Date of Award

Spring 5-16-2026

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Advisor(s)

Nojang Khatami, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Caley Johnson, Ph.D.

Abstract

Economic self-determination, that is, the right of a state to protect its national resources and direct its own growth, remains a topic of contention and struggle for numerous countries in the Global South. These nations’ attempts at advancing their economic self-determination are often exploited and sabotaged by industrial Western powers, notably the United States, which frequently employs covert operations and media propaganda to disguise its economic and imperial pursuits in developing, resource-rich nations. The case of Iran during the early 1950s is especially exemplary, as the nationalization of oil under Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh presented a direct conflict with U.S. industrial stakes in the region. This friction between Iranian-American geopolitical interests eventually resulted in a 1953 CIA-orchestrated coup that removed Mossadegh from power. While several scholars have acknowledged the importance of nationalization in contributing to this intervention, an alternative justification explaining the coup and subsequent bilateral hostility has received widespread attention. This explanation states that the U.S. desired to eradicate communist influence in Iran and thus launched an intervention that, albeit infamous, was necessary and absolute in all ways. This rationale, legitimized through the framework of plausible deniability and the proliferation of media propaganda, serves as a smokescreen to camouflage the deeper American motives of pursuing economic and industrial gains in Iran. In this thesis, I, therefore, aim to (a) demonstrate that economic self-determination was the primary catalyst behind U.S. intervention in Iran and (b) challenge the alternative narrative of combating communism (which, though substantial, has minimized the role of material interests in influencing the relations between Iran and the U.S.). Furthermore, I place Iran’s experience within broader patterns of U.S. involvement in developing states of the Global South, illustrating the myth of post-coloniality and the consequences of economic coercion, covert control, and media framing that endure to the present day.

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