Comparing the Role of the Military in Iran’s and Egypt’s Revolutions

Bibliographic Data

ID12980247
AuthorsAlireza Salehnia (0000-0002-6330-6993, University of Tehran, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume30
Issue2
Pages205-224
Publication date2021-04-03
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMiddle East Critique (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1943-6149 • E-ISSN: 1943-6157
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19436149.2021.1911465
OpenAlexW3161385266
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited16

This article analyzes the states of Iran and Egypt before the eruption of revolutionary processes in those countries in 1979 and 2011 respectively. Its aim is to delineate the different roles of the armies as the last lethal and organized bastions of dictatorships during those revolutions. In Egypt, the army successfully protected the Egyptian state from a complete downfall, while in Iran, the army became completely disorganized and shattered. It argues that the extreme personal rule of Iran’s shah [king] within a neo-sultanic framework and his extreme depoliticization of the army rendered it unable to act independently during a revolutionary process. In contrast, the distribution of power between the army and presidential palace within an institutionalized dual military state enabled the army to play a much more definitive role during the revolutionary process in Egypt. Consequently, unlike in 1979 Iran, the army in 2011 Egypt not only saved the pre-revolutionary military dictatorship but restored it in a much more brutal way

Ancient history · Democracy · Development economics · Dictatorship · Economic history · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Presidential system · State (computer science · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

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