The definitive history of the Iran-Iraq war, and revolutionary Iran, essential for understanding the country today For over 30 years the Islamic Republic has resisted widespread condemnation, sanctions, and sustained attacks by Iraq in an eight-year war. Many policy-makers today share a weary wish that Iran would somehow just disappear as a problem. But with Iran's continuing commitment to a nuclear programme and its reputation as a trouble-maker in Afghanistan, Lebanon and elsewhere, this is unlikely any time soon. The slow demise of the 2009 'Green Revolution' shows that Revolutionary Iran's institutions are still formidable. This is the definitive history of this subject, from one of the world's principal experts.

Author Biography

Michael Axworthy is the author of The Sword of Persia and Iran- Empire of the Mind, which established him as one of the world's principal experts on the country. He was head of the Iran Section of the British Foreign Office from 1998-2000 and is now senior lecturer and Director of the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies at the University of Exeter.