Discourse Moments of the "New Geometry of Power" in Ayatollah Khamenei's Thought

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Political Sciences Department, Islamic Azad University of Tehran Central Branch, Tehran, Iran

2 PhD in political thought, Political Sciences Department, Islamic Azad University of Tehran Central Branch, Tehran, Iran

10.22099/ijas.2024.50456.1006

Abstract

Simultaneously with the emergence of new actors and the growth of regional powers, the former structures in the arrangement of power in the international system have changed, and the world has inevitably entered a new space, which is referred to as the "new geometry of global power." In the opinion of Ayatollah Khamenei, the current order is doomed to decline, and the discourse of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, by challenging the established order, seeks to change the procedures governing the arrangement of powers. These discourse actions are articulated in the form of moments such as the theory of the historical turn, the decline of American hegemony, the transfer of power to the East (China-Russia), the emergence of new coalitions against the system of domination, and the formation of a chain of equivalence of meanings. The problem of this research is to investigate how the process of stabilizing these moments and the hegemonization of the discourse of the new geometry of power occurs in the thought of Ayatollah Khamenei. The research results confirm the relative compatibility of the three-stage pattern of hegemonic discourses: first, the criticism of the existing order; second, demarcation and othering with enemies; and third, the closure of meanings and the hegemonization of the new discourse. This research's theoretical framework is Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory.

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References

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Iranian Journal of Asian Studies
Volume 1, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
October 2024
Pages 245-276

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