The Bush Administration and Iran’s New President  Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad’s election victory in late June was a surprise for
pundits both inside and outside Iran. Not only did the
proverbial favorite Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani not win, but the
turnout was around 60% in both rounds, so the much-debated
election boycott did not reduce participation to historic lows.
Ahmadinejad, Tehran’s mayor, with the help of the security-
military apparatus, mobilized his conservative base in the first
round of balloting to force an unprecedented second-round runoff
against Hashemi-Rafsanjani. The mayor then reached out to the
political independent masses to win over 60% of the vote. The
unpredictability and close nature of the result (as well as of
Mohammad Khatami’s victory in 1997) are especially significant
in the Middle East, where elections, when they do occur, are
often formalities.1  Iran now has a 48-year-old devout president
with a doctorate in engineering rather than a seminary
education. He has been shaped as much by th