CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- CHAPTER 1 Introduction: An Eight-Hundred-Pound Gorilla -- Part One: The Cold War Era -- CHAPTER 2 An Alliance of Necessity: The Secret Friendship of the Shah -- CHAPTER 3 Rise of Israel, Rise of Iran -- CHAPTER 4 Iran's Quest for Supremacy -- CHAPTER 5 Sealing Demise in the Moment of Triumph -- CHAPTER 6 Megalomania -- CHAPTER 7 The Rise of Begin and the Israeli Right -- CHAPTER 8 Enter the Sign of God -- CHAPTER 9 Ideological Shifts, Geopolitical Continuities -- CHAPTER 10 Saddam Attacks! -- CHAPTER 11 Scandal -- CHAPTER 12 The Dying Gasp of the Periphery Doctrine -- Part Two: The Unipolar Era -- CHAPTER 13 The New World Order -- CHAPTER 14 Trading Enemies -- CHAPTER 15 From Cold Peace to Cold War -- CHAPTER 16 With Likud, the Periphery Doctrine Returns -- CHAPTER 17 Khatami's Détente -- CHAPTER 18 Betrayal in Afghanistan -- CHAPTER 19 Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory -- Part Three: Looking Ahead -- CHAPTER 20 Facing the Future, Facing Reality -- NOTES -- APPENDIX A: IRAN'S MAY 2003 NEGOTIATION PROPOSAL TO THE UNITED STATES -- APPENDIX B: ORIGINAL U.S. DRAFT NEGOTIATION PROPOSAL -- APPENDIX C: LETTER FROM AMBASSADOR GULDIMANN TO THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT -- INDEX.