The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) is facing an existential crisis. It is ideologically exhausted, economically and morally bankrupt, increasingly unpopular with its own people, isolated, and friendless abroad. It is engaged in a struggle for survival. Nevertheless, as of the mid-1990s, Iran's weaknesses and turmoil have elicited little commentary from the outside world. Ahmed Hashim examines the acute threats and severe problems fading the rulers of Iran in the 1990s. He argues that the IRI entered the latter half of the 1990s faced with a conjunction of acute pressures threatening its political legitimacy, domestic stability, and national security.