The attenuation of revolutionary foreign policy

Revolutions provide a new domestic order, and sometimes destabilize the international order by threatening to spread abroad. But these ideological implications attenuate as a function both of compromises by the revolutionary state and political stabilization in other countries. Eventually a modus vi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International politics (Hague, Netherlands) Netherlands), 2015-09, Vol.52 (5), p.626-636
Main Authors: Nelson, Chad E, Stein, Arthur A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Development Studies
Foreign Policy
Ideology
International Political Economy
International Relations
Introduction
Islam
Political Science
Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International Studies
Politics
Revolutions
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Summary:Revolutions provide a new domestic order, and sometimes destabilize the international order by threatening to spread abroad. But these ideological implications attenuate as a function both of compromises by the revolutionary state and political stabilization in other countries. Eventually a modus vivendi is reached. Iran is a case in point. The Iranian Revolution established a theocratic state, and attempts were made to export revolution abroad at the same time as the new regime served as a beacon for opposition movements in other Arab states. But that revolutionary period is over. Iranian foreign policy is no longer revolutionary. Iran no longer serves as a model for opposition groups elsewhere, and although it still has a revisionist anti-Israel and anti-US policy, it no longer attempts to spread revolution abroad. Recent fears of Iran are driven by the threat of an expansion of Iranian power, rather than its challenge to the legitimacy of existing regimes.
ISSN:1384-5748
1740-3898
DOI:10.1057/ip.2015.29