Britain and Revolutionary Iran 1906-1909 and 1976-1979: a comparative study

This dissertation is a comparative case study of British policy towards and perceptions of Persia/Iran during the latter's two modern revolutions, 1906-1909 (Constitutional) and 1976-1979 ('Islamic'). The study covers both official perceptions and policy, meaning that of the Foreign Office and Diplomatic Service and the perceptions of the press, civil society, Parliament and wider public opinion; thus it is not a traditional exercise in diplomatic history. It explores British views of both the Shah/government and opposition forces during these two periods in detail and presents these views in a comparative perspective. The research paints a broad social and historical picture of how changes in both British and Iranian government, society and global status affected their mutual relations. Key themes relate to how the decline of (Edwardian) Liberalism, the transformation of the Left in the twentieth century and Britain's decline as an imperial power affected its perceptions and policy-making in Iran; how civil society and public opinion exerted a disproportionately strong influence in the earlier period before Britain was even a fully democratic society; how notions of Orientalism and Aryanism shaped official and public perceptions; and how changing geopolitics impacted perceptions, particularly in the case of Tsarist Russia versus the Soviet Union. This study has revealed numerous counter-intuitive points about the foreign relations and perceptions of British government and society vis-à-vis Iran and prompts a reconsideration of the evolution of British public and official attitudes during the twentieth century as manifested in the case of Iran at two critical historical junctures.