Abstract
This chapter explains the general scope of the book and briefly explains Iran’s confrontations with the West involving its oil nationalization in the early 1950s and its nuclear program in recent years. In both circumstances, Iran was put under economic sanctions and threat of military attacks while it was pursuing its national interests. The chapter then describes theories of imperialism and center—periphery relations as analytical framework to explain Iran’s predicament versus great powers in each historical epoch.
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Notes
- 1.
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Be Suye Tamadon-e Bozorg (Toward the Great Civilization), Tehran, 1977.
- 2.
In ancient history, Persia’s confrontation with the West began in 547 BC, when the Achaemenid Empire conquered the Greek-inhabited region of Ionia.
- 3.
Abrahamian, Ervand, the Coup, 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations, p. 192.
- 4.
Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, 4th ed., Knopf, Alfred A, 1968. Morgenthau uses the term economic imperialism and mentions the rivalry of Britain and Russia to control Iran, pp. 56–57.
- 5.
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire, Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 334–5, p. xiii.
- 6.
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Common Wealth, Harvard University Press, 2009, p. 206.
- 7.
Petras, James, and Henry Veltmeyer, Empire with Imperialism, Fernwood Publishing, 2005, pp. 7–10 and 16–19.
- 8.
Gasiorowski, Mark J., US Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a Client State in Iran, Cornell University Press, 1991, p. 2.
- 9.
Lewellen, Ted C., Development and Dependency: An Introduction to the Third World, Bergin & Garvey, Westport, 1995, pp. 8–9 and p. 23.
- 10.
Morgenthau, Hans, Politics Among Nations, p. 112.
- 11.
See David Harvey for motive to invade Iraq, The New Imperialism, Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 1–26. Also see Vassilis Fouskas and Bulent Gokay, The New American Imperialism: Bush’s War on Terror and Blood for Oil, Praeger Security International, 2005.
- 12.
Others who have written about imperialism include N. Bukharin, David Harvey, R. Hilferding, and J. Schumpeter.
- 13.
John A. Hobson, Imperialism: A Study, Cosimo Classics (2006).
- 14.
Vladimir Ilich Lenin, Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism, International Publishers Co., 1970, p. 62.
- 15.
Ibid., p. 63.
- 16.
Fouskas and Gokay, The New American Imperialism, p. 229. Also, Johan Galtung, A Structural Theory of Imperialism, p. 97.
- 17.
Elmar Altvater, The Social and Natural Environment of Fossil Capitalism, 2007, https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/download/5857/2753/.
- 18.
Oil Imperialism? Energy and Political Power from a Global Perspective. Tagungsberichte Info Drucken, https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-6911.
- 19.
Brian C. Black, How World War I Ushered in the Century of Oil, April 3, 2017, http://theconversation.com/how-world-war-i-ushered-in-the-century-of-oil-74585.
- 20.
Using a pretext that Iraq had made nuclear bombs, the Anglo-American-led coalition illegally invaded and devastated the country.
- 21.
Abbas Alnasrawi, Oil, Sanctions, Debt and the Future, Arab Studies Quarterly, 2001, Volume: 23, Issue: 4, Page: 1(14). See also his book: Arab Nationalism, Oil, and the Political Economy of Dependency, 1991.
- 22.
Love, Joseph L., “Raul Prebisch and Origins of the Doctrine of Unequal Exchange,” Latin American Research Review, 15:3, pp. 45–72. Quoted in Robert A. Packenham, The Dependency Movement, Harvard University Press, 1992, p. 16.
- 23.
Primitive accumulation is the process by which precapitalist modes of production, such as feudalism, are transformed into the capitalist mode of production. See Marx, Karl, Capital, Volume I, chapter 33 titled “Modern Theory of Colonization,” pp. 716–724.
- 24.
Charles Barone, Marxist Thought on Imperialism: Survey and Critique, Sharpe, 1985, p. 85.
- 25.
Paul Baran, The Political Economy of Growth, Monthly Review, 1962, p. 158.
- 26.
Charles A. Barone, p. 85.
- 27.
Matias Vernengo, Technology, Finance and Dependency: Latin American Radical Political Economy in Retrospect, Review of Radical Political Economy, Volume 38, No. 4, Fall 2006, 551–568.
- 28.
See Raul Prebisch, The Economic Development of Latin America and Its Principal Problems, New York, United Nations, 1950, and Hans W. Singer, “The Distribution of Gains Between Borrowing and Investing Countries,” The American Economic Review, 40, May 1950, 473–485.
- 29.
Johan Galtung, “A Structural Theory of Imperialism, Journal of Peace Research,” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 8(2), June 1971, pp. 81–117.
- 30.
Galtung, p. 81.
- 31.
Galtung, pp. 83–84.
- 32.
Raymond A. Hinnebusch, and Anoushiravan Ehteshami, The Foreign Policies of Middle East States, Lynne Rienner Pub, 2002, p. 3.
- 33.
Robert Wendzel, International Relations, 2nd ed., Wiley, pp. 96–101.
- 34.
Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics, 1st ed., pp. 146–160.
- 35.
Kazem Alamdari, Chera Iran aghab mand va gharb pish raft (Why Iran Lagged Behind and the West Moved Forward), Tehran, Iran: Entesharat Game-no. (2000/1379).
- 36.
Karl Marx thought the Asiatic societies were held in thrall by a despotic ruling clique, residing in central cities who expropriated surplus from autarkic village communities’ production and used for their own consumption.
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Torbat, A.E. (2020). Introduction and Analytical Framework. In: Politics of Oil and Nuclear Technology in Iran. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33766-7_1
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