9781422275740

Introduction S ome nations feel they are destined for greatness. They look at the resources they have and what they’ve accomplished in their history and figure it adds up to something more than their neighbors, maybe more than any other country. Iran is one such nation.Many of its leaders feel they have a divine right to dominate other nations, undermine existing governments, and spread their religious form of government to other Middle Eastern countries. These leaders have good reason to feel that Iran can be a ma- jor player on the world stage. Several times throughout its history, Iran has held together a vast and powerful empire. The country has world-superpower potential today because of its wealth of natural resources. Other nations have experienced the same kind of wish for dominance. The United States promoted itself in the last decades of the nineteenth century as being destined for top-dog status in the twentieth century. It was right. Like the United States, Iran is a country that believes it deserves to be a world power.Today, Iran asserts its ambition and divine right at a time whenU.S. hegemony is being challenged from multiple directions. Words to Understand Constitution: Awritten document or unwritten set of traditions that outline the powers, responsibilities, and limitations of a government. Hegemony: Dominance of one nation over others. Sanctions: Penalties, usually of an economic nature, imposed on one country by another. Shi’a Islam: A branch of Islam that developed in the early years of the religion; its central disagreement with Sunni Islam, the other major branch, is over the rightful successor to the prophet Muhammad. Supreme leader: The constitutional head of state of Iran; the position is for life and is almost limitless in its power.

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