industrializationanddependencythecaseofiran.docVIP

Industrialization and Dependency: the Case of Iran By Akbar E. Torbat* September 27, 2010 In the past few years, Iran has rapidly progressed in various scientific and technological fields. Particularly, it has advanced in petrochemical, pharmaceutical, aerospace, defense, and heavy industries. Despite of being under economic sanctions by the United States for about three decades, the country seems to be leaping forward to become an emerging industrialized country. As it appears, no other country in the region has achieved such rapid progress in a short time. In this paper, industrial development in Iran is reviewed in the context of the dependency theory in order to understand Iran’s success in pursuing independent development policy. To evaluate Iran’s relative progress better, the key features of Iran’s economy have been compared with Turkey which is considered to be the only newly industrialized country in the region. Also, Iran and Turkey’s experience with neoliberal economic policies is briefly reviewed. Finally, Iran’s economic relations with other countries are discussed in the light of the imposed economic sanctions and the recent global economic crisis. __________ *Akbar Esfahani Torbat received his Ph.D. in Political Economy from the University of Texas at Dallas. He has taught at the University of California - Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, and several campuses of California State University. At present, he teaches at the Department of Economics and Statistics, California State University, Los Angeles. E-mail: atorbat@  Iran’s Technological Progress Despite of the government’s emphasis on Islamic subjects in the education curricula, Iran has advanced tremendously in secular sciences. Studies reveal Iran that has been the fastest growing country in scientific capabilities in the world during the past two decades. Using the number of scientific publications available in the Web of Science database, Eric Arc