The Long War on Iran: New Events, Old Questions : Ghamari, Behrooz: Amazon.com.au: Books

The Long War on Iran: New Events, Old Questions : Ghamari, Behrooz: Amazon.com.au: Books




The Long War on Iran: New Events, Old Questions
by Behrooz Ghamari (Author) Format: Paperback
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars (9)

A timely and measured examination of how U.S.Iran relations reached their current impasse and what it will take to move beyond years of distrust.

The United States and Iran have been locked in a decades-long standoff, fuelled by missteps, misunderstandings, and clashing ambitions. In these pages a leading Iranian expert clarifies the dynamics driving a conflict that has devastated the Middle East and destabilised the world.

Behrooz Ghamari explores the history of US intervention in the region, focusing on the continuing sanctions imposed on Iran and, behind them, US policymakers' persistent perception of the Islamic Republic as a major obstacle to American power. Despite the repressive policies of the Iranian state, he contends, Iranian society has remained vibrant with active intellectual, cultural, and social justice movements. The roots of US-Iranian rivalry lie elsewhere.

Challenging the conventional image of Iran as a monolithic totalitarian regime, this timely study calls for a more informed, nuanced approach to Middle East diplomacy.
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Review


"Brimming with insight, this book expertly demystifies Iran."
--Vali Nasr


"Ghamari parts the dark veil surrounding Iran, allowing us to finally see through the fog of mystification and misdirection that has warped our perception of one of the world's most dangerously misunderstood societies."
--Jeffrey St. Clair


"The book weaves personal memory with political analysis, arguing that Iran is better understood as a fractured society shaped by trauma, fear and competing hopes rather than ideological fanaticism alone."
--The Sri Lankan Guardian


"Behrooz Ghamari was a death row prisoner in 1984, during the Iran-Iraq War, nearly dying of Lymphoma. He survived to tell the story. It is also the story . . . of a country misused and abused, from within and outside."
--Le Monde Diplomatique


"Blending personal experience with sharp analysis, the book invites readers to rethink entrenched narratives and view Iran through a more nuanced political lens."
--The Daily Star


"A vital and fascinating read."
--Stylist Magazine


"Offers a perspective rarely heard in mainstream Western coverage: that opposing authoritarianism at home does not translate into support for foreign military intervention."
--Scheerpost


"A timely and important critical intervention into decades of failed US policy toward Iran."
--Middle East Journal

About the Author


Behrooz Ghamari is affiliated with the Elahe Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies at the University of Toronto. He was Professor and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies and Director of the Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University from 2020 to 2024. He is the author of three books on different aspects and historical context of the Iranian revolution of 1979 and its aftermath: Islam and Dissent in Post-Revolutionary Iran (2008); Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment (2016); and Remembering Akbar: Inside the Iranian Revolution, OR Books (2016).

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Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ OR Books
Publication date ‏ : ‎ 1 May 2026
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
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4 out of 5 starsThe world still needs Persia (now Iran)

Reviewed in Italy on 25 January 2026

Format: Kindle

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To get a perspective outside the main stream narrative of the contrast between IRAN and the West. It helps to understand the situation of the Iranian population that has been the main actor in recent history and that today is forced between a theocratic drift and Western economic sanctions. Persia was one of the incubators of human civilization, and today it is considered a 'rogue state' belonging to 'the axis of evil'.

Through the author's writings, we are offered a proper reading of Iran from the 1979 revolution to today. It's not a history book, but the articles are strict.

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