ABSTRACT

Iran and Korea have very different political histories even at the most abstract level where similarities are most easily drawn. Prior to their interactions with colonial powers, Iran was a multiethnic feudal system with a weak central government whose basic authority hardly extended beyond the capital. Korea's first encounter with colonial powers was equally impactful. Iran's experience with European colonialism and the Great Game, coupled with its national sense of historical greatness, reinforced xenophobia and uncertainty about its proper place in world politics. Iranians and Koreans have good reason to rue their early experiences with foreign powers, as does most of the colonized or quasi-colonized world. The British government's conversion to an oil-driven navy substantially increased its demand for petroleum during the First World War. The North Korean and Iranian regimes not only used the United States as a convenient scapegoat for domestic problems in their respective countries, but also seemed genuinely convinced that the United States threatened their security.