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Exploring continuities and changes, this book provides the historical backdrop crucial to understanding how Iranian pride and sense of victimization combine to make its politics contentious and potentially dangerous. From the struggle between the Shah and Ayatollah Khomeini to the current tension between the reformers and traditionalists, a central issue in Iranian domestic politics has long been its place in the world and relations with the West.

Patrick Clawson is the deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Between 2002 and 2004, he worked as a staff advisor for Iran and Iraq in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.