Ideological Codependency and Regional Order: Iran, Syria, and the Axis of Refusal

Ideologies, Alignments, and Underbalancing in the New Middle East Cold War

“…Leaders are concerned about the domestic effects of transnational ideological messages and therefore are leery of partnering with regional allies whose principles of legitimate domestic governance are in conflict with their own. In this way, using Haas’s framework of ideological multipolarity to explain underbalancing in the Middle East is consistent with past work on regional alignments that argued for the primacy of regime-security considerations and the importance of transnational ideological factors in driving alliance decisions (Gause 2003/4; Rubin 2014; Ryan 2009; Stein 2017; see also Lawson 2006 for an interesting counterargument).As the state has seen its grip loosen (or completely collapse) in these places, sectarian identities have emerged in local struggles for power.…”

“…Iran advances a transnational Islamist model that it claims should apply throughout the region, although its strongest appeal is to fellow Shi’a. (For a discussion of the ideological connections that bind Iran and the Assad regime in Syria, see Stein 2017.) The Iranian model rejects monarchy, viewing it as illegitimate from an Islamic perspective.…”

Overlapping Contests and Middle East International Relations: The Return of the Weak Arab State

“…Instead, different Sunni states sponsor different local Sunni non-state actors in Syria, sometimes with disastrous consequences for their own geopolitical interests. Finally—and despite Iran’s evident geopolitical interests in the survival of an allied regime in Syria—Stein (2017) contends in this symposium that neither geopolitical nor sectarian calculations alone can explain Iran’s intervention in support of the Assad regime. Instead, he suggests that this process is driven also by the “ideological codependency” between the two regimes, one that is meant to bind the Syrian regime to Tehran but also “reinforces the idea of a counterhegemonic regional security agenda,” thereby strengthening the position of the Iranian regime’s core hardline elements.…”

Varieties of International Influence and the Middle East

“…As other contributors in this symposium note (Hazbun 2017;Snider 2017;Stein 2017), linkages between international and domestic politics are essential to understanding a variety of political, economic, and social developments in the Arab world. This article argues that general international relations (IR) theories about international pressure can help scholars of the Middle East to understand important dynamics in the region that have occurred since the Arab uprising.…”