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This edited volume presents the work of scholars who investigate Iran's experiences with colonialism and decolonization from a multiplicity of perspectives - including, but not confined to, race and ethnicity; foreign relations; intellectual history; social and economic networks; and cultural studies.From the 1950s onwards, and with increased urgency in the 1970s, Iran sought to establish close political relationships with the newly independent countries of the Global South. Iran presented itself as a powerful, wealthy, and like-minded ally - an alternative to the colonial powers of Europe. Though it was never formally colonized, Iran had, from the early nineteenth century, suffered repeated violations of its sovereignty at the hands of the Russians and British. This shared experience of imperialism allowed Iran to present itself as inherently sympathetic to the formerly colonized states of Africa, Asia and the Americas, despite its imperial self-image and impulses. In the same period, anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist movements around the world had a profound impact on intellectual thought inside Iran. The rising influence of the United States in the Middle East gave voice to new anti-imperialist currents in Iran that prompted intellectuals simultaneously to call for civil liberties, social justice and democracy. This volume's authors address three broad themes in their contributions. First, they consider that although Iran was not formally colonized, it was subject to various forms of imperialism in the modern period. Second, authors engage with the complicated position of the Pahlavi state in the international system at the time. Iran found itself at the center of the Cold War, but at the same time tried to negotiate its diplomacy with some subtlety and independence of thought. In the 1950s-1970s, Iran significantly expanded its networks in the Global South and tried to find allies among several newly constituted countries. How did Iran's unique position in the world affect and define its treatment of decolonization? Third, authors try to draw distinctions between state-to-state relations and decolonizing discourses and non-state actors who also forged intellectual connections with actors from the Global South.
