Ayatollah ʿAli Hosseini Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is one of the most controversial and influential Muslim leaders in the world today. As Iran’s main decision-maker, his theocratic ideology and decisions carry global consequences. The Political Ideology of Ayatollah Khamenei is the first book to identify and analyze the development and evolution of the theocratic ideology of the Supreme Leader from 1962 to 2014, using his own writings, speeches, and biographies, as well as literature published in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This work provides new insights into Khamenei’s political thought and behavior and their impact on Iran’s domestic, regional, and international policies. Correlating the development of Khamenei’s personality, character, and political behavior with Iran’s internal and external challenges, this study explores key issues of the Middle East region, in particular Iran’s political posture toward Israel, the United States, and the Muslim world, and the diplomatic crises unfolding over Iran’s nuclear development program. This work provides a comprehensive chronological and thematic survey of Khamenei’s life. This book will be of interest to students, scholars, researchers, diplomats, and policymakers focusing on Middle Eastern politics, Iranian affairs, Islamic studies, and international relations; and could serve as an essential resource for those striving to understand Iran’s policies toward Israel, the United States, and the Muslim world, as shaped by its supreme autocrat.

The political ideologies of Ayatollah 'Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, are identified and analyzed based on 500 speeches (1989-2013), 100 interviews (1981-1989), his biography and other works published in Iran. Islamic supremacy, resistance to foreign powers, and progress are the core elements of his ideology. Several critical themes emerge that are consistently reflected in the formation of his domestic and foreign policies: America, Palestine, Israel, Muslim unity, freedom, progress, the nuclear program, youth, and religious democracy. Khamenei's sociopolitical development is examined in three critical phases: In Phase I, prior to the revolution, he is seen as a political activist protesting for an Islamic government; factors shaping his early political ideology are evaluated. Phase II examines Khamenei's post-revolutionary appointments and election to president; he governs the country through the eight-year Iraq-Iran war. After the death of the father of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, Khamenei enters into Phase III when he assumes the office of supreme leadership; internal and external issues test and reveal his political ideologies. Research indicates that Khamenei continues to proclaim Khomeini's ideals from the 1979 Islamic Revolution which include supremacy of Islam, the isolation policy of "Neither East, Nor West," and enmity with the U.S. and Israel. His chief foreign policies are to free Palestine, spread the ideals of Iran's Islamic Revolution, and create a global Islamic power. His main domestic focus is progress which entails advances in knowledge, science and technology, and military and nuclear power. Despite severe economic sanctions and confrontations with the West, Khamenei claims that Iran is not producing a bomb. While he clings to an ideology that began over 50 years ago--ideals rooted in a government where religious rule is interpreted within a political setting--Khamenei is faced with discontent Iranian youth who feel isolated from the global community. With few emotional ties to the revolution, they prefer a government separate from religion. For Khamenei, however, there is no compartmentalization. He maintains his predecessor's isolation policy of resisting colonization, oppression, domination, and opposition (CODO). Out of the mouth of the leader presents Khamenei's ideology in his own words.

Thirteen years after the Shah of Iran was swept away in a tide of revolutionary fervor, the cruelty and brutality of the new regime remains shocking. In Class, Politics, and Ideology in the Iranian Revolution, Mansoor Moaddel provides the theoretical underpinnings for a richer and clearer understanding of Iran's tumultuous recent history. Analyzing the causes and processes of the revolution through the prisms of class, politics, and ideology, Moaddel argues that the currently dominant theories of revolution insufficiently address the requisite question of ideology: "Ideology is not simply another factor that adds an increment to the causes of revolution. Ideology is the constitutive feature of revolution." Moaddel explains how revolutionary conditions in Iran were created by a combination of state economic policies favoring international capital - which enraged segments of the powerful bourgeoisie - and fluctuations in the world economy that financially weakened Iran. But the central element of the revolutionary crisis of the late 1970s was the development of Shi'i revolutionary discourse as the dominant ideology. As liberalism and communism declined, the potent discourse of revolutionary Islam - with its martyrdom, its religious rituals, its symbolic structures - formed a powerful conduit for popular mobilization. Karl Marx likened the French Revolution to a gigantic broom which swept away all the "medieval rubbish." Drawing from his abundant theoretical, historical, and sociological knowledge, Moaddel illuminates the process by which the gigantic broom of the Iranian Revolution "swept all the medieval rubbish back in."

This book is a portrait of the current Supreme Leader and the cultural and intellectual milieu in which he came to power. It offers details about his character, including his interest in literature, and demonstrates how he became a master of consolidating power and adopted an aggressive regional posture and strategic hedging on the nuclear issue.

The Iranian cleric Ayatollah Montazeri (1922-2009) played an integral role in the founding of the Islamic Republic in the wake of the Iranian Revolution of 1978/9. Yet at the time of his death, Montazeri was considered one of the Islamic Republic's fiercest critics. What made this man, who was once considered the leading advocate of the state doctrine of the 'Guardianship of the Jurist' (velayat-e faqih) and the designated successor to the supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini, change his views? How did his political theory incorporate issues such as civil rights, pluralism and popular participation? And what influence did his ideas have on others? Ulrich von Schwerin's book answers these questions by examining the evolution of Montazeri's political thought over the course of five decades, and studies his role in the discourse on religion and politics in Iran. In doing so, he sheds a new light on some of the most crucial events and vital protagonists of recent Iranian history.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was born into a family of strict piety and moderate poverty. As a serious-minded religious student, he soon caught the eye of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Upon Khomeini's death, Khamenei was named his successor and became the Grand Ayatollah of Iran. This biography tells his story.

The author argues that the Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamic movement should be seen as a form of Third World political populism - a radical but pragmatic middle-class movement that strives to enter, rather than reject, the modern age.

This book clarifies Khomeini’s views on nationalism, sectarianism, and peace and war by putting the Iran-Iraq war at center of understanding of Khomeini’s ideology. Moreover, by making comparisons between Khomeini’s thoughts before and after the revolution with his words during the Iran-Iraq war, this book helps us see how his discourse during the conflict was shaped by such thoughts. Also, such a comparison helps us understand the complexities of Khomeini’s doctrines and their evolvements. Additionally, by offering a unique set of methodological tools, this book introduces a new way to study political leaders in Iran and other parts of the Middle East.

In order to truly understand the emergence, endurance, and legacy of autocracy, this volume of engaging essays explores how autocratic power is acquired, exercised, and transferred or abruptly ended through the careers and politics of influential figures in more than 20 countries and six regions. The book looks at both traditional "hard" dictators, such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, and more modern "soft" or populist autocrats, who are in the process of transforming once fully democratic countries into autocratic states, including Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Narendra Modi in India, and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. The authors touch on a wide range of autocratic and dictatorial figures in the past and present, including present-day autocrats, such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, military leaders, and democratic leaders with authoritarian aspirations. They analyze the transition of selected autocrats from democratic or benign semi-democratic systems to harsher forms of autocracy, with either quite disastrous or more successful outcomes. An ideal reader for students and scholars, as well as the general public, interested in international affairs, leadership studies, contemporary history and politics, global studies, security studies, economics, psychology, and behavioral studies.