The relationship between Iran and the West has been complex and turbulent over the past seven decades. What began as a promising modernization effort under the Shah fueled by Western cooperation in the 1950s descended into resentment and suspicion following the 1979 Islamic Revolution that installed a defiantly anti-imperialist clerical rule.

The new regime consolidated power by eliminating moderate alternatives, actively exported its ideology abroad by mobilizing radical non-state actors, and thumbed its nose at international non-proliferation norms through an expanding nuclear program suspected of pursuing weapons capabilities. These threatening behaviors elicited increasingly punitive Western reactions across consecutive U.S. administrations from Carter to Trump ranging from sanctions to sabotage to the brink of war.

Yet moments of tentative diplomacy occasionally emerged over the years in pursuit of temporarily aligned interests before predictable ill-will and bitter historical grievances reasserted the traditional antagonism between Tehran's fiery revolutionary zeal and Western demands for sweeping policy changes fundamentally incompatible with the Islamic Republic's fiercely independent worldview and institutions monopolized by a reactionary old guard.
This book traces the tangled seven decade relationship between Iran and the West through periods of engagement and estrangement, mutual overtures and incessant brinkmanship, global integration and punishing isolation. It explores the personalities, power dynamics, clashing political ideologies and conflicting cultural perspectives shaping this most volatile and high-stakes standoff of our times.

The narrative unfolds over three acts - the Shah's controversial Western-backed rule planted fateful seeds of discord and blowback; the defiant Islamic Revolution and hostile American hostage crisis cemented implacable resentment; and recent escalatory cycles of advancing Iran's nuclear program, regional proxy battles and military skirmishes risk dangerous miscalculation even as sporadic diplomacy attempts arresting uncontrolled animosity spiraling towards catastrophic war absent cooler heads prevailing.

This deeply researched history hinges around bellwether moments illuminating why endemic hostility persists mutation after mutation despite efforts bridging rare shared interests. Whether reformist Iranian leaders extending olive branches got slapped down by intransigent Western reactions or moments of embryonic détente got swiftly overwhelmed again by engrained grievances and security dilemmas, the zero-sum feud spirals on its tragic arc generations later still exquisitely sensitive over long-remembered national traumas poisoning reconciliation dreams.

Yet glimmers of cooperation endured against common threats like Saddam Hussein, Al Qaeda or ISIS before predictably fraying again from interventionist temptations and duelling quests seeking ideological vindication and undisputed Middle East hegemony fueling relentless proxy battles. With stakes so high now including nuclear brinkmanship and threat of full-scale war ravaging regional allies, is rapprochement fantasy or could pragmatic coexistence through risky engagement offer best hope averting catastrophe? This book weighs prospects and pitfalls that will define global security for the 21st century and beyond.