This introductory chapter examines the development of Iran’s relations with Africa in the late Pahlavi period. It argues that decolonisation and the Cold War profoundly shaped the shah’s worldview in the decades after the Second World War and Iran’s interactions with countries across the Global South, including in Africa. During this period, particularly in the decades following the ouster of Mosaddeq in 1953, the shah became the single most important actor in conceptualising and driving foreign policy. The chapter asks whether the shah’s ambitions in the 1960s and 70s for Iran to assume a leadership role in the Indian Ocean, and the civilisational discourse he adopted, could be considered a key component of Pahlavi Iran’s grand strategy.