Ze'ev Maghen: Shi'ite Eschatology and the Iranian Nuclear Crisis

I just came across this paper which disagrees with Bernard Lewis, Raphael Israeli, Mathias Kuntzel, Reza Kahlili  and others on the messianic,  apocalyptic character of the Iranian Twelvers.  One more reason why a conference of scholars of Islam on Iran would be a good idea.

But it seems that MAD is very much dead nevertheless: 

Thus, though a willingness to risk the  deaths of millions of members of the Iranian population as a result of a nuclear counterattack cannot (so this study will argue) be derived from Shi'ite eschatology, it  could still conceivably be sought in Shi'te martyrology

Ze'ev Maghen: Shi'ite Eschatology and the Iranian Nuclear Crisis

The Scribd doc seems to have distorted the pdf so you can use the link directly:

http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/operation_and_plans/NuclearChemicalBiologicalMatters/09-F-0759OccultationInPerpertuum__ShiiteEschatologyAndTheIranianNuclearCrisis.pdf

Note: you can press the  scribd  full screen button at the bottom right corner to read more easily  

Prof. Ze’ev Maghen

Ph.D., Columbia University
M.A., Columbia University
B.A., University of Pennsylvania

Ze’ev Maghen is Professor of Persian Language and Islamic History and former chairman of the Department of Middle East Studies at Bar-Ilan University. He received his B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Columbia University. Maghen’s areas of expertise include Revolutionary Iran, Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic law, and Jewish-Muslim relations. He has published two books and numerous articles on these subjects, and is currently working on a comprehensive monograph entitled The Mind of the Ayatollahs: Iran, Shi‘ism, and the World.

Maghen speaks fluent Arabic, Persian, Russian, English and Hebrew, and has lectured widely in the United States, Europe, Turkey, Russia, the Ukraine, Uzbekistan, India, Panama, Guatemala, and Israel. He served in the Tank Corps of the Israel Defense Forces until his discharge from the reserves in 2005.