Triumph and Despair

Triumph and Despairtells the dramatic story of post-revolutionary Irans first four decades, from its establishment in 1979 until today.The revolutionary coalition that overthrew the monarchy was at once democratic, populist and Islamic. The Islamists, and the Khomeinists in particular, were able to capitalise effectively on prevailing conditions on the ground; to frame the new republics constitution, capture nascent institutions, and consolidate their power by eliminating opponents through a reign of terror. Once the war with Iraq was over and after the death of the new orders charismatic founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic was consolidated: first by tweaking its institutional arrangements, and then by fostering economic development and post-war reconstruction. A reformist interlude then followed, reversed unceremoniously by a return of populism and a broader authoritarian retrenchment.Today Iran remains at odds with itself, its economy too deeply political to yield meaningful developmental results, its foreign relations too conflicted to allow it a productive place in the community of nations. As Irans nationalities and its women and youth carve out spaces for themselves in the broader narrative, competing identitiesreligious, national and otherwiseabound. After forty years, the Islamic Republic remains a country in search of itself.