Mohammed Alsulami (PH.D.)
Abdulraouf Alghoneimi
Historical and contemporary studies have shown that expansionist and imperialist powers follow certain interim procedures and policies to extend their power and influence within their dynamic regional and international domains to achieve their expected goals.
Nevertheless, the case is different for Iran as an expansionist power. The victory of the Iranian revolution in 1979 on the basis of Shiite doctrine was a turning point in Iranian foreign policy. The new, post-revolutionary Iranian leaders aimed at politicizing Shiite ideology and shaped Shiite geopolitics as a tool to carry out the supreme Iranian strategy of rebuilding its supposed historic empire.
This study presents an analysis of the present and future of the Shiite geopolitical strategy as a tool in achieving the Iranian regime’s expansionist objectives since 1979. It focuses on the emergence of the expansionist Shiite geopolitical strategy since the fall of Iraq in 2003 as a turning point in the concept of ‘exporting the revolution’ and how the theory of Umm Al-Qura has been transformed into a geopolitical doctrine deployed by the regime in its pursuit of regional and international hegemony, especially over the Arab region.
