NATIONAL SECURITY OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Keywords:
Iran, national security, Islamic ideology, Iran-ArmeniaAbstract
The national security strategy of a given country is based on its national interests and is defined by taking into consideration geographic, historical, political and economic aspects of its past and present. The same is true about the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, what distinguishes it from the national security strategies of other countries is the religious ideology that shapes the “nation” and as a result, its “national security.” Although IRI has never produced available documents of its National security strategy or Foreign policy doctrines, the history of the country’s political behavior and current steps by the Iranian political and military actors provide a possibility to draw the main characteristics of its national security assumptions. In other words, “Iran’s National security policy behavior must be understood in its discursive context.”1 The national security strategy of Islamic Republic of Iran consists of different, sometimes contradictory assumptions of self-identity. Some researchers believe that Iran’s current religio-political system constructs and maintains several identities. Namely:
- Iranian identity,
- Islamic identity,
- Shia identity, and
- Revolutionary identity.2
References
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Some researchers emphasize the “Persian” not “Iranian” identity, J .MatthewMclnnis, “The Future of Iran’s security Policy”, AEI, 2017, p.7, available at https://www.aei.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/05/The-Future-of-Irans-Security-Policy.pdf (10.07.2017)
The name of the country “Islamic Republic of Iran” by itself expresses markers of two identities; the origins of other two are anchored in the constitution of the country.
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In line with “death to Zionist Regime”
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Ibid.
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It’s worth mentioning the statement of Minster of Defense of IRI, Hossein Dehghan about Russia’s “betrayal of trust”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPA2nTAHak (05.06.2017)
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