Third Worldism in the Middle East

This project examined the transformation of Third Worldism in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a focus on Iran and Palestine. It brought together scholars focusing on social movements and intellectual currents and their transnational entanglements. Three workshops led to the publication of the book The Fate of Third Worldism in the Middle East: Iran, Palestine, and beyond (2023).

In the latter half of the twentieth century, a revolutionary idea promised to upend the global order. Anti-imperialist militancy, bolstered by international solidarity, would lead to not only the national liberation of oppressed peoples but universal emancipation, shattering the division between the prosperous nations of the capitalist West and the poorer countries of the Global South.

The idea was Third Worldism, and among others it inspired struggles in Iran and Palestine. By the early 1980s, however, progressive visions of independence and freedom had fallen to the reality of an oppressive Islamic theocracy in Iran, while the Palestinian Revolution had been eclipsed by civil war in Lebanon, Israeli aggression and intra-Arab conflict.

This project explores the dramatic decline of Third Worldism in the Middle East. It revealed the lived realities of the time by focusing on the key protagonists – from student activists to guerrilla fighters, and from volunteer nurses to militant intellectuals – and juxtaposes the Iranian and Palestinian cases to offer a riveting re-examination of this defining era. Ultimately, the findings challenge us to reassess how we view the end of the long 1960s, prompting us to reconsider perennial questions concerning self-determination, emancipation, change and solidarity.

This project explored the transformation of Third Worldism in the Middle East around the pivotal year 1979.