A great conversation with my guest Dr. Eric Roe on his brilliant new book Iran’s Reconstruction Jihad: Rural Development and Regime Consolidation after 1979. You can get it on Amazon or wherever you get your books online.

Some brief background on the book from Dr. Roe:

Based on extensive fieldwork in Iran and Lebanon, this book examines how the Islamic Republic
of Iran (IRI) instrumentalized rural development to consolidate power at home and project
influence abroad. A cornerstone of the IRI’s domestic consolidation and overseas influence was
the significant, yet understudied organization and ministry, Reconstruction Jihad (RJ). The term
“jihad” in RJ’s name constituted a powerful recruitment and mobilization tool that referred to a
sacred struggle to improve society and the self through rural development and other positive
pursuits beyond the military sphere.