Brothers on the periphery : Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chávez

After more than decade of official disuse, the Trump Administration revived the phrase “Rogue State” in 2017, coinciding with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s return to the political stage in the Islamic Republic of Iran as he suggested his candidacy in the state’s 2021 Presidential election. This shift in U.S. foreign policy and the return of a “rogue” actor require examination of the literature surrounding the “Rogue State” and the subsequent “Axis of Evil.” This paper specifically examines the relationship between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the late Hugo Chávez and its treatment in academia. This work finds that authors focused on outlying statements that presented the pair’s relationship as an ill-matched alliance of convenience built off of shared anti-American sentiments. I argue the pair’s perception as being located in the world’s economic periphery support a more nuanced understanding of their relationship that relies on Dependency Theory as a framework for Ahmadinejad’s and Chávez’s understanding of the world and their positions in it. Indeed, their speeches focus on international economic and power disparity far more than an unfounded antagonism towards the United States. Utilizing this perception and taking advantage of the recession of 2008, the two attempted to form an international coalition of developing states to better negotiate their positions in trade and development projects. I believe focusing on their material concerns provides a more accurate understanding Iranian-Venezuelan relations at the time and provides reason behind their supposedly incompatible relationship.