Understanding Shiite Leadership : the Art of the Middle Ground in Iran and Lebanon.

Print version record.

Cover; Half-title; Series information; Dedication; Title page; Copyright information; Table of contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Shiite Religiosity: A Comparative Perspective; High Ground and Middle Ground; The Religious Roots of the Middle Ground: Void, Interpretation, Friction; Where We Are Going and How We Get There; 1 Leadership as Interpretation; Shaping Shiite Consciousness; Withdrawal; Presence; Personalizing Presence -- Taqlid; The usuli-akhbari Dispute; Usuli Shiism and the Safavid State: A Concluding Note; 2 The Quest for Authority; The Consolidation of the Scholarly Community.

Nationwide ActivismCollision; The Shah's Effect; Khomeini: Becoming a Leader; Khomeini's Argument; Life as Interpretation; 3 Void and Spaces; The Evolution of Shiite Spaces; The Absence of Institutional Space; Adjusting to Institutional Space; The Institutional Challenge; Reza Shah; Mohammad Reza Shah; 4 Khomeini's Middle Ground; Khomeini's State in Action; Khomeini's Vision of Resistance; Lebanese Hizballah; Missing Iraq; In Khomeini's Footsteps; 5 Forming the Middle Ground: Intra-Shiite Issues; The Islamic Republic and Friction Management.

The Traditional Middle: Bahrain's 2006 Parliamentary ElectionsIran and the Bahraini Elections; Conformist Mediation; The Conformist Middle: Family Planning and the Islamic Revolution; The Middle Ground of Family Planning; 6 Seeking the Middle Ground: Extra-Shiite Issues; The Conformist Middle: The Case of Venezuela; Revolution and Tradition Compete; Deconstructing the Conformist Middle: Iranian Nuclear Strategy; Revolution within Conformist Strategy; The Nuclear Issue and the Future of Middle Ground Politics; Policy and Middle Ground Strategy: Concluding Note.

7 The Struggle for the Middle Ground: The 2009 (and 2013) Presidential ElectionsThe 2009 Elections; The Polity of the Islamic Republic; The Supreme Leader; The President; Parliament; The Guardian Council; The Expediency Council; The Assembly of Experts; The Elections Examined; Immediate Consequences; The Opposition Responds; The Twitter Revolution; The Scholarly Debates; Middle Ground Transformation; After 2009; The 2013 Elections; 8 Middle Ground as Resistance: Lebanese Hizballah; The Shiite Awakening; Syria; The Assassination of Rafiq Hariri; Israel; Border Clashes.

The 2006 War and Its AftermathPrisoner Exchanges; Lebanese State Politics; Hizballah and the Diversity of the Middle Ground; 9 HB and the Temperate City; Early Hopes, Current Agonies; HB Ponders the World; Iraq and the Arab Vicinity; Europe; Israel as Europe?; The United States; The Present Portrait of the Future; Epilogue: Shiite Leadership and the Emergence of the Middle Ground Regime; Glossary; Bibliography; Electronic Resources; Blogs; Articles; Index.

This book presents Shiite leaderships as pragmatic entities with the potential to form fruitful relationships with the non-Shiite world.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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