Iran at the Crossroads: Global Relations in a Turbulent Decade

The chapters in this book were written by me or solicited from renowned experts to produce a work that anticipated an imminent post- Khomeini period in Iranian history. The first draft was not ready until June 1989, practically coinciding with the death of Khomeini and the tenth anniversary of the Iranian Revolution-an important milestone after a decade of turmoil. The book you are about to read took some time to put together. Based on extensive research, the project was undertaken in early 1988 and ended about the spring of 1990. A sincere debt of gratitude is naturally owed to all of my contributors. But the preparation of any book does not take place in a financial void. My gratitude is especially extended to the academic vice-president of my university, Dr. Robert Burridge, for granting me the seed money from the university's Development Fund. Substantial financial assistance to cover the bulk of the logistical expenses was offered by the Canadian Institute of International Peace and Security in Ottawa and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through its program of aid to scholarly conferences.

About the Author

Miron Rezun was born in Israel and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and has travelled in and published widely on the Soviet Union and the Middle East. His current areas of interest are Soviet science and technology and the problems of the Soviet nationalities. His articles have appeared in Etudes Internationales, the International Journal, Queen's Quarterly, and Problems of Communism. He has written in French for AGORA and Le Monde and has published a collection of articles for the Centre Quebecois des Relations lnternationales in Quebec City. One of his books, The Soviet Union and Iran About the Contributors XV (Westview, 1988), has become the definitive study of Soviet-Iranian relations during the Reza Shah period. He has also authored a book entitled The Great Struggle (1990) and another on Canadian-Iranian relations (forthcoming in 1991) and is currently working on a book dealing with ethnicity and the nationalities in the USSR.