In the second half of the 20th century, a revolutionary idea promised to overturn the global order. Anti-imperialist anti-anarchy, bolstered by international solidarity, would lead not only to the national liberation of oppressed peoples but also to universal liberation, breaking down the division between the prosperous countries of the capitalist West and the poorer countries of the Global South.

This idea was the Third World, which inspired among other struggles in Iran and Palestine. However, by the early 1980s, the progressive visions of independence and freedom had collapsed in the face of the reality of an oppressive Islamic theocracy in Iran, while the Palestinian Revolution had been overshadowed by civil war in Lebanon, Israeli aggression and intra-Arab conflicts.

This provocative edition explores the dramatic fall of the Third World in the Middle East. It reveals the lived realities of the era by focusing on key protagonists – from students and fighters to volunteer nurses and militant intellectuals – and outlines the cases of Iran and Palestine to offer a compelling re-examination of this defining period. Ultimately, it challenges us to reassess how we view the end of the long 1960s decade, inviting us to reconsider perennial questions surrounding self-determination, liberation, change, and solidarity.

Contents

Introduction: The Reformation of the Third World in the Middle East

1 Facts of Third World Solidarity: Cuba and the Palestinian Revolution in the 1970s

2 Nursing the Revolution: Norwegian Medical Support in Lebanon as Solidarity, 1976–1983

3 Seeking Friends Across the Global South: Filed Documents, Iran, and the Export of the Revolution in 1983

4 The Politics of the Genealogy of Dead Bodies: Testaments, Revolutionaries, and Martyrs among the Iranian, Palestinian and Dhofar Revolutions

5 Brothers, Comrades, and the Quest for the Islamist International: The First Meeting of Liberation Movements in Revolutionary Iran

6 Abu Jubran and Jabal ‘Amin between the Palestinian and Iranian Revolutions

7 The Islamic Party of the Republic and the Palestinian Cause, 1979–80: A Discographic Transformation of the Third World Agenda

8 Translation, Revolutionary Act, and the Enigma of Manuchehr Hezar-Khani

9 The Front of Our Friends: Shu’un Falastiniyya as an Archive of Palestinian Solidarity

10 Fragile Solidarity: The Iranian Left and the Kurdish National Question in the 1979 Revolution

11 The ‘Endings’ of the Palestinian Revolution in the Fakhani Republic

Edition: Towards a Practice-Oriented Historiography of the Third World in the Middle East

Pages: 320, Year of Publication: 0403, Dimensions: 15.3x15.3cm