‘International’ Causes and Domestic Revolutions: Liberal-Nationalist Revolutions of the Early 20th Century; the Case of China and Iran

Mainstream schools of International Relations theory, largely, refrain from studying socio-political revolutions in earnest. Their absence has been compensated for by historians, sociologists, and political scientists who have identified the influence of 'international' causes both in the occurrence and outcome of revolutions in the modern period. Revolutions are international events in their origins, ideologies, processes and consequences and affect the logic and rhythm of international systems of their times. On the other hand, the scholarly enthusiasm toward studying revolutions with revisionist agendas in the conduct of international relations ignores a vast array of revolutions throughout modern history were looking to adapt themselves with the established conventions of the international system and its dominant hegemon. This paper will examine the 'international' causes in a wave of liberal-nationalist revolutions that happened in the early 20th century in a number of less developed Asian countries that had been spared outright colonization and formal integration into European colonial empires.