Almost three decades after the Iranian Islamic Revolution, it seems as if the country's technological progress is keeping it on track to stay in a position of political influence internationally-but looks can be deceiving.
Despite remarks from President George W. Bush's 2002 State of the Union address which labeled Iran as one of the three members of the "Axis of Evil" and a teeter-totter international effort of carrots and sticks to get the country to stop its nuclear program, Iran has continued to prosper and change under the new leadership. In an overt presentation of an attempt to create a competitive space program, the country's leadership announced the planned launching of two rockets in late February. The effort is a pre-emption of the launch of a satellite into orbit next summer.
The aviation and space technology program is a worrying topic for U.S. and United Nations diplomats trying to abate Iran's development and building of resources that could be used for tactical purposes in warfare. Iran already has the capability to hit many Israeli cities and U.S. military bases in the Middle East. Additionally, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated Iran's choice to maintain its nuclear program in a speech this week. He claimed Iranians had a right to research and continue using nuclear energy.
Ahmadinejad uses these developments as rhetoric to rally public support and divert domestic attention from issues of political reform. However, making the country look strong doesn't actually make it strong. And it's a dangerous line to play with countries outside of the Middle East, who feel Ahmadinejad is taking too much of a hard-line approach.
Showing off in a mano-a-mano missile building, nuclear proliferation competition is one way Ahmadinejad used his speech Monday to distract public attention from the selection process of candidates for the Parliamentary elections scheduled for March.
Candidates applying to run in the upcoming Parliamentary elections have found it difficult to gain approval of Ahmadinejad and the Guardian Council, which has the ability to disqualify those seeking office. More than 2,000 candidates, some with ties to the reformist movement or allied to 1979 revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini, have been denied a place in the elections.
Some are drawing connections between events in the lead-up to this election and the 2004 Parliamentary elections, in which conservatives won a majority. Now, it seems that the battle has come down to two factions: conservatives who support Ahmadinejad and conservatives who have some issues with his economic policies.
Not only do domestic issues pose a problem for the future of the country, but Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khameini, the current Supreme Leader of Iran, should work to improve the country's international repute. A longer-term plan needs to be made to ensure the country a spot in the future landscape of international politics. Iran can't stay relevant with alliances only within the Middle East and a strategic relationship with China based on pure economics.
The country needs to balance its own desires to maintain a nuclear program and keep to traditions of Islamic law without isolating itself from the benefits alliances with Western states could offer. The relentless chants of nuclear rights will only further alienate Iran from Western powers-a public motivated by marginalized stances on controversial issues, caught up in a storm of charismatic leaders and voiceless in democratic forums where reason should reign, will lose out on economic and political deals the West strikes with seemingly less dangerous states.
If Iran is to succeed in maintaining and growing its international influence, it cannot close its Parliamentary doors after one revolution dating back to 1979. Its people must barge through, as they did before, from universities and the workplace, to demand an election where their voices are heard and their candidates are allowed a spot. The citizenry must not get caught up in the whirlwind of a debate on nuclear rights or distracted by the symbolic launch of Iran's first satellite. They must continue to question their leadership-to move forward in reforms if necessary-and they must refuse the idea that one revolution was enough if it only results in a state of static diplomacy decades later.
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.