The Islamic Republic of Iran is facing an existential crisis. Increasingly unpopular with its own people, isolated, and friendless abroad, it is engaged in a struggle for survival. Nevertheless, as of the mid-1990s, Iran's weaknesses and turmoil have elicited little commentary from the outside world. This study looks at the acute threats and severe problems facing the rulers of Iran in the 1990s. It argues that the Republic entered the latter half of the 1990s faced with a conjunction of acute pressures threatening its political legitimacy, domestic stability, and national security.