Writing in the new issue of the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Soli Shahvar reviews Matthias Küntzel’s Germany and Iran: From the Aryan Axis to the Nuclear Threshold, published by Telos Press. Read the full review here (subscription required). You can purchase your copy of Germany and Iran in our online store.
One of Küntzel’s more important contributions to our understanding of the German–Iranian relationship is his analysis of the post-war period, from the second Pahlavi kingship to present-day Iran. That, in turn, can be divided into two sub-periods: one spanning the time from the end of World War II to the fall of the Pahlavi (and monarchial) regime, and the other, the period of the Islamic Republic. In this examination, the author makes extensive use of a range of primary sources (such as various archives, official publications, and newspapers). This period has only received meager attention from English-speaking researchers, and even German ones have been deficient in this regard. Significantly, what research does exist is largely unpublished. . . .
Küntzel’s book is an important addition to the literature on German–Iranian relations. It offers a fresh analysis that sheds new light on previously researched issues, but also contains new and important topics of discussion. In looking at his country’s relations with Iran, Küntzel manages to highlight quite clearly “the German way,” which is independent, and not necessarily in line with the policies of the US or other Western countries. His book is one of the many important studies being written and published in languages other than English, thus rendering them practically inaccessible to a vast readership. It is our good fortune that this book is among the relatively few that have been translated.
