Iranian Drones at the Service of Authoritarian Geopolitics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3948260 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shahram Akbarzadeh (0000-0001-8829-9147, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, corresponding author), Amin Naeni (0000-0002-1237-5016, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 2312-2336 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Geopolitics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14650045.2025.2468769 |
| OpenAlex | W4407877834 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 40 |
Since the beginning of the 2020s, Iran has increasingly employed its drone technology in geopolitical conflicts beyond its borders. The Iranian leadership asserts that a new world order is emerging, signified by American decline. This paper offers new insights into how the Iranian regime has employed its drone technology to challenge US interests and advance a revisionist worldview. Drawing on critical geopolitics, the paper conceptualises ‘Authoritarian Imagined Geopolitical Alternatives’, to make sense of the Iranian perspective. This is achieved through a discourse analysis of official documents: speeches by the Supreme Leader and selected Persian articles. Two case studies (Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the escalation of conflict in the Middle East during the Gaza war) complement the analysis by demonstrating the significance of Iran’s drone programme
Authoritarianism · Democracy · Drone · Economics · Economy · Geopolitics · Political science · Politics · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
Writing worlds
Geopolitics
Political Geography
Liberal Democracy
American security discourse
Towards a New Concept of Constructivist Geopolitics
The war in Ukraine shows the game-changing effect of drones depends on the game
Putin’s psychology and nuclear weapons
Geopolitics and Political Geography in Russia
Russia's Foreign Policy toward Iran
Introduction to Geopolitics
Critical geopolitics on Russian foreign policy
State Identity in Iranian Foreign Policy
The meta-geography of the Middle East and North Africa in Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination
Imperialism and the nation state in Friedrich Ratzel's political geography
Iran’s strategic culture
Classical geopolitics, realism and the balance of power theory
Iranian proxies in the Syrian conflict
The Race for Drones
The Drone Age
Geopolitical codes and popular representations
The concept of “Greater Eurasia
Intraregional Geopolitical Imaginaries in Europe
Mapping a New World
Geopolitics and discourse
Re-thinking geoeconomics
The 'West' against the 'Rest
Imperialism, Domination, Culture
Towards a Critical Geopolitics of China's Engagement with African Development
The 'Greater Middle East' as a 'Modern' Geopolitical Imagination in American Foreign Policy
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |