Revolutionary Contagion and International Politics

In this book, Chad E. Nelson examines the point when leaders fear revolution is spreading and how that affects international politics. He argues that leaders fear contagion only when they have a significant revolutionary movement of their own, and when they do, it prompts hostility toward the revolutionary state and cooperation with similar contagion fears, sometimes in contrast to geopolitical pressures. Nelson tests this theory by assessing the response by major powers to revolutions and revolts from an the major ideological movements of the last two centuries, including the American Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Italian Fascist revolution, and the Iranian Islamist Revolution.