Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 57

2/2/2016

Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

Iran’s Foreign Policy From Khatami to Ahmadinejad
By: Anoushiravan Ehteshami
Mahjoob Zweiri, editors
Iran’s Foreign Policy From Khatami to Ahmadinejad. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 2011. 2nd Ed. 165pp. $69.95. ISBN:
0863723241. Pbk.: $19.95. ISBN: 978-0863724152.
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
April 2013
Review by
Dr. Robert O. Freedman,
Johns Hopkins University
Revising an edited book is a challenging task. The editors have basically two choices. First they could ask their contributors to update their
chapters, as David Lesch and Mark Haas have done in producing five editions of The Middle East And The United States (Boulder, CO: Westview
Press, 2012). The other alternative is to keep the original chapters as they are, and include a final, updated chapter. The latter choice was made by
Ehteshami and Zweiri, with mixed results. While the final chapter, by the editors, is very solid, and captures the essence of Ahmadinejad’s policies,
the book would have been improved had a number of chapters, especially the ones on the relations between the European states and Iran, been
updated.
That having been said, several of the chapters stand the test of time. R.K. Ramazani, perhaps the Dean of Iranian scholars living in the United
States, has produced an excellent introductory chapter, comparing pre-Islamic, Islamic, and Revolutionary Iran and noting some major
communalities. Another very solid contribution is Judith Yaphe’s chapter, “The United States and Iran in Iraq: Risks and Opportunities” which
outlines the key issues, especially since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. This is a chapter that should have been updated, given the U.S.-Iran
struggle over influence in Iraq in the Maliki era