Introduction: Iran in the 21st century: politics, economics, and conflict/ Homa Katouzian and Hossein Shahidi.- Crafting a national identity amidst contentious politics in contemporary Iran/ Farideh Farhi.- The dilemma of national interest in the Islamic Republic of Iran/ Hamid Ahmadi.- From multilingual empire to contested modern state/ Touraj Atabaki.- Dissent.- Three faces of dissent: cognitive, expressive and traditionalist discourses of discontent in contemporary Iran/ Mahmood Sadri and Ahmad Sadri.- From motherhood to equal rights advocates: the weakening of patriarchal order/ Azadeh Kian-Thiebaut.- Iran and the United States in the shadow of 9/11: Persia and the Persian question revisited/ Ali M. Ansari.- A look to the north: opportunities and challenges/ Farhad Atai.- Israel-Iranian relations assessed: strategic competition from the power cycle perspective/ Trita Parsi.- Nuclear policy and international relations/ Saideh Lotfian.- A case for sustainable development of nuclear energy and a brief account of Iran’s nuclear program/ Mehdi Askarieh.- Managing oil resources and economic diversification in Iran/ Massoud Karshenas and Hassan Hakimian.- Capital accumulation, financial market reform and growth in Iran: past experience and future prospects/ Ahmad R. Jalali-Naini.- Human resources in Iran: potentials and challenges/ Djavad Salehi-Isfahni.- The significance of economic history, and the fundamental features of the economic ...