Guardians of the Islamic Revolution Ideology, Politics, and the Development of Military Power in Iran (1979-2009).

Abstract

This study examines the construction of a new political order in post-revolutionary Iran through the prism of its revolutionary armed forces. It specifically explores the place of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in this process, and focuses on its role in establishing and maintaining state control. Unlike the regular armed forces, the IRGC was given the additional mandate of “safeguarding the revolution.” Exercising this broad responsibility has led to the gradual permeation of the organization’s influence in all sectors of the Iranian state, including the areas of domestic security, ideological promotion, cultural work, industrial development, foreign engagements, and politics. This study argues that military power has been central to the shaping of post-revolutionary Iran, and that the proliferation of military power is directly related to the various conflicts that have and continue to occur in post-revolutionary Iran. These claims are explored within a framework established in recent scholarship on unconventional armed forces and their roles in state formation and politics. Such scholarship has convincingly shown that the roles of unconventional or irregular armed forces in the political development of states have been underappreciated in past scholarship. As military power has been a crucial factor in the making of the Islamic Republic, and as the revolutionary institutions that comprise the core of military power in Iran do not fit the conventional mold, the theoretical framework provided by recent scholarship on irregular armed forces is a valuable tool for understanding the various implications of military influence on the Iranian state. This study also addresses some of the gaps in the scholarship on irregular armed forces and politics by emphasizing the cultural, ideological, and religious dimensions of military power in an Islamic society of the Middle East. By viewing irregular armed forces in Iran as significant political actors, a more coherent and historical perspective about how military power operates within society and why its prevalence continues in Iran is demonstrated.