Becoming Revolutionaries: Transnational Activism and Iran's Liberation Movement
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Abstract
This project focuses on a circle of Iranian revolutionary activists abroad known as the Liberation Movement of Iran Abroad (LMI-A) and, specifically, evaluates the transnational networks that they formed. Specifically, I seek to ask:
1. How did LMI-A activists' cross-border movement create informal and organizational transnational networks?
2. What structural impact did these networks have on the LMI-A as an organization?
3. How did these networks influence LMI-A activists' understanding of their movement, their place in the global revolutionary movement, and their relationship to other countries?
4. How, conversely, did these transnational networks lead activists from other countries perceive the Iranian guerrilla movement, and did they view Iran as part of the global liberation and anticolonial movement?
These questions address a gap in existing scholarship, as most research on the Iranian revolutionary movement lacks a global perspective. Current works often focus on how Iranian revolutionary groups organized domestically, separating Iran from its global context. Approaches to transnational ties often view them teleologically, primarily as a means to obtain weapons or military training in service of a revolution different from others of the era. While valuable to understanding outcomes of Iranians' transnational relations, these works depict Iranians as passive consumers rather than active participants in the global movement. My project takes a different approach, seeking to show how Iranian revolutionary activists participated in and perceived what Sajed describes as "translocalism," an approach to understanding local political developments as being in a dialectic relationship with global political developments. I will focus particularly on the LMI-A because, in spite of its members' important roles after the revolution, it remains understudied, with its transnational relationships scarcely explored in current scholarship.
Methodological and source diversity will allow me to adequately respond to the questions posed and triangulate findings, increasing reliability. My approach comprises oral history interviews, archival research, and memoir analysis.
Firstly, I aim to conduct semi-structured oral history interviews with LMI-A activists, Iranian activists who were in communication with the LMI-A, and foreign activists who worked with the LMI-A.
Secondly, I will engage in archival research. Specifically, I will look to published volumes of letters sent between LMI-A members. Aside from letters, I will also visit the American University of Beirut archives, which has invaluable collections on Lebanese political groups' relations with LMI-A members. I will then visit the Archive for Iranian Research and Documentation in Berlin, which has collections on Leftist Iranian guerrilla movements, and the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, which has collections on two Iranian guerrilla groups and two informal activist circles abroad (namely, the Siagzar Berelian LibraryCollection and the Sazmani Mujahidini Khalqi Iran Collection), who crossed paths with the LMI-A.
Thirdly, I will analyse memoirs. Key memoirs I will draw on include those of: Ebrahim Yazdi, the future Iranian Foreign Minister, which speak to his guerrilla training with the LMI-A and the ties he maintained with Lebanese and Palestinian groups; Mohammad Tavassoli, who worked with the LMI-A in both Europe and the United States; and Fathi al-Dib, the Egyptian ambassador to Switzerland in the early 1960s, who coordinated the military training of a group of Iranian activists in Egypt.
I will firstly engage in Historical Process Tracing to show how Iranians formed transnational networks, use Social Network Analysis to outline these networks, and, finally, qualitatively analyse my sources to evaluate the impact of these networks, on the LMI-A's organizational structure, on its members' self-perception, and on the global revolu
1. How did LMI-A activists' cross-border movement create informal and organizational transnational networks?
2. What structural impact did these networks have on the LMI-A as an organization?
3. How did these networks influence LMI-A activists' understanding of their movement, their place in the global revolutionary movement, and their relationship to other countries?
4. How, conversely, did these transnational networks lead activists from other countries perceive the Iranian guerrilla movement, and did they view Iran as part of the global liberation and anticolonial movement?
These questions address a gap in existing scholarship, as most research on the Iranian revolutionary movement lacks a global perspective. Current works often focus on how Iranian revolutionary groups organized domestically, separating Iran from its global context. Approaches to transnational ties often view them teleologically, primarily as a means to obtain weapons or military training in service of a revolution different from others of the era. While valuable to understanding outcomes of Iranians' transnational relations, these works depict Iranians as passive consumers rather than active participants in the global movement. My project takes a different approach, seeking to show how Iranian revolutionary activists participated in and perceived what Sajed describes as "translocalism," an approach to understanding local political developments as being in a dialectic relationship with global political developments. I will focus particularly on the LMI-A because, in spite of its members' important roles after the revolution, it remains understudied, with its transnational relationships scarcely explored in current scholarship.
Methodological and source diversity will allow me to adequately respond to the questions posed and triangulate findings, increasing reliability. My approach comprises oral history interviews, archival research, and memoir analysis.
Firstly, I aim to conduct semi-structured oral history interviews with LMI-A activists, Iranian activists who were in communication with the LMI-A, and foreign activists who worked with the LMI-A.
Secondly, I will engage in archival research. Specifically, I will look to published volumes of letters sent between LMI-A members. Aside from letters, I will also visit the American University of Beirut archives, which has invaluable collections on Lebanese political groups' relations with LMI-A members. I will then visit the Archive for Iranian Research and Documentation in Berlin, which has collections on Leftist Iranian guerrilla movements, and the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, which has collections on two Iranian guerrilla groups and two informal activist circles abroad (namely, the Siagzar Berelian LibraryCollection and the Sazmani Mujahidini Khalqi Iran Collection), who crossed paths with the LMI-A.
Thirdly, I will analyse memoirs. Key memoirs I will draw on include those of: Ebrahim Yazdi, the future Iranian Foreign Minister, which speak to his guerrilla training with the LMI-A and the ties he maintained with Lebanese and Palestinian groups; Mohammad Tavassoli, who worked with the LMI-A in both Europe and the United States; and Fathi al-Dib, the Egyptian ambassador to Switzerland in the early 1960s, who coordinated the military training of a group of Iranian activists in Egypt.
I will firstly engage in Historical Process Tracing to show how Iranians formed transnational networks, use Social Network Analysis to outline these networks, and, finally, qualitatively analyse my sources to evaluate the impact of these networks, on the LMI-A's organizational structure, on its members' self-perception, and on the global revolu
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ashkan Hashemipour (Student) |