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This book analyzes the historical quest of the Islamic Republic of Iran to export its revolution to the Muslim countries in the Middle East and beyond. The authors argue that Iran exported its revolution by using proxies such as Hezbollah, the Iraqi Shite militias, and the Houthis. The study unravels the casual chain behind less-known cases of Iranian sponsorship of al Qaeda (Central) and al Qaida in Iraq. It combines rigorous theory with detailed empirical analysis which can add to the current debate about ways to roll back Iran's revolutionary export.
List of contents
1. Exporting the Revolution and Building Hegemony.- 2. Hezbollah in Lebanon: Creating the Model Proxy.- 3. Deploying Proxies against the "Zionist Enemy" and Undermining the Oslo Peace Process.- 4. Al-Qaeda: Islamist Ecumenism Against the United States and the West.- 5. From the Bader Brigade to the Popular Mobilization Forces: Fighting the Americans while Turning Iraq into a New Lebanon.- 6. Rescuing the Assad Regime and Turning Syria into a Client State.- 7. Proxies in the Gulf and Beyond: Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Principalities, and Yemen.- 8. Conclusions: The Success of the Proxy Strategy and its Limits.
About the author
Ofira Seliktar is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Gratz College, USA. She is widely published and recently co-authored Iran, Israel, and the United States:The Politics of Counterproliferation Nuclear Intelligence with Farhad Rezaei.
Farhad Rezaei is a Research Fellow at the Center for International Policy Studies (CIPS) at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. He is also Iran’s foreign policy analyst and author of numerous books and articles on Iran’s foreign policy, Iran’s nuclear program, nuclear intelligence, and nuclear and radiological terrorism. He recently authored Iran’s Foreign Policy After the Nuclear Agreement: Politics of Normalizers and Traditionalists.
Summary
This book analyzes the historical quest of the Islamic Republic of Iran to export its revolution to the Muslim countries in the Middle East and beyond. The authors argue that Iran exported its revolution by using proxies such as Hezbollah, the Iraqi Shite militias, and the Houthis. The study unravels the casual chain behind less-known cases of Iranian sponsorship of al Qaeda (Central) and al Qaida in Iraq. It combines rigorous theory with detailed empirical analysis which can add to the current debate about ways to roll back Iran’s revolutionary export.
