Great Satan vs Axis of Evil: the Iranian perspective
The aim of this work is to address Crocker's article The Strategic Dilemma of a World Adrift, in which he describes the present-day geopolitical situation: policymakers struggle to create sound strategies in an increasingly complex world (7). I am going to deal with a particular point of his argumentation: In the course of the article he compares the current period with the fifteen years (1991-2005) after the end of the Cold War, describing the latter as period of cooperation and “growing consensus” (11). However, a close analysis reveals a completely different picture. In dealing with this, I will take the case of Iran as the main example, arguing how the world after the Cold War was characterized …show more content…
In fact, during the Bush administration US officials seemed to have realized the real characteristics of the geopolitical scenario. In order to continue to pursue their desires of hegemony without causing to much resentment, they desperately had “the need for an enemy image”, as an Iranian politician put it (Bonham and Heradstveit 96). If there was no unipolar world, the US had to create a fictional one. The tragedy of the terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon prompted a strong American response to terrorism. Here comes the construction of the complex rhetoric of the “war on terrorism” which culminated in the notion of “axis of evil”, made public during the 2002 State of the Union address by G. W. Bush, to great (bipartisan) applause: “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.” (cited in Bonham and Heradstveit 89). The axis of evil comprised a series of “rogue” states: North Korea, Iran and Iraq, all thought to be part of a big “conspiracy of Evil” (Bonham and Heradstveit …show more content…
Interestingly enough, the United States had earned an epithet, which reminds of axis of evil: “Great Satan” (Kurzman 65). However, at the turn of the century relations were improving, also due to the rather open stance of Khatami (President of Iran at the time) and his promoting of “a dialogue of civilizations,” besides the apologies of the secretary of state for the coup in 1953 (Bonham and Heradstveit
The aim of this work is to address Crocker's article The Strategic Dilemma of a World Adrift, in which he describes the present-day geopolitical situation: policymakers struggle to create sound strategies in an increasingly complex world (7). I am going to deal with a particular point of his argumentation: In the course of the article he compares the current period with the fifteen years (1991-2005) after the end of the Cold War, describing the latter as period of cooperation and “growing consensus” (11). However, a close analysis reveals a completely different picture. In dealing with this, I will take the case of Iran as the main example, arguing how the world after the Cold War was characterized …show more content…
In fact, during the Bush administration US officials seemed to have realized the real characteristics of the geopolitical scenario. In order to continue to pursue their desires of hegemony without causing to much resentment, they desperately had “the need for an enemy image”, as an Iranian politician put it (Bonham and Heradstveit 96). If there was no unipolar world, the US had to create a fictional one. The tragedy of the terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon prompted a strong American response to terrorism. Here comes the construction of the complex rhetoric of the “war on terrorism” which culminated in the notion of “axis of evil”, made public during the 2002 State of the Union address by G. W. Bush, to great (bipartisan) applause: “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.” (cited in Bonham and Heradstveit 89). The axis of evil comprised a series of “rogue” states: North Korea, Iran and Iraq, all thought to be part of a big “conspiracy of Evil” (Bonham and Heradstveit …show more content…
Interestingly enough, the United States had earned an epithet, which reminds of axis of evil: “Great Satan” (Kurzman 65). However, at the turn of the century relations were improving, also due to the rather open stance of Khatami (President of Iran at the time) and his promoting of “a dialogue of civilizations,” besides the apologies of the secretary of state for the coup in 1953 (Bonham and Heradstveit