Near the end of the 1960s, there were a number of shifts underway throughout the international landscape: the Cold War was the recognized reality of global politics, the long process of decolonization was still forging ahead, and the United States was caught in a quagmire in Vietnam. Repressive and authoritarian dictators controlled much of Latin America, the Middle East was still gripped by the drama of the Six-Day War, and an Islamic revival was beginning to take root in the Muslim world. In Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was at the apex of his power.
A decade later, the 1979 Revolution and the removal of the pro-US shah from power marked the start of three decades of tension between the United States and Iran. Regional tensions were also substantial. The Cold War was entering its final phase, while Soviet expansionism and war in Afghanistan became the central front of the conflict between the two superpowers. Pakistan was then portrayed as the last line of defense against Soviet expansion, but after its elected prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was removed from power and executed, the government of dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq ush- ered in a long period of military rule, which engaged in a policy of Islamization.26
In this context, Khomeini called on the Muslim world to follow the example of Iran. The transnational drive of the revolution was supported by the notion that Iran represented a “third way” and an alternative socioeco- nomic structure to the two models of capitalism and communism.27 In Khomeini’s view, the social problems that paralyzed much of the world were rooted in op- pressed and dominated nations that were chained to more powerful nations. Regimes that failed to