Civil-military relations in Iran : internal and external pressures

• Main Author: Ahmed Salah Hashim
• Other Authors: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Social sciences::Military and naval science; Iran; Civil-military
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/139088
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A specter haunts the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI): growing instability in civil-military relations. To be sure, the IRI is also possibly facing the threats of either a war with a coalition of foreign powers or a revolution by an increasingly disillusioned population. While these are not remote possibilities, the thrust of this paper suggests that the recent trajectory of civil-military relations in the IRI bears watching closely because they could unravel, pitting the state’s coercive apparatus against the people or even against the state itself if the armed forces believe they have to step in. A major rift between the government and the armed forces would constitute a threat to the stability and legitimacy of the nezam, the IRI’s political, socioeconomic and cultural “system.” If the rift were to end up in a direct takeover of the state, this would sound the death-knell of the Islamic Republic.