A Story of Two National Narratives

In everyday diplomatic practice, national narratives are sometimes the hardest part to overcome. Rooted in mentalities and national representations, those stories do represent sometimes the chore of the identity itself. Once removed or readjusted, particularly if suddenly, may create dramatic identity rifts.

Republics of Myth. National Narratives and the US-Iran Conflict is a co-authored volume of analysis by Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne and John Tirman displaying and explaining the complex interactions - mostly behind the public eyes - between the two nations at war. A war of words, a war of decisions, a war of the narratives.

The authors are very informed, using local knowledge and national intelligence archives, which makes the information provided valuable and reliable. However, like in the case of the national narratives skillfully analyses, it´s always a matter of perspective and no matter how much information you may have on a topic, the choice of the topic itself is subjective. Definitely, Iran and US do have conflicting narratives, sometimes fuelled by other interests than the ones aiming at improving their own nations. On the other hand, neglecting the horrible human rights record and abusive character of the Iranian regime against their own people, which makes far more victims than the sanctions, may look dubious given the tremendous available information the authors had at their disposal.

There are aspects regarding international terrorism the regime in Tehran supports in the region, but without a throughout analyses that may reveal in fact why allowing them to own a nuclear bomb may be controversial. Minimising international critics agains the Nuclear Deal as being issued by the ´pro Israel lobby´ - I´ve lost count how many times this expression it was mentioned in the book - is distoring the value of the information provided and analyses.

Another rather controversial take is using geopolitical paradigms of ´border expansion´ which do have a highly controversial reputation, being used in various expansionists ideologies. Comparing the expansion of the US interests towards the Middle East with the previous expansion to the (wild) West, a a race for resources, largely uncritically, needed more than a paradigmatic translation in a completely different and much more complex context.

Republics of Myth is an important book for anyone interested in conflictual national narratives and their part in fuelling international conflict, but should be rather took with the very critical take, which is exactly how academics and intellectuals in general should consider any given facts, particularly of recent historical relevance.

Rating: 3 stars

Book Review: The Age of Aryamehr: Late Pahlavi Iran and Its Global Entanglements

 The Shah of Iran regime is generally evaluated and judged through overcritical lenses. The most frequent - and in most of the cases justified - references are to the deep corruption of his regime, the abuses against human rights and religious freedom and the lack of democracy. However, the job of an academic researcher is to outline the mentality patterns and directions which, when using the right neutral theoretical matrix, may reveal new and interesting aspects.

The Age of Aryamehr. Late Pahlavi Iran and Its Global Entanglements edited by Roham Alvandi is an outstanding collection of essays covering a big variety of topics related to the late years of the Pahlavi regime. Some of them are relatively well known, such as the Shiraz Festival of Arts or the 1971 Persepolis Celebrations, but what in my opinion stands up is the divergence of all the studies towards identifying global trends and the move towards a different political and geopolitical identity for Iran.

What for my own interests was equally relevant were the articles and points dedicated to intellectual history, specifically of the European left and it´s misreading of the Islamic revolution (the article by Claudia Castiglioni). The intellectual West was unable ´to fully capture the meaning and the possible implications of the Iranian revolution´. ´Universal in scope, but with a strong national connotation, anti-communist, despite the global emphasis placed on social justice, fought under the banner of religion despite the professed secularism of many among its protagonists, the Iranian revolution presented a conundrum for intellectuals, especially those of leftist orientation´. 

The ways in which the political representatives of the late Shah tried to use culture as an efficient tool of soft power was more than an abusive way of self-embelishment of the Shah - which at a certain extent it was - but a powerful statement trying to reposition Iran on the global trends, particularly during the complexities of the Cold War. From the mid-1960s, the Shah tried to create his own pattern of political alliances, playing the global card with the big players of the bi-polar blocks. He tried to integrate the cultural assumptions of a Great Civilisation - tammadon-e bozorg - into a larger geopolitical narrative. 

However, no matter what, he lost all his local cards and he was not the only one who was taken away by the debacle. 

This book is an example of quality intellectual discourse on topics that in most cases ignite ´for´ and ´against´ mindset. It shows how much the academic research and advancement of thoughts may win when the research is driven exclusively by intellectual curiosity and desire to find the truth.

Rating: 4 stars

A Modern History of Iran by Abbas Amanat

Iran: A Modern History by Abbas Amanat is a massive historical compedium, which resumes 20 years of work and a time span which covers five centuries. Iran is very often mentioned nowadays in purely political context but few are those - including among journalists and especially politicians - with at least a basic knowledge about this country.

The reason is not only because they might not want to but there is a relative scarcity of general, well-structured information about Iran. One can find snapshots of various kinds of information, but rarely a big picture which covers important data such as historical context, geographical delimitations, economic background, political evolution and cultural developments. 

Abbas Amanat, director of Yale Program in Iranian Studies, was able to introduce to the reader all those details in over 1000 pages of history. It starts with the 16th century with the Safavid Empire, but it offers an overview of the previous historical sequencies by placing the Persians in the world tempo of the previous centuries. The book relies on a multiplicity of sources, double checked and neutraly introduced into the narrative. The research ends with the Green Movement - the protests following the fraudulent presidential elections from 2009. 

The book combines chronological details while following mentality patterns and structures which helps to better understand the religious and political developments and the conflicts and interferences of the two, as well as the positioning of Iran in modern times in various geopolitical contexts. From the conceptual point of view it is an excellent way to offer a basic timeline while filling it with information that helps to understand not only the moment when the events are taking place, but also the bigger picture of the time, what F. Braudel and Ecole des Annales labelled as the long durée.

Personally, I reserved a couple of months to go through the information and most probably will need at least one year to get into more details of various historical time frames and events mentioned more or less in detail. Besides translating in a simple but not simplistic way the realities of six centuries of dense Iranian history, Iran: A Modern History is also a noteworthy example of how to write histories nowadays. Recommended to anyone curious to find more about Iran than what is usually featured in the media but also to historians patient enough to learn not only about a country, but also searching for their writing style.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Academic Book Review: Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic

The very recent events taking place in Iran demonstrated how rare are the adequate interpretations of this complex society and political regime. How can someone from outside understand in the same narrative the massive street manifestations mourning Qasem Soleimani and the student protests against the regime following the unintentional shooting of an Ukrainian passager plane killing 176 people on board, most of them brilliant young people?

At a certain extent, democracy makes us lazy. In dictatorships, people learn the hard way of fencing with the restrictions and building their oasis of relatively free thinking. Dictatorships, regardless their breed are not made of homogenous chunks but of individuals that despite the high political pressure, they have their own interests and ideas, including sometimes contrary to the accepted school of thought.

Narges Bajoghli's Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic studies the ways in which authorities are trying to reach the younger generation though media - particularly film - productions. The main question those productions should answer is 'How to transmit the commitment to the revolutionary project from one generation to another?' 

It mainly explores the 'media world' of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, an important paramilitary force active in schools, universities and other institutions. The messages are spread through a plethora of foundations, schools and institutions, as well as formats (tv series, documentaries, films). 

However, it does not mean that the success is overwhelming. Sometimes, people involved in producing the narrative do have unique perspectives, some of them - especially veterans of the Iran/Iraq war - may have their own disappointments. Sometimes, the distribution channels of such messages doesn't go smoothly. Often, the target of those messages does not react as expected. 

There are also specific differences between defending the regime (nezam) and criticism of the government (dowlat), between the insider (khodi) and the outsider (gheyr-e khodi). Identifying and understanding those differences are very important in having a better view of different angles and ideological movements within the Islamic Republic.

The author, Iranian-American, based the book on interviews with representatives of the ideological production, plus an extensive knowledge of those productions. Besides offering a different way for interpretation of the Iranian realities, it shares interesting information about the Iranian movie industry, whose development is at least partially due to the massive state interest in ideological production.

My biggest regret though is that the book is too short, as for me it ended in the middle of a very interesting discussion that I was expected to continue at least for more than 200 pages.