and then ridding themselves of inconvenient rival revolutionary or liberal rivals. Of economics, diplomacy, military strategy, civil governance and all the other appurtenances of the modern state, Khomeini and his closest supporters, many of whom remain at or near the top of the Iranian government/theocracy today, seem to have been completely ignorant, even not interested. Dr Takeyh is good on the Iran-Iraq war. He also reassesses the significance of President Khatami's two terms as a "reformist" president, and shows clearly how the aspirations of Khatami and his millions of supporters were progressively thwarted and reversed by the conservative elements in the theocratic side of the complex matrix that Khomeini handed down as the constitution of Iran. What would be interesting would be to read Dr Takeyh's take on the 2009 presidential elections.

"Guardians of the Revolution" is no easy read, but repays the effort of reading carefully. What I did find irritating, however, is that Takeyh insists, almost petulantly, in transliterating fairly well-known Arabic or Persian names into unfamiliar forms, e.g., Saddam Huseyn (who he, you may ask?), Ayatollah Bihishti (Beheshti), Ayatollah Muntaziri (Montazeri). It's only a small criticism, however.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful analysis of Iranian regime, January 1, 2010

By 

Roger Berlind (NY, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs (Hardcover)

"Guardians of the Revolution" provides useful analysis of the Iranian regime since the founding of the Islamic Republic. Takeyh does a good job describing the various factions within Iran's government and the challenges that moderates faced when trying to normalize relations with the West. I have not read any other books on Iran, so I can't really judge the accuracy of Takeyh's portrait of Iran. But my impression is that he does know Iran very well.

My main complaint about the book is that Takeyh fails to properly set the stage for the benefit of readers who don't already know the history of Iran prior to the revolution. While he does provide some background on the father of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, he says very little about the regime of the Shah which the United States supported. Doing this would have helped readers better understand the antagonism that many in Iran feel toward the United States. While the policy makers in the West who this book is targeted to might already know the full history of Iran, the average reader probably does not.