Relations between the USSR and Iran during the period from the overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic up to early 1983 are reviewed in this book. It begins with a brief survey of Russian-Persian relations in earlier years, with a focus on the developments that served as a background to the current events. It examines Soviet attitudes and reactions to Iran’s foreign and internal policy and highlights the way in which the Soviets often raise events of which they do not approve in order to draw Iran closer to them. In particular, the book discusses the Soviet response to the Iran-Iraq war and the position of the Tudeh Party and the other leftists within Iran. Iran’s policy towards the USSR is treated at length and it is shown that it is suspicious of a tacit USA-USSR agreement over the fate of Iran. Khomeini’s attempts to isolate Iran from both East and West are also reviewed. This book was one of the first to discuss this crucial dimension in Middle East politics and it makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the forces driving the Iranian Revolution.

In the first years of the Soviet regime there was little, if any, Soviet interest in Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Over the last fifty years relations between Russia and this part of the world have become more complex; this book traces their intricate history in a full analysis of Soviet policy towards the Arabian Peninsula. It opens with a review of events from the beginning of the Soviet regime until 1975. The author goes on to consider the period between 1975 and 1978, concentrating especially on Soviet relations with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and South Yemen. The impact of the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Republic in 1979 is examined in detail, with the emphasis on the situation in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and both North and South Yemen. Finally the author examines the effect on Soviet policy of the Iran-Iraq war and the subsequent insecurity in the Gulf region. This study is based on mainly primary sources of Soviet, Arab, Iranian and Western origins.

This book investigates the goals and methods of the former Soviet Union's foreign policy using the examples of its relations with Iran and Afghanistan. It analyses early Soviet foreign policy in the Middle East, a region in which Russia had traditionally been active politically, competing with Great Britain. The tradition was adopted and the policy made more aggressive by the Bolsheviks. Even in this early period of its existence, the Soviet Union sought to ensure the dependence of its southern neighbours through a series of economic and political agreements and to use them as a strategic and economic factor in its anti-British policy in the Middle East. In uncovering the truth about Soviet policy in the Middle East, the author has used archival materials from the British, French and former Soviet ministries of foreign affairs.

In recent years, significant attention has focused upon the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and the threat they pose to the United States and the West. Far less well understood, however, has been the phenomenon of Iran’s regional advance in America’s own Hemisphere—an intrusion that has both foreign policy and national security implications for the United States and its allies. In this collection, noted specialists and regional experts examine the various facets of Iran’s contemporary presence in Central and South America, and detail what the Islamic Republic’s growing geopolitical footprint south of the U.S. border signifies, both for Iran and for the United States.

In the immediate aftermath of the break-up of the USSR, there was widespread concern that Iran would seize the opportunity to export its ideology of Islamic Revolution to the destabilized region. This paper suggests, however, that Iran's policy has been driven more by domestic economic concerns, the desire to break out of international isolation, and a determination not to jeopardise the important relationship with Russia. It examines Iran's political, economic and ideological interests in the new states across its northern borders and also considers Central Asian and Transcaucasian perceptions of the benefits and problems of developing links with Iran.

Russians in Iran seeks to challenge the traditional narrative regarding Russian involvement Iran and to show that whilst Russia's historical involvement in Iran is longstanding it is nonetheless much misunderstood. Russia's influence in Iran between 1800 and the middle of the twentieth century is not simply a story of inexorable intrusion and domination: rather, it is a complex and interactive process of mostly indirect control and constructive engagement. Drawing on fresh archival material, the contributors provide a window into the power and influence wielded in Iran not just by the Russian government through it traditional representatives but by Russian nationals operating in Iran in a variety of capacities, including individuals, bankers, and entrepreneurs. Russians in Iran reveals the multifaceted role that Russians have played in Iranian history and provides an original and important contribution to the history and international relations of Iran, Russia and the Middle East.