Is Iran being offered a genuine off-ramp from confrontation with the West, or is it being backed into a corner with only two real options: submission and eventual fragmentation, or resistance and war? And why does a scholar of nationalism argue that Pakistan’s struggle to build a cohesive national identity actually reveals something surprising about the fragility of Iran’s own?

Professor Majid Sharifi, professor of international relations and director of international affairs at Eastern Washington University, joins host Tafhim Kiani for a deeply theoretical yet urgent conversation about nationalism, identity, and the aftermath of the 12-day Israel-Iran war. Born and educated in Iran before spending over five decades in the United States, Sharifi brings both academic rigor and personal history to the conversation.

The discussion begins with a comparative analysis of nationalism in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and Egypt, exploring why territorial and religious identities have struggled to fully cohere into unified national projects. It then turns to a sobering assessment of Iran’s options following the 12-day war, Sharifi’s stark prediction that Iran’s nuclear program will go underground and potentially weaponize, and his analysis of why the current global order’s decline makes this a particularly dangerous historical moment.

Key Topics Discussed

Nationalism as a Colonial Import

Sharifi argues that modern nationalism, as understood globally today, emerged as a European imperialist concept that was then exported, often poorly adapted, to colonized regions including Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and India.

He explains the structural weakness this history created:

• Why states in these regions often imitated nationalism without possessing the sovereign strength to fully realize it
• How this mismatch generates persistent internal contestation over what national identity actually means
• What distinguishes strong states that successfully built cohesive nations from weaker ones that did not

Iran’s Territorial Identity Versus Pakistan’s Newer Construction

Sharifi contrasts Iran’s ancient territorial identity, predating the modern state by millennia, with Pakistan’s much newer and more constructed national identity built around Islam.

He details why this comparison reveals surprising similarities despite different starting points:

• How Iran’s strong territorial identity nonetheless failed to fully integrate its Islamic identity without conflict
• Why Pakistan’s attempt to use Islam as a unifying umbrella across ethnic groups similarly fell short
• What both cases reveal about the difficulty of building truly cohesive multi-ethnic national identities

The Failed Promise of Ummah

Sharifi laments how the concept of a unified Muslim ummah, potentially a powerful transnational identity, has been eroded by colonial-era state divisions and sectarian fragmentation.

He explains what has been lost in this fragmentation:

• How shared cultural traits of hospitality, kindness, and solidarity with the weak have been overshadowed by state rivalry
• Why this fragmentation serves the interests of the broader colonial and imperial order
• What a genuinely unified regional identity, rooted in shared history rather than state competition, might offer

Middle Powers as Instruments of the Great Game

Sharifi offers a pointed critique of “balance of power” as an ideology that structurally disadvantages middle and small powers like Iran and Pakistan.

He explains why this framework traps smaller states in perpetual instrumentalization:

• Why only great powers can genuinely balance against one another in the current global order
• How countries like Iran and Pakistan have been repeatedly used as instruments in larger geopolitical games
• What it would take to escape this dynamic, and why he remains skeptical it is achievable soon

Iran’s Two Options: Submission or Resistance

Sharifi delivers a stark assessment of Iran’s position following the 12-day war, arguing the West’s demands amount to an impossible choice between submission and fragmentation, or continued costly resistance.

He lays out why he sees no viable middle path:

• Why demands to abandon missiles, nuclear capability, and regional alliances amount to demands for total submission
• How Iraq and Libya serve as cautionary examples of what submission or state collapse can produce
• What Iran’s strong territorial identity means for the difficulty of any deliberate attempt to fragment the country

Predicting Nuclear Weaponization and Renewed War

Sharifi states plainly that he expects Iran’s missile program to expand and its nuclear program to go underground, potentially toward weaponization, with war more likely than negotiated peace.

He explains the reasoning behind this sobering forecast:

• Why he views the strategic aims of Iran and the West as fundamentally incommensurable
• How he assesses Russia’s limited willingness to fully back Iran despite deepening ties
• What historical pattern of declining empires becoming more militarily dangerous informs his broader warning

Major Takeaways

• Modern nationalism’s colonial origins left states like Iran and Pakistan with unresolved identity contestation
• Iran’s ancient territorial identity and Pakistan’s newer Islamic identity both struggled to achieve full cohesion
• The erosion of a unified Muslim ummah reflects colonial-era fragmentation more than natural sectarian division
• Middle powers like Iran and Pakistan remain structurally instrumentalized within great power competition
• Sharifi sees Iran facing an impossible binary between submission and continued costly resistance
• He predicts Iran’s nuclear program will go underground, with renewed war more likely than negotiated peace

About Professor Majid Sharifi

Professor Majid Sharifi is a professor of international relations and director of international affairs at Eastern Washington University. Born and educated in Iran before relocating to the United States in his early twenties, he is the author of Imagining Iran, a study of nationalism and national identity.

• Theories of nationalism and national identity formation
• Iranian political history and the 1979 revolution
• Comparative nationalism across the Middle East and South Asia
• International relations theory and great power competition

About Kianistan Podcast

Kianistan Podcast, hosted by Tafhim Kiani, values conversations like this one with Professor Majid Sharifi precisely because they move beyond immediate headlines into the deeper theoretical frameworks shaping regional politics. By examining nationalism itself, and how its colonial origins continue to generate instability across Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and beyond, this episode gives listeners tools to understand not just what is happening in the region but why these patterns of contestation keep recurring. Kianistan remains committed to pairing urgent current events with the rigorous scholarship needed to truly understand them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Sharifi say nationalism is a colonial concept?

He argues it emerged in Europe as a tool of imperial state control and was later exported to colonized regions, where states often imitated it without possessing the sovereign strength to fully realize it.

What does Sharifi believe are Iran’s only two real options?

He argues Iran faces a choice between submission, potentially leading to fragmentation, or continued costly resistance, with no viable middle path currently available.

Does Sharifi expect Iran to build nuclear weapons?

He predicts Iran’s nuclear program will move underground and potentially toward weaponization, given what he sees as an impossible set of Western demands.

Why does Sharifi consider this moment particularly dangerous?

He notes that declining empires historically become more militarily dangerous as they lose economic and geopolitical dominance, a pattern he sees playing out currently.

Conclusion

Professor Majid Sharifi’s conversation offers listeners a rare theoretical depth, tracing the roots of today’s crises back to the colonial origins of nationalism itself. His comparative analysis of Iran and Pakistan’s struggles to build cohesive national identities illuminates patterns that extend well beyond either country individually.

His stark, sobering forecast for Iran, caught between submission and resistance, war and uneasy peace, leaves listeners with an unflinching assessment of a moment Sharifi believes is genuinely dangerous, not just for Iran, but for the broader global order now visibly in decline.

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