The Revival of the Student Movement in Post-Revolutionary Iran

In April 1980 government forces invaded college campuses and closed down the universities for a three-year period under the pretext of a cultural revolution. A post-revolutionary student movement was able to appear as new to the political scene only as of early 1997. This essay provides a sociological analysis of the post-revolutionary student movement in Iran by focusing on: (1) the general structural role of university campuses and, in particular, the role of the Office for Consolidation of Unity (O.C.U.) in mobilizing the movement; 2) the 1997 election of President Khatami which provided a new political opportunity; and 3) the new reformist/legalistic political culture of the movement which allows it to adapt to the complex challenges of everyday politics in Iran.     

The politics of the pipeline: The Iran and Afghanistan conflict

A war between Iran and the Taliban's Afghanistan was averted in September 1998. The roots of the animosity between the two sides go much deeper than the killings of Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan and the reported massacre of Afghan Shi'ites by the Taliban. As the Iranians see it, an Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban is a threat to Iran's national security and economic and political interests not only in Afghanistan but, more importantly, in oil-rich Central Asia. The article argues that at the heart of the conflict between Iran and the Taliban is the question of whether Iran or Afghanistan should be the route for the export of oil and gas from landlocked Central Asia to world markets, as well as Pakistan's plan to use Afghanistan as a corridor to Central Asia. As explained in the article, for commercial and political reasons the Afghanistan route is preferred by both Islamabad and Washington. However, international oil companies prefer the Iran route as it is the shortest, safest and most economical.     

Animal rights,political theory and the liberal tradition

Those scholars who have sought to argue for a higher moral status for animals, including the granting of rights to them, have come primarily from the liberal tradition. Their accounts are persuasive, albeit practically unrealistic. Animals can be incorporated into a liberal theory of justice whether they are inferior morally to humans or regarded as their moral equivalents. This article argues that where animals are excluded from theories of justice, as in the work of Rawls, the relationship between liberalism and the protection of animal interests becomes problematic. In theoretical terms, the influential emphasis within liberal thought on moral pluralism, whereby society or the state are prevented from intervening in what is regarded as the private realm, is clearly inimical to the protection of animal interests. Even more significant is the fact that the practical utilization of this moral pluralism in liberal democracies is detrimental to the welfare of animals.     

以色列与伊朗的恩怨情仇

在过去的2006年里,世界政治舞台上风云激荡,中东更是引人眼球.波斯硬汉伊朗总统内贾德频出惊人之语,公开置疑二战期间纳粹屠犹的真实性,威胁要把以色列从地球上抹去.以色列也不甘示弱地要求把伊朗驱逐出联合国,坚决反对伊朗的核计划,威胁要对伊朗核设施进行军事打击.以色列与伊朗唇枪舌剑,你来我往,互不相让.     

The Varieties of Religious Reform: Public Intelligentsia in Iran

Religious intellectuals play a pivotal role in the transformation of the Islamic Republic of Iran from an uneasy mélange of theocracy and democracy to a liberal democratic state with a religious tinge. This article examines the provenance of reform religious intelligentsia (in contradistinction to the leading intellectuals of the reform) and its varieties. Religious intelligentsia are the carriers of the triple strands of reform thought (radical, muckraking, and political) among the engagé intelligentsia in Iran. This paper is a timely contribution and functions as a snapshot of the religious reform at the brink of the second landslide victory of President Khatami.     

Iran at the Crossroads

As the confrontation between the West and Iran over uranium enrichment comes to a head, the internal confrontation in Iran between the partisans of divine sovereignty, allied with the Revolutionary Guard, and popular sovereignty continues to simmer.
In this section, the first president of the Islamic Republic, a leading cleric of the opposition, the Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and a former British intelligence agent ponder what lies ahead.     

Demystifying democratisation: the global constitution of (neo)liberal polities in Africa

The contest to define ‘democracy’ has become a fundamental concern of global politics. As Noam Chomsky has argued, the guardians of world order have sought to establish democracy in one sense of the term, while blocking it in others. The article interrogates the theoretical and material underpinnings of the great-power-defined agenda of democratisation. It argues that the democratisation project seeks to constitute (neo)liberal polities with a procedural notion of democracy, through coveted transformations in three domains: the minimal ‘neutral’ state, the liberal public sphere or ‘civil society’, and the liberal ‘self’. The impetus to constitute African social relations in its own particular image may be attributable to liberalism's universalist pretensions. But ideas have materiality. Liberal democracy qua liberalism maintains a strong historical association with the birth and evolution of the modern capitalist world. The article contends that the democratisation project endeavours to reproduce within Africa (and elsewhere) the patterns of transformation that characterised the transition to capitalist modernity in north-west Europe.     

Iran and Terrorism: The Transatlantic Responses

Since 1979 the United States and several European countries have accused the Islamic Republic of Iran of supporting terrorism. This article does not seek to examine the validity of these accusations. Rather, it analyzes how Washington and Brussels have sought to change Tehran's policy. Special attention is given to organizations such as Hizbollah, Hamas, Jihad, and Mujahideen-e Khalq. In addition, Ayatollah Khomeini's Fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the Mykonos trial, and the Flatow Amendment are discussed. The article highlights the differences between the American and European approaches toward Iran and suggests that more cooperation between the two sides of the Atlantic is needed.     

Democratic Refusal in Iran

The Iranian revolution—the political realization of the "Great Refusal" of Western modernization—was a direct consequence a half century later of the forced secularization of the Ottoman Caliphate by Kemal Ataturk. With the superstructure of the Muslim ummah dismantled and replaced by the Turkish nation state, insurgent religious movements, from the (Sunni) Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to the Shiite imams of Qum and Najaf, moved into the vacuum to reclaim Islam from the shadow of Western dominance.
Now, history is turning again. Iran has been seized by violent turmoil as it seeks to reconcile democracy and religious rule. Secular Turkey is governed by an Islamist-rooted party. As they struggle to regain their balance, the global economic meltdown threatens a convergence against globalization that joins the Islamist resistance with populist backlashes elsewhere.
Two legendary intelligence agents, a Hezbollah leader, an Iranian dissident philosopher and Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel Laureate, examine this historical turn.