The 1999 article and conference presentation were followed up in 2002 by the ground breaking book, "Parallelism: A Handbook of Social Analysis-The Study of Revolution and Hegemonic War." In this book, Wells laid out the historical direction of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He again reiterated, that if proactive steps were not taken, the prediction that the Islamic right in Iran would come to power would come true. The analysis contained in this work was further expanded upon in the articles, "On Iran's Political Situation" (Iranscope-2002), and "The Freud/Weber Connection: The Case of Islamic Iran" (2003).
It did not take long for these predictions to be fulfilled. In 2003, radical rightists won victories in local elections. In 2004, the neo-conservative Abadgaran faction won major gains in parliamentary elections. And in 2005, the radical rightist Mahmud Ahmadinejad was elected president.
Wells' predictions were based on the theory of Parallelism which argues that history, left untampered with, repeats itself in understandable and predictable ways.
Islamic Iran and indeed the entire Islamic fundamentalist movement fits well within the theory of Parallelism. Iran is a manifestation of a Revolution Type A (classical revolution) and has parallels in the French Revolution of 1789 and the German Revolution of 1918.
The current Iranian regime has gone through similar stages as the aforementioned cases. Iran is now currently in the throes of what is referred to as "Thermidor." This is a period wherein hardline factions are increasingly challenged by revisionist and reformist factions. The regime and, indeed, entire political structure stands at a cross roads. It could either head towards democracy (fraternalism) or dictatorship (paternalism). If it should turn towards dictatorship this would not bode well for the world system because it would suggest that Hegemonic War looms on the horizon.
It is for this reason that it is imperative for US policy makers to support democratization efforts in Islamic Iran, in order to alter the trans-historical pattern. In this way future war could be avoided.
For more on Islamic Iran see the Epilogue of "Parallelism: A Handbook of Social Analysis."
