This essay provides new insights into vanguard movements and some of their key differences worldwide. Vanguard movements are typically defined by their efforts to subvert elite and mainstream worldviews. Rather than focusing on seizing political power in the near future, these movements often focus on first shifting the public’s consciousness. For this purpose, vanguard movements generally carry out three main duties: sense-breaking, sense-giving and sense-locking. However, we argue that due to different sociopolitical contexts, vanguard movements can emerge in distinct forms globally. This study comparatively examines the non-Western society of Iran and argues that while vanguards in Western society typically operate under a hegemonic state, non-Western vanguards often engage with a state that is characterized by a more fragile hegemony. As a result, while Vanguard movements under a hegemonic context might face the state’s co-optive strategies or gradually fade away, those vanguards working under a state with a fragile hegemony, such as those found in some non-Western societies, may have a comparatively easier task in employing sense-breaking tasks, while sense-giving and sense-locking may be more challenging. More tactically, non-Western vanguards may face greater coercive measures from the state. Vanguard leadership, in turn, will differ across these contexts as well, with vanguard leaders in different settings employing distinct strategies and tactics to meet these contextual differences. Lastly, we conclude that in today’s world, these two contexts may be growing more alike in some circumstances, leading to similar vanguard movements and leadership strategies to emerge globally.