The epilogue examines the importance of this study in relation to recent events and spotlights female Iranian voices and their ability to express themselves more freely on the Internet. Specifically, the epilogue uses Twitter as an archive to look at the complexity of how Iranians react to contemporary events, which often elicited national sentiments, such as the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, the 2017 Iranian election, the United States quitting the deal in 2018, the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, and others. Though the topic of Iran is a staple of our mainstream media and foreign policy debates in the United States, knowledge of Iran’s history, which informs our current state of affairs, is commonly absent from the discussion. The epilogue thus draws on this study to examine the present circumstances of US–Iran relations.

This concluding chapter compares and contrasts the Green Uprising with the Arab Spring revolts, underscoring connections between these historic events, and their strengths and weaknesses. Importantly, it also considers claims of the finality of the government’s defeat of the uprising on Revolution Day. For many, the uprising endures in one way or another. Long-term impacts on the government include shattered political taboos, issues of ideological legitimacy, and the subsequent conduct of the state. Despite claims of its failure by the state and more widely, the Green Movement continues to show signs of life. Once again, this uprising is situated in Iran’s genealogy of revolutionary upheaval—empowered by the past while also informing future protests. The book concludes, as it began, with a critique of the state’s preferred slogan that encapsulates its purposeful, one-dimensional understanding of the Iranian Revolution: “Independence, Freedom, Islamic Republic.”

Considers the strong realism of Obama and how his efforts to avoid the Syrian Civil War were like those of George H. W. Bush in Yugoslavia. Examines pros and cons of his nuclear deal with Iran and his failure to contain Russian power in Ukraine and Syria, an impotence he shares with several of his Cold War and post–Cold War predecessors. Assesses the Obama foreign policy legacy and how far it explains the rise of Donald Trump.