ABSTRACT
The pace of events in Iran is moving so fast and the changes are so unprecedented that it is difficult to say anything conclusive. For an entire decade one could see Iran only as a pariah. The reasons for this are rooted in the complexities of the time and in the ambiguities of power politics, for which the starting point was triggered by the demise of the US-Iranian relationship. The land of Zoroaster had been conquered by the Arab Moslems in the seventh century. Even when the Pahlavi monarchy was first established, its leading intellectuals never really forgot the nation's pre-Islamic past. "Pahlavism" made official a national mythology that began in the nineteenth century under a weaker Qajar rule. The Iranian Revolution of 1979-1980 was ten years old as of 1990. Under the guidance of Moslem fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini, Islam suddenly captured world attention. By 1988 the Gulf War had already taken on aspects of a high-speed, high-tech video game.
