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Iran and Venezuela: bilateral alliance and global power projections

21/04/2009 By Henner Fürtig, Susanne Gratius

H./AFP/Getty Images

Although Iran and Venezuela are situated in very different geographical, historical, political, and cultural settings, they have recently developed an astonishingly successful partnership. Both signed over 100 agreements to improve cooperation in the energy, industry, military, social and finance sectors. They share global power projections and comparable world views opposed to U.S. hegemony and “the West”. 

Common security interests and the political use of strategic energy recourses represent a major challenge to the EU and the United States as their main trade partners. The bilateral alliance is based on an ideology-driven discourse, common enemies, and the membership of Iran and Venezuela in the OPEC. Nonetheless, the different origins and essence of their Revolutions as well as the power positions of the presidents (strong in the case of Chávez and weak in the case of Ahmedinejad) limit the bilateral alliance between both governments. 

These major differences make it difficult to draw any lasting conclusion from the current bilateral “honeymoon”. While the prospects for Chávez’s highly personalised political project are uncertain, the universalistic and institutionalised character of the “Islamic Revolution” allows us to predict that, independent of the outcome of the elections in June 2009, Iran will continue to challenge the West for many years.

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Keywords

Asia Energy Energy Supply Iran Latin America & Caribbean Venezuela

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Bio author: Henner Fürtig

Reseacher, German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GiGA)

Bio author: Susanne Gratius

Latin America. Emerging powers. Brazil. Cuba. Venezuela. EU-Latin American relations.