Abstract
Abstract : As the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran s center of gravity, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) critical strengths are both vulnerable and exploitable. The IRGC s accumulation of considerable influence in Iranian domestic politics, media, security, and economics and the IRGC s execution of all instruments of Iranian national power abroad through its Qods Force have consolidated power in a unity of effort unachievable in a less authoritarian state. Iran s Supreme Leader Ali al Khamenei has delegated the IRGC near-absolute power and made the institution answerable only to him. Corruption, economic mismanagement, and an alienating hubris among the IRGC elite have come with this power. Competition among Iran s security and intelligence services, as well as the growing divide between the elected government and the ruling clerics threaten to topple the IRGC s house of cards. The Qods Force s brazen employment of Iran s instruments of national power abroad has drawn international attention to the Republic s malign intent. The IRGC is more powerful and more vulnerable than ever before.
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