An Investigation into 1953 Iranian Coup According to Wallerstein's Theory

The 28 Mordad Coup (1953 Iranian coup) is a turning point in the recent history of Iran. Although many books and articles have been written about this event, this paper aims to study the coupe from a different perspective. Wallerstein’s World System theory is one of the major theories that represent the critical and meta-theoretical approach toward current theories which study social, economic, and political phenomena. This study attempts to apply a new approach to analyze the 28 Mordad Coup according to this theory and specifically attempts to examine whether it is possible to explain Mossadeq’s coup and his dismissal on the basis of this theory. The authors believe that it is possible to clarify the British-American coup to dismiss Mossadeq based on two factors of Wallerstein’s theory: preserving exploitation relation, also known as preserving inequality in global domain, and controlling over raw material.