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 thought-provoking volume explores the dramatic decline of Third Worldism in the Middle East. It reveals 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, it challenges 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. Contents Introduction: The Transformation of Third Worldism in the Middle East Sune Haugbolle and Rasmus Elling 1 Demystifying Third World Solidarity: Cuba and the Palestinian Revolution in the Seventies Sorcha Thomson 2 Nursing the Revolution: Norwegian Medical Support in Lebanon as Solidarity, 1976–1983 Pelle Valentin Olsen 3 Searching for Friends Across the Global South: Classified Documents, Iran, and the Export of the Revolution in 1983 Simon Wolfgang Fuchs 4 The Gendered Politics of Dead Bodies: Obituaries, Revolutionaries, and Martyrs between the Iranian, Palestinian, and Dhufar Revolutions Marral Shamshiri 5 Brothers, Comrades, and the Quest for the Islamist International: The First Gathering of Liberation Movements in Revolutionary Iran Mohammad Ataie 6 Abu Jubran and Jabal ʿAmil Between the Palestinian and Iranian Revolutions Nathaniel George 7 The Islamic Republic Party and the Palestinian Cause, 1979–80: A Discursive Transformation of the Third Worldist Agenda Maryam Alemzadeh 8 Translation, Revolutionary Praxis, and the Enigma of Manuchehr Hezarkhani Nasser Mohajer and Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi 9 The Front of our Friends: Shu’un Falastiniyya as an Archive of Palestinian Third Worldism Klaudia Wieser 10 Fragile Solidarity: The Iranian Left and the Kurdish National Question in the 1979 Revolution Rasmus C. Elling and Jahangir Mahmoudi 11 The ‘Ends’ of the Palestinian Revolution in the Fakhani Republic Sune Haugbolle Afterword: Towards a Praxis-Centred Historiography of Middle East Third Worldism Toufoul Abou-Hodeib and Naghmeh Sohrabi

The emergence of the 'Third World' is generally traced to onset of the Cold War and decolonization in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s the "three worlds of development" were central to the wider dynamics of the changing international order. By the 1980s, Third Worldism had peaked entering a period of dramatic decline that paralleled the end of the Cold War. Into the 21st century, the idea of a Third World and even the pursuit of some form of Third Worldism has continued to be advocated and debated. For some it has passed into history, and may never have had as much substance as it was credited with, while others seek to retain or recuperate the Third World and give Third Worldism contemporary relevance. Beginning with a comprehensive introduction this edited volume brings together a wide range of important contributions. Collectively they offer a powerful overview from a variety of angles of the history and contemporary significance of Third Worldism in international affairs. The question remains; did the Third World exist, what was it, does it still have intellectual and political purchase or do we live in a global era that can be described as After the Third World? This book was previously published as a special issue of Third world Quarterly.

"A fascinating interpretation of Algeria's past and present agonies, set against the broader backdrop of the rise and fall of 'Third Worldism.' Essential to anyone following Middle East politics and the extrapolation of the old 'North-South' struggle into the 'New World Disorder.'"—Graham E. Fuller, RAND, coauthor of A Sense of Siege: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West

This book seeks to explain the political and religious factors leading to the economic reversal of fortunes between Europe and the Middle East.

The revolutionary year of 1958 epitomizes the height of the social uprisings, military coups, and civil wars that erupted across the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-twentieth century. Amidst waning Anglo-French influence, growing US-USSR rivalry, and competition and alignments between Arab and non-Arab regimes and domestic struggles, this year was a turning point in the modern history of the Middle East. This multi and interdisciplinary book explores this pivotal year in its global, regional and local contexts and from a wide range of linguistic, geographic, academic specialties. The contributors draw on declassified and multilingual archives, reports, memoirs, and newspapers in thirteen country-specific chapters, shedding new light on topics such as the extent of Anglo-American competition after the Suez War, Turkey's efforts to stand as a key pillar in the regional Cold War, the internationalization of the Algerian War of Independence, and Iran and Saudi Arabia's abilities to weather the revolutionary storm that swept across the region. The book includes a foreword from Salim Yaqub which highlights the importance of Jeffrey G. Karam's collection to the scholarship on this vital moment in the political history of the modern middle east.

Bernard Lewis looks at the new era in the Middle East. With the departure of imperial powers, the region must now, on its own, resolve the political, economic, cultural, and societal problems that prevent it from accomplishing the next stage in the advance of civilization. There is enough in the traditional culture of Islam on the one hand and the modern experience of the Muslim peoples on the other, he explains, to provide the basis for an advance toward freedom in the true sense of that word.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an economically diverse region. Despite undertaking economic reforms in many countries, and having considerable success in avoiding crises and achieving macroeconomic stability, the region’s economic performance in the past 30 years has been below potential. This paper takes stock of the region’s relatively weak performance, explores the reasons for this out come, and proposes an agenda for urgent reforms.