Born Out of Crisis, Revels in Turmoil: Iran’s Islamic Republic at Home and Abroad

Abstract

ABSTRACT Iran’s Islamic Republic regime is adept at functioning amidst turmoil. In Triumph and Despair, Mehran Kamrava shows how structural bifurcation, parallel institutions, and fluid political factions are enduring sources of tension within an already hybrid political system. Far from being a handicap, the regime uses internal friction to deflect blame from its shortcomings and to sow confusion among opponents. Nor does it recoil from domestic turmoil, with crisis management increasingly a strategy of choice to compensate for its diminishing legitimacy and failures in governance. Abroad, too, the Islamic Republic seems to revel in geopolitical upheaval in pursuit of overturning the Middle Eastern security architecture. Relying on non-state affiliates as deterrents and power multipliers, it is opportunistic in ensnaring adversaries in proxy conflicts, or exploiting their entanglements, while minimizing the risk of direct confrontation with itself. In Reading Revolutionary Iran, Ze’ev Maghen explains the strategic culture behind the regime’s ambitions.