Iranian leaders are celebrating 31 years of Islamic Revolution by putting the world on edge.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his cabinet visited Ayatollah Khomeini’s mausoleum on February 1 to memorialize the 1979 “night of victory”—the cleric’s triumphant return from exile. In the days since, they’ve announced a series of military achievements and technological advances. On Sunday, the Iranian president ordered his atomic chief to begin enriching uranium to the level needed for nuclear power. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran will “punch the arrogance” of the West this week “in a way that will leave them stunned.” February 11, the official anniversary of the revolution, will mark “the demise of the liberal capitalist system,” Ahmadinejad predicted.

The Islamic Republic of Iran: alienating the international community one provocation at a time. It’s just another day in the life for the present-day custodians of Khomenei’s revolution.

Even as Iranian leaders grapple with an opposition movement, Ruhollah Khomeini remains one of the most respected Shiite clerics in modern times. Measured by the durability of his movement, he ranks among the most successful revolutionary leaders of the 20th century. Two decades after his death, his picture still prominently features at rallies throughout the Middle East. His unwieldy theocratic system remains intact in Tehran. And his ideology still governs Iran’s violent, pushy foreign policy.

He single-handedly set his nation on a path to fulfill a crucial prophecy in our day.

Iran has long lived uneasily in the Middle East, a Shiite Persian state in a Sunni Arab neighborhood. Historically, Iranians have felt superior and entitled to dominate surrounding peoples. At the same time, having suffered multiple invasions that shrunk its borders over the centuries, Iran also mistrusts them. These competing motivations have forged modern Persia’s national character.

Into this cocktail of nationalism and resentment, Ruhollah Khomenei added a potent ingredient: religious zealotry. He addressed several problems—Western meddling in Iranian politics; immorality among youth; national disunity; Iran’s ill-defined and anemic place in the world—by offering a single solution: Islam.

“Islam’s jihad is a struggle against idolatry, sexual deviation, plunder, repression and cruelty,” he wrote in an essay as far back as 1942. “[T]hose who study jihad will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world. All the countries conquered by Islam or to be conquered in the future will be marked for everlasting salvation. For they shall live under [God’s law]” (Holy Terror, translation by Amir Taheri).

Over a period of decades, Khomeini developed a vision of a “revolution without borders.” Though the movement would necessarily begin with correcting Iran’s own corrupt government, God’s purpose on Earth could not be confined to a single country. Thus Khomeini sought to transcend the Shiite-Sunni and Persian-Arab divides. “We don’t recognize Iran as ours, as all Muslim countries are a part of us,” he declared.

However, this unity would have to come on Khomeini’s terms. He had only contempt for the affluent and materialistic Arab oil princes who thrived on business ties with the United States. This disdain would later give birth to assassination campaigns and proxy wars through terrorism.

One theme Khomeini hammered was how Western powers, particularly the U.S., embodied evil. The West sought to subjugate Muslims, exploit their wealth, and spread its own perverse culture. It was he who branded America “the great Satan.” Israel was also an enemy of Islam, and Khomeini vigorously championed the Palestinian cause. He viewed pan-Islamism as a tool for breaking the West’s power.

Exiled in 1964 for agitating against Iran’s shah, Khomeini, while abroad, authored a design for Islamic governance. Revising Shiite canons and customs in which religious leaders remained aloof from politics, he insisted that the clergy were actually the only ones qualified to govern. By maintaining ties with supporters in Iran and elsewhere who would disseminate his message, his influence spread. As discontent with the pro-Western shah grew, Khomeini became the most prominent opposition figure. Led by the ayatollah, Islamic clergy were able to isolate the shah and force his exile on Jan. 16, 1979.

On February 1, Khomeini returned home to a hero’s reception. He quickly consolidated his power and laid out his blueprint for the Islamic Republic. The draft constitution included a facade of democracy to appease Iran’s progressive elements, but it placed the office of supreme leader in authority over all, and gave a clerical council control over elections and a veto on parliamentary decisions. It also pledged that Iran would “exert continuous effort until political, economic and cultural unity is realized in the Islamic world.” Iranians voted almost unanimously to adopt it.

Khomeini only lived to oversee the first decade of the revolution he fathered. It was a turbulent period, punctuated by the Iranian hostage crisis that put Iran permanently at odds with the U.S., and stained with the blood of the protracted Iraq-Iran war. The ayatollah never saw his dream of exporting the revolution fulfilled. Neighboring Arabs rejected his model of theocracy, and the world at large mostly treated Iran as a pariah.

Today, however, we are witnessing the ascendancy of the Iranian Revolution’s second generation. After the presidencies of Hashemi Rafsanjani and Muhammad Khatami, a group of young reactionaries have come to power—men who saw those 16 years as a deviation from the true path and are calling for a return to the “roots of the revolution.”

These ultraconservatives have done an extraordinary job of keeping a lid on Iran’s moderate movement. The irony is, as the moderates cry out to be heard and aim to change their government, Iran has emerged as the dominant power in the Middle East—and its strength is growing.

Iran’s terrorist proxies, entrenched throughout the region and beyond, are primed to strike. The Jewish state, especially Jerusalem, sits squarely in Tehran’s sights. Hamas, which claims the loyalty of a majority of Palestinians, sits on Israel’s doorstep; late last year, it test-fired a missile that could strike Tel Aviv. In tandem with its cohort Syria, Iran has gained a controlling influence over the Lebanese government via Hezbollah. Perched on Israel’s northern border, Hezbollah is waiting to fire the 40,000 rockets and missiles Iran has graciously supplied since the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war.

American officials have also acknowledged that this Iranian-sponsored terrorist group is partnering with Mexican drug cartels to smuggle personnel and materiel to Hezbollah sleeper cells within the United States.

America’s imminent evacuation from Iraq will leave Iran free to cement ties with what is certain to become its strongest ally. It is also positioned to gain another important partner in Egypt, which is on the cusp of joining the radical camp.

And the Islamic Republic has other weapons in its arsenal. It could effectively shut down Persian Gulf shipping lanes, which would shoot oil prices through the roof. It is nurturing an insurgency in Yemen to extend Shiite influence there and nettle archenemy Saudi Arabia. In the spirit of Khomenei, it is forging links with al Qaeda and the Taliban, transcending sectarian differences for the sake of the greater Islamist cause. And then there is its relentless march toward building nuclear weapons.

In arena after arena, Iran is proving devilishly effective in advancing the agenda of the Islamic Revolution. And all to an extent exceeding what it did while Khomeini himself bestrode the stage.

“The goal of dominance and hegemony that eluded previous Persian rulers seems fortuitously within grasp,” wrote Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations in his book Guardians of the Revolution. “In the early 21st century, Iran finally has a government that Khomeini could be proud of.”