ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the sources of Iran's insecurity and the ways the Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and others have responded to the threats. Iran is situated within the Middle East "shatterbelt," a region that historically has been of strategic interest to world powers and one that has experienced prolonged periods of instability within and between countries. The Iran-U.S. alliance began to develop during the Second World War and evolved considerably in the years that followed. American involvement in Iranian military affairs began in 1941, when, on his father's forced abdication, Shah became the titular ruler of Iran. The Shah's intention to expand Iran's armed forces under that agreement was limited by US skepticism over how large a military establishment Iran actually could afford. Threats to Iranian security are seen as political as well as territorial. To the West, Iranian military security involved the Gulf and Iraq, with which it shares a more than one-thousand-kilometer border.
