Nader Entessar - Böcker

The Middle East has been the arena of three cataclysmic events since 1979 - the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War. The authors examine Iran's relations with the Arab states of the Gulf in detail and sheds light on the changing patterns of Iranian-Egyptian and Lebanese relations.

Kurdish Politics in the Middle East analyzes political and social dimensions of Kurdish integration into the mainstream socio-political life in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. Its central thesis is that ethnic conflict constitutes a major challenge to the contemporary nation-state system in the Middle East. Long vanquished is the illusion of the "melting pot," or the concept that assimilation is an inexorable process produced by "modernization" and the emergence of a relatively strong and centralized nation-state system in the region. Perhaps no single phenomenon highlights this thesis more than the historical Kurdish struggle for self-determination. This book's focus is on Kurdish politics and its relationship with broader regional and global developments that affect the Kurds. It does not claim to cover everything Kurdish, and it does not promote the political agenda of any group, movement, or country.

First Published in 1992 Reconstruction and Regional Diplomacy in the Persian Gulf goes beyond a description of the recent events by analysing the social, political, and economic patterns of interaction between the Gulf states. The argument is strengthened by a consideration of the role of the superpowers in the region’s political discourse, and of religion as a force for a change. Not only do the authors provide an easily accessible basis for explaining the current problems in the region, but they also offer their own, sometimes provocative policy prescriptions. This book is an important read for scholars and researchers of Middle East politics and Middle East history.

The Middle East has been the arena of three cataclysmic events since 1979 - the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War. The authors examine Iran's relations with the Arab states of the Gulf in detail and sheds light on the changing patterns of Iranian-Egyptian and Lebanese relations.

In November 2013, a historic agreement on Iran’s nuclear program was reached between Iran and the world powers, raising the prospects for a long-term agreement that would end the Iran nuclear crisis and set the stage for normal relations between Iran and the West. This book seeks to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of this agreement and the protracted process that preceded it. It examines in details the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the world powers, focusing on the origins and evolution of the Iran nuclear crisis, the unilateral and the multilateral sanctions. It also looks at the relationship between nuclear and various non-nuclear regional issues, as well as the long-term implications for the U.S.-Iran relations.

Entessar & Afrasiabi’s Iran Nuclear Negotiations (Rowman & Littlefied, October 2015) offered a thorough analysis of the negotiation process between Iran and the 5+1 great powers about its nuclear program. This book essentially builds upon it, focusing this time on the final nuclear agreement, the ensuing debates around it, and its global and regional ramifications especially in the Middle East. The first section analyzes the agreement through the prism of international relations theories, using a constructivist-critical theory approach. This is followed by an overview of the intense debates in Iran, the West, and other parts of the world, on the nuclear agreement and its various pros and cons, not to mention the connected, yet separate Iran-IAEA agreement.The second section covers Iran’s foreign policy and its various priorities, looking in particular at the impact of the nuclear deal on the country’s external relations and orientations, contextualized in terms of pre-existing issues and concerns and the profound influence of the nuclear agreement on the perceptions of Iranian power in the region and beyond. Iran’s relations with its Arab, Turkish, Russian, and other neighbors are discussed, focusing on both the direct and indirect impact of the nuclear agreement on these relations, especially the paradoxical implications of the nuclear deal with respect to the non-nuclear crises in the Middle East, such as the Syria-Iraq crisis, and the re-alignments that have put Iran at the crossroads of East and West. Other issues covered include energy security, regional economic cooperation, the endemic sectarianism highlighted by Iran-Saudi competition, and the deadlock on the Middle East peace process. The third section then examines the issue of a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone and the likely consequences of the Iran nuclear deal on this prospect, which, in turn, raises the issue of regional proliferation and counterproliferation. The last section explores some possible various scenarios and the challenges of implementation as a relatively long-term agreement, providing specific policy recommendations for the regional actors and the external powers that are stakeholders in the volatile Middle East.

With the advent of the Trump Administration, relations between Iran and the United States have become increasingly conflictual to the point that a future war between the two countries is a realistic possibility. President Trump has unilaterally withdrawn the US from the historic Iran nuclear accord and has re-imposed the nuclear-related sanctions, which had been removed as a result of that accord. Reflecting a new determined US effort to curb Iran's hegemonic behavior throughout the Middle East, Trump's Iran policy has all the markings of a sharp discontinuity in the Iran containment strategy of the previous six US administrations. The regime change policy, spearheaded by a hawkish cabinet with a long history of antipathy toward the Iranian government, has become the most salient feature of US policy toward Iran under President Trump. This turn in US foreign policy has important consequences not just for Iran but also for Iran's neighbors and prospects of long-term stability in the Persian Gulf and beyond. This book seeks to examine the fluid dynamic of US-Iran relations in the Trump era by providing a social scientific understanding of the pattern of hostility and antagonism between Washington and Tehran and the resulting spiraling conflict that may lead to a disastrous war in the region.