Faced with the prospect of Soviet expansion to Iran, the Truman administration,
under the policy of containment, decided to help the pro-Western shah, Reza
Pahlavi, to modernize his deeply traditional country. The task mobilized the
foreign policy community and scholars. Bringing academic paradigms to bear
on foreign policy was common practice in postwar Washington but in the case
of Iran, which was virtually "terra incognita," practitioners were particularly
dependent on experts. This proximity to power fueled a nascent activism in the
field.

As long as the Cold War dominated American foreign policy, controversy
over Iran was muted and nuanced ( Ladjevardi 1983). The assumption that the
country was modernizing successfully was sustained by the seeming legitimacy
of the monarchy and underpinned by an impressive array of economic indicators.
Even those who had doubts about the legitimacy of the regime were ready to
dismiss them in the name of realpolitik. However, the victory of Carter made
New Internationalism the official philosophy in Washington, triggering a bitter
debate on American policy regarding its long-time ally and strategic bastion in
the Middle East.

The following chapter will analyze the impact of New Internationalism on
the shaping of Carter's Iranian policy.

The war in Vietnam bolstered the New Left efforts to create a network for
disseminating its foreign policy ideas. The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS),

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