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Center for Middle East Studies
Occasional Paper Series
The Other Regional Counter-Revolution:
Iran’s Role in the Shifting Political Landscape
of the Middle East
BY DANNY POSTEL
Paper No. 12 | July 2021
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Introduction
The recent election of Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s new hardline president, has solidified a long- standing view of the Islamic Republic as a clerical-controlled regime that is highly repressive
internally and whose revolutionary foreign policies pose a threat to regional and international
stability. This view has dominated perceptions of Iran since the 1979 revolution and core
elements of this perspective are shared across the spectrum of debate on U.S. foreign policy.
Reflecting this pervasive narrative, Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf
States Institute, has written that the goal of Iranian foreign policy involves “disrupting the status
quo and destabilizing neighboring states and societies.” This orientation, according to Ibish,
flows from the Islamic Republic’s “ideological commitment” to “exporting the revolution.”*
Iran’s intervention in several Middle Eastern states is typically cited as evidence in support of
this perspective. By contrast, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Egypt are
perceived as “status quo states” that seek to preserve political stability and regional order in the
Middle East.
In this new paper, Danny Postel challenges this conventional wisdom about Iran and its foreign
policy orientation. He advances a highly original argument about Iran’s role in the shifting
political landscape of the Middle East, with a particular focus on Lebanon, Iraq and Syria. This
critical intervention forces the reader to rethink core assumptions about “status quo” and
“revolutionary” powers and challenges us to reevaluate terms like the “Axis of Resistance.” This
novel thesis deserves wide consideration and debate in the hope that it will expand our
understanding of the politics of Middle East.
On a personal note, it is a huge honor to publish this paper by Danny Postel, whose connection
to our Center for Middle East Studies runs deep. From 2012-2016 he served as its Associate
Director and played a seminal role in building our center and raising its profile locally,
nationally and internationally. During his time here, Danny and I co-edited two books: The Syria
Dilemma (2013) and Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East (2017).
Previously, we co-edited The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s
Future (2010). When Danny first discussed with me the basic ideas that shape this paper, I
encouraged him to write it up. I hope you will share my enthusiasm for the final product.
Nader Hashemi
Director of the Center for Middle East Studies
Josef Korbel School of International Studies
University of Denver
* Hussein Ibish, “Conflict or Compromise: U.S. and Iran on Knife’s Edge,” Arab Gulf States Institute in
Washington, July 25, 2019: https://agsiw.org/conflict-or-compromise-u-s-and-iran-on-a-knifes-edge/
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Acknowledgements
I presented a version of this paper in the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS) workshop
“Iran and the International: Iranian Foreign Policy,” which took place June 8-10, 2021 (on Zoom).
I want to thank Shabnam Holliday of the University of Plymouth, who organized the workshop
in her role as Director of the BIPS research program “Modern Iran: Iran and the International in
the Modern Period.” I benefitted from her engaging and helpful comments on my paper, and
from the discussions with several of the participants over the course of the workshop.
I also want to thank Stephen R. Shalom, Professor of Political Science at William Paterson
University and a member of the editorial board of the journal New Politics (the co-publisher of
this paper), for his valuable feedback and suggestions on an earlier draft of the text.
Above all, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Nader Hashemi, Director of the Center for
Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, for encouraging me to develop my argument
into an Occasional Paper for the center. Our spirited e-mail correspondence and a series of
phone conversations over a period of several months helped me sharpen my argument. By
pushing me to consider various angles, Nader widened the aperture of this study. And his
comments on an earlier draft made this a much better paper than it would have been otherwise.
Finally, I want to say what a pleasure it is for me to have this paper published by the Center for
Middle East Studies at the University of Denver. My four years as Associate Director of the
CMES (2012-2016) were among the most intellectually exciting and professionally satisfying of
my life. My collaboration with Nader, which preceded our Denver run and has extended beyond
it, has been extraordinarily fruitful and deeply meaningful to me. Our intellectual partnership
has been a constant source of stimulation. It is a distinct honor for me to publish this paper
under the auspices of the CMES.
Danny Postel
July 2021
Chicago
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