The concept of “Islamic Awakening” as the foreign policy doctrine of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the 21st century

Abstract

The article examines the essence and functioning of the concept of «Islamic Awakening» (IA) (Persian – bidariye eslami) in Iran, which has been actualized by the Iranian political elite as a description of events related to the Arab Spring, as well as the foreign policy doctrine of the Islamic Republic Iran (IRI) in the 2010s. As this study shows, this term appeared in Iranian sociopolitical discourse in previous decades and has similarities with the concept of «Islamic revival», covering a vast number of diverse movements in the Islamic world in different historical periods. The authors of the article analyze the ideological roots of this concept, which dates back to the ideas of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that received the title «Export of the Islamic Revolution» (Persian – sodure engelabe eslami). Much attention is paid to identifying the essence of this concept and its difference from IA, which was also revealed by the present study. This article also analyzes the basic principles of the concept of «Islamic Awakening», manifested both in the statements of the highest representatives of the Iranian political elite and in the school textbooks on the modern history of Iran. The authors also seek to examine the dynamics of using the term «Islamic Awakening» in the Iranian social and political discourse, which demonstrates a strong increase in its mentioning in 2011 and a gradual decrease after 2013, which was related to a decline in the influence of Arab Spring in the Near and Middle East region and changes in the foreign policy views of the main political figures inside Iran.