In this incisive critique of U.S. policy toward Iran, Amandeep Midha dismantles the fantasy of regime change via exile restoration. He argues that Iran cannot be “unlocked” by parachuting in Reza Pahlavi, and that such visions reflect a profound misunderstanding of Iran’s civilisational depth. Situating current U.S. strategy within a broader historical and geopolitical framework, Midha reminds us that Iran is not a hollow state but one of the world’s oldest continuous civilisational projects—having absorbed and outlasted empires from the Macedonians to the Mongols, Arabs to Turks. In this way, this essay effectively challenges the intellectual poverty of contemporary imperial thinking.












