Iran has been in the news recently over nuclear energy/possible weapons production, possible election fraud and subsequent protest-quashing. More recently there has been confirmation that the Revolutionary Guard’s Air Force successfully launched medium-range missiles. A lot of people in Iran and throughout the world see Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as flagrantly controversial and possibly crazy. It does not help that Iran’s government is also very secretive and enigmatic. The Iranian government funds and trains the terrorist organization Hezbollah. The United States has not had formal diplomatic relations with Iran since 1979 when revolutionaries ousted the Shah and took over the embassy holding dozens of Americans hostage. A lot of people ask, what exactly is going on with Iran?

I think this question is very legitimate and one can look to ancient and early medieval history to answer it. The people of Iran can trace their history and culture all the way back to 625 BC when the Medes united the peoples of the Iranian Plateau, though tribes have existed in the region before that time. The Persian Empire succeeded the Medes, and the Parthian and Sassanid empires in turn succeeded them. With a few exceptions, like Alexander the Great and the Islamic and Mongol invasion of Persia, the Iranian state had always been strong, centralized, and militarily inclined. Even when occupied by foreign armies the people resisted their overlords.

These various Persian empires were very powerful and often contended with the major super powers of their days: the Roman and Byzantine Empires. Neither the Romans nor the Byzantines were ever able to successfully put an end to the various wars between themselves and the various Persian empires because both empires were fighting over the same thing: control of the Middle East.

If we come back to 2009, we see the same thing but minus the Roman/Byzantine Empire and add the United States. By virtue Iranian policy has not really changed: it still plays hardball all over the middle east wherever it can exert its influences, as we have seen in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and terrorist organizations like Hezbollah. However, not everyone in Iran is on board with the government’s plans. Many Iranians are moderates and a good majority of them wear western-style clothing and enjoy western goods. The protests are a great example of this, for it shows that Iranians are still willing and able to publicly cry foul when they think their government is wrong.

In summary, I’d like to posit this: The nation and peoples of Iran are extraordinarily old and storied. Iran has not really changed its position on much in the Middle East. The only thing that has changed is the counter balance to Iranian influences: Western Europe and the United States. Though we do not share a territorial border with Iran, our closest ally in the region, Israel, and the newly-freed Iraq do or are directly in the crossfire of Iranian influences. If one looks to history, one can further understand why we are in our current situation and where it will most likely go from here. Pick up a book on Iranian history and you will understand why the Iranian government is what it is today.

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