Research
Iran, the country of the Persian civilisation, has always aspired to greatness in its geostrategic positioning with its neighbours. Since Iran become an Islamic Republic in 1979 based on Vilayet e-Faqih, otherwise known as the imamate, the law of the Shi’a clergy established by Ayatollah Khomeini, its success has been to build institutions according to its Islamic model, including defence and security strategies. But it failed to transfer the imamate beyond Iranian borders.
The reality of the political and religious functioning of the Islamic republic of Iran is misunderstood and often neglected by the West. The imamate has gone beyond its political-economic, theological, and social missions. It carries within it a purely strategic and military background dimension.
“The faithful” warriors of the Islamic Revolution carry out their fight with determination and lucidity, without expecting any reward for their actions. Above all, they are ready to die for their mission to transmit the imamate values. The notion of belief in a divine entity remains an irrational approach, which the Western world has detached itself from with the advance of modernity.
In this HCSS guest paper, Dr. Fatima Moussaoui attempts to shed some light on the mindset of the imamate and, above all, to distinguish between what is religious and what is ideological in the functioning of Tehran’s leadership, both political and religious.
About the author: Fatima Moussaoui holds a PhD in International Security from the Instituto Universitario General Gutiérrez Mellado in Madrid, and she is a Lecturer at Sciences Po Paris. Her research focuses on Iran’s projection of military power and influence in the Near and Middle East, the Red Sea, and the countries of the Persian Gulf.
Edited by Tim Sweijs and Davis Ellison.
Cover image source: Canva
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