Iran and The Cold War

The Cold War had a distinct impact on the social and political development of Iran however not to the degree that it effected its economic position within the global market. This condition created an increasingly confident Iran, which is demonstrated by the fact that Afrasiabi maintains it was not the pawn of the super-powers to the same degree as were Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Cold War and OPEC

In fact, during a major portion of the Cold War, Iran had significant control of its own political and economic environments because of its role as an OPEC member. Tehran and Moscow maintained frequent communications primarily because the Soviet Union depended greatly on Iran as its source of gas.

In essence, Iran was less affected by the Cold War in the context of economic policies and although the country was sensitive to politics on a geographic level, the Cold War did not have any major influence on the external priorities that Iran had cultivated. For example, neither the Soviet Union nor the United States made any move to discourage the British withdrawal from the Persian Gulf, a move that placed Iran at the top of the oil cartel.

Iran after the Cold War

Iran did have to regroup its political objectives after the Cold War in the following ways:

• Iran had to determine what it would chose as the "dominant form of conflict and antagonism" once the contentions between communism and capitalism had resulted in a conclusion that was obviously in favor of capitalism.
• This reevaluation would ultimately lead to one of the greatest Islamic revolutions against capitalism and its flagship nations, including the United States.
• The Muslim world with its rigid ideology, looked at other capitalist nations with disdain, however it would focus on the most prolific and the strongest of them all - the United States.