Since the 1920s, Iran has lived through two defining political moments that have reflected two distinct civilisational identities. They have shaped not only the country’s internal character but also its relationship with the wider world.Today, with the Islamic republic under unprecedented strain, a third Iranian moment may be approaching.Modernity on the shah’s termsThe first Iranian moment was the reign of the Pahlavi monarchy, which began in 1925 with Reza Khan Pahlavi, an army officer, being instated to the throne and ended in 1979 with the outbreak of the Iranian Revolution. It was built around a particular vision of Iran: secular, modernising, and firmly anchored in the dominion of the Western-led camp during the Cold War.Tehran recognised Israel after it was created in 1948, supplied oil to Western markets, and served as Washington’s chosen guardian of the Gulf. The shah projected power across a region fraught with ethnic and sectarian rivalries, leading a country that posed a challenge to its Arab neighbours, but also served as a model of state-driven development.Central to the Pahlavi project was a deliberate attempt to anchor the monarchy’s legitimacy not in Islam, but in the Persian imperial past. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi consciously linked his rule to the ancient Achaemenid Empire — the dynasty of Cyrus and Darius tha …
