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Britain's military presence in the Middle East underwent a significant transformation by the 1960s, characterized by contractions to establish smaller bases in Aden and the Gulf; however, the British military marked a significant change in contrast to its former stronghold at the Suez base. These bases protected vital oil interests and fulfilled Britain's obligations to local rulers. However, political developments within the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula increasingly challenged Britain's strategic position. These evolving dynamics necessitated a re-evaluation of both diplomatic and military strategies leading to the most far-reaching anti-British revolution, the Dhofar Revolution in Oman.   The scholarly discourses concerning the end of the revolution have highlighted the reintegration of the Dhofar society that was actively engaged in the revolutionary struggles of broader Omni society. Nevertheless, the mechanisms employed for their success/failures have not been covered in the existing literature. Consequently, this paper aims to fill this existing gap in the literature by contextually analysing the present literature and archival documents on the Dhofar war. For this purpose, the authors extensively utilized archival documents available within the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive (AGDA) in Abu Dhabi. Moreover, the Dhofari rebel literature derived from The Gulf Bulletin fervently promoted the communist revolutionary ideology. On the other hand, the Omani government's viewpoint was extensively disseminated through its military propaganda branch, aiming to counter the rebels' influence. This paper posits that, despite the strong support from the Communist bloc, the Dhofari Revolution ultimately failed because the rebels made hastened attempts to replace the region's traditional cultural values and Islamic beliefs with their novel ideological vision. This alienated the Dhofari population, causing the rebels to lose the support of the people they aspired to lead.

I know that a travel writer, excited about a culture that is new to them, might not want to go into all these kinds of details. But when the writer was in Dhofar, they saw dozens, if not hundreds, …

The Dhofar movement which lasted for ten years was initially influenced by Arabian nationalism led by Jamal Abdul Nasser, but shifted towards the Eastern bloc after the Arabs’ defeat by Israel (1967 AD). Shortly before England’s withdrawal from Persian Gulf when Sultan Qaboos entered Oman’s political scene (1970 AD), Iran suppressed the movement with support of England and America. The influences of Arabian nationalism and communism current were the two major challenges during this decade shaping Iran’s political response to the movement. Iran implicitly declared neutrality to the movement despite confirming legitimacy of its religious leader. However, with arrival of Sultan Qaboos, Iran directly participated in its suppression, and the main subject of this paper is to know why. Findings represent that the above-mentioned challenges significantly impacted on Iran’s adoption of two distinct political approaches. While affirming legitimacy of Sultan’s adversaries, Iran first avoided bolstering the movement’s position against the West and maintained positive neutrality and refrained from any actions. Later on, to consolidate Sultan Qaboos authority and to confront the growing influence of the East, Iran suppressed the movement. This article is compiled using a historical method and is written with a descriptive analytical approach.

Those who have participated in organized political violence often develop distinctive identities as veteran combatants. But what possibilities exist to produce a veteran identity for “invisible” veterans denied public recognition or mention, such as politically repressed defeated insurgents? Everyday socializing during or after political violence can help restore social worlds threatened or destroyed by violence; an examination of “invisible” veteran defeated revolutionaries in Dhufar, Oman, shows how everyday socializing can help reproduce a distinctive veteran identity despite political repression. Ethnographic fieldwork with veteran militants from the defeated revolutionary liberation movement for Dhufar reveals that while veterans (who are a diverse group) no longer publicly reproduce their political and economic revolutionary ideals, some male veterans—through everyday, same-sex socializing—reproduce revolutionary ideals of social, especially tribal and ethnic, egalitarianism. These practices mark a distinctive veteran identity and indicate an “afterlife” of lasting social legacies of defeated revolution.

This article discusses how the Soviet Union perceived and related to Middle Eastern revolutionary movements, using a case study from South Yemen and the War in Dhofar. This specific Soviet encounter will be analysed through selected Soviet material from published and archival sources. The article highlights how Soviet representatives assessed prospects for socialism in Yemen, and how they interacted with their partners on the ground. The article is divided into three parts: the first discusses the theoretical debates in Soviet academia and the press, the second section contrasts these theoretical views with Middle Eastern ‘socialist’ theories during the Cold War and the third shows how a symbiosis developed between Soviet and Yemeni institutions and organisations. The article argues that due to an Orientalist take on South Yemen and Dhofar, the Soviet side could not appreciate the political importance and potential of socialist currents in the region, reducing cooperation to ‘pragmatism’.

Les réinterprétations critiques des travaux en anthropologie de la parenté ont remis en question les idées antérieures selon lesquelles les relations de parenté reflètent et reproduisent un ordre social dominant. Pourtant, les études consacrées aux nouvelles formes de parenté tendent à montrer que celles‐ci peuvent reproduire des idées traditionnelles concernant la famille, les valeurs et les hiérarchies sociales. Pour résister aux tendances actuelles liant la parenté à une reproduction sociale conservatrice, une piste prometteuse est la meilleure compréhension des circonstances dans lesquelles les relations de parenté reproduisent un ordre social anti‐hégémonique. Parmi les anciens militants du mouvement de libération révolutionnaire, aujourd'hui vaincu, de Dufar, dans le sultanat d'Oman, les pratiques de parenté visualisent des réseaux et relations entre anciens combattants qui transgressent les hiérarchies tribales, ethniques, raciales et genrées dominantes. Ces pratiques montrent comment, même dans les circonstances peu propices de la défaite politique et de la marginalisation, les relations de parenté peuvent reproduire un ordre social anti‐hégémonique, tout en offrant une rémanence sociale à la révolution vaincue.

The Dhufar Revolution was fought between 1965–1976, in an attempt to depose Oman's British-backed Sultan and advance social ideals of egalitarianism and gender equality. Dhufar, the southernmost governorate in today's Sultanate, captured global attention for its revolutionaries and their liberation movement's Marxist-inspired social change. But following counterinsurgency victory, Oman's government expunged the revolution from sanctioned historical narratives. Afterlives of Revolution offers a groundbreaking study of the legacies of officially silenced revolutionaries. How do their underlying convictions survive and inspire platforms for progressive politics in the wake of disappointment, defeat, and repression?Alice Wilson considers the "social afterlives" of revolutionary values and networks. Veteran militants have used kinship and daily socializing to reproduce networks of social egalitarianism and commemorate the revolution in unofficial ways. These afterlives revise conventional wartime and postwar histories. They highlight lasting engagement with revolutionary values, the agency of former militants in postwar modernization, and the limitations of government patronage for eliciting conformity. Recognizing that those typically depicted as coopted can still reproduce counterhegemonic values, this book considers a condition all too common across Southwest Asia and North Africa: the experience of defeated revolutionaries living under the authoritarian state they once contested.