ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the main elements in Iran's relationship with Pakistan and India. The Iran-India relationship has evolved from strained relations to relations of competitive co-existence and strategic convergence as well as strained religious relations. The two sets of relations are driven by imperatives of religion, diplomatic and military strategy, economic development, regional cooperation, and Arab politics. It is widely held that foreign relations are governed by domestic and external imperatives as well as by the mental outlook of a country's political leadership, and that revolutions have foreign inputs. In Iran's case it is necessary to look closely into the Khomeini revolution and discover the undercurrents that have shaped American and Iranian thinking. The Khomeini revolution was inspired by an unlikely combination of Iranian communists, oil workers, bazaris, the middle classes, intellectuals, mullahs, and the United States.
