Iran, Husseins dilemma

Iran, Hussein's dilemma is a voyage of discovery of this fascinating and often misunderstood country. The journey starts at the heyday of the Shah's regime in the 1970s and takes us through the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war to contemporary Iran, today under international sanctions for its controversial nuclear activity. Hard facts, geopolitics, historical details and analysis are combined with lively and poignant autobiographic anecdotes. The book is both informative and entertaining, using serious and humorous stories that help unveil the reality of Iran and the Iranians. It comprises three parts, the first dedicated to the generalities of Iran and its society, its idiosyncrasies and the psychology of its inhabitants. The second part looks at business and politics; misunderstandings by the West, missed opportunities with the USA and the nuclear question. The final section covers questions of management and the issues related to running a project or business in Iran. An insight is given into the nature of Iranian Capitalism and also to the specifics of everyday business.

Nigel Coulthard was born in Wales and educated in Great Britain and France. He has also spent many years in Iran, as a youngster under the Shah in the 1970s, through the 1979 Islamic Revolution and more recently with his Persian wife during the Khatami and Ahmadinejad presidencies. He has held engineering and senior management positions in several large international industrial groups, notably in the Semiconductor and Power Engineering sectors, in both the UK and France and he served as Country President for a major European engineering group in Iran. After graduating in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Bristol he was awarded a research doctorate in Applied Physics from the University Toulouse. Nigel later obtained an Executive MBA from HEC, the prestigious French Business School, and an Advanced Diploma in Persian Studies from INALCO, the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations in Paris. He has also been an advisor to the French Ministry of Foreign Trade and presently manages an international management consulting activity. He is President of the Paris based association, ＂Le Cercle Iran Economie＂.