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In this expanded analysis, we trace the long arc of American intervention in the Middle East—from the calculated ambitions of the Project for a New American Century to the erratic, improvisational warfare of the Trump era. The assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei marks not a triumph of strategy, but the culmination of a decades-long decline in American statecraft. The Origins: Project for a New American Century The road to Tehran was always intended to run through Baghdad. As early as 1998, the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was calling for the invasion of Iraq . Its signatories—Dick Cheney,…
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Inside the Gilded Cage and Iran’s Paradox of Progress Before 1979 From the Explaining History Podcast This article is a detailed companion piece to our recent podcast episode on the paradoxes of Pre-Revolutionary Iran. It expands on the key themes and historical figures discussed in the show. Introduction On the eve of its dramatic 1979 revolution, Iran presented a dazzling and deeply deceptive picture to the world. It was a nation of soaring skyscrapers and ancient bazaars, of fighter jets and clerical scholars, of Western-educated technocrats and devoted pilgrims. At its head sat Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran,…