Guard Corps Research Articles

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: Its Similarities to the Soviet KGB and the German SS and Gestapo

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: Its Similarities to the Soviet KGB and the German SS and Gestapo

U.S. Drone Strike in Iraq Kills Iranian Military Leader Qasem Soleimani

On January 3, 2020, the U.S. military conducted a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qasem Soleimani, the leader within the Iranian military of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Trump administration initially appeared to justify the strike as an effort to deter imminent attacks on U.S. embassies and personnel, but later insisted that Iran's actions in the months leading up to the strike triggered the U.S. right to self-defense. Domestically, the Trump administration claimed the authority to carry out the strike based on both the president's inherent constitutional powers and the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq passed by Congress in 2002. In the aftermath of the strike, Iraq voted to expel U.S. troops from its territory, and Iran conducted a missile strike on American bases in Iraq. Iran also announced that it would cease to observe limits on its production of nuclear fuel—a core tenet of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), from which the United States withdrew in 2018.

IMPACTO EN LA SOCIEDAD A TRAVÉS DE LA RECUPERACIÓN DE LAS ÁREAS VERDES

La presente investigación brindó un aporte significativo, dando a conocer la importancia de vincular los tres ejes esenciales: docencia, investigación y vinculación. En la Universidad Estatal del Sur de Manabí los estudiantes de la Carrera Tecnología de la información realizaron sus actividades de vinculación, con el objetivo de impartir capacitaciones de Ofimática Básica, dirigido a los Bomberos del Cuerpo de Guardia, estos desarrollaron conocimientos y habilidades informáticas que les permiten mejorar su vida laboral, por el giro tan avanzado que ha dado el uso de la tecnología en la mayoría de los trabajos es importante adquirir estos conocimientos. Las universidades generan estrategias y acciones con el fin de alcanzar un equilibrio entre el conocimiento la práctica y la investigación para formar estudiantes capaces de integrarse satisfactoriamente al proceso laboral. Los métodos utilizados fueron del nivel teórico, empírico y estadístico matemático. Los resultados evidenciaron la importancia de la vinculación universitaria. Se concluye que la vinculación universitaria con la sociedad es un factor necesario para capacitar al personal de la sociedad con el conocimiento de los universitarios. También se crearon las condiciones adecuadas para que los universitarios se ingresen al mundo laboral pasando el adiestramiento. De manera general ambos estudiantes se beneficiaron en la vinculación universidad con la sociedad. Se pudo confirmar que los estudiantes universitarios se motivan trasmitiendo sus conocimientos y pierden un poco el temor de introducirse al mundo laboral. Por otro lado se enriquece de conocimiento la sociedad fomentando un desarrollo interactivo entre universidad, docentes, estudiantes y sociedad.

Spreading Iranian Influence in the Middle East: Explaining the Effectiveness of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

Spreading Iranian Influence in the Middle East: Explaining the Effectiveness of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

An Early Operational Analysis of Russian-Supplied T-90s in Syria

ABSTRACTOn 30 September 2015, Russian military forces began their overt involvement in the then-four-year-old Syrian Civil War; the subsequent Russian air campaign and political support to the Assad regime are now well documented. However, Russia’s material military support remains largely understudied. This article explores one line of material supported with a demonstrated impact on Syrian Arab Army military operations, as well as Russia’s use of Syria as a sandbox for promoting its defense industry. This article seeks to analyze the deployment, impact, and use of half a dozen T-90A main battle tanks provided to Syrian government forces and their allies in November 2015. It argues that the provision of this weapon played a role in the regime’s significant victories on the battlefield — and assesses their impact on the battle of Aleppo (19 July 2012–22 December 2016). Its performance on the battlefield likely served as a positive showcase for the platform, which contributed to a series of considerable arms deals of the platform to states across the Middle East and South and East Asia. Finally, our research demonstrates the extent to which this platform was utilized by various pro-regime proxy forces in Syria, including those closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

A Forradalmi Gárda terrorszervezetté nyilvánítása

2019 áprilisában az Amerikai Egyesült Államok terrorszervezetnek minősítette az Iszlám Forradalmi Gárdát miután az – állításuk szerint – az iráni kormány utasítására szünet nélkül destabilizálja a közel-keleti régiót és számtalan fegyveres terrorszervezetet támogat és pénzel titokban. A cikk végigmegy a két ország kapcsolatának történetén a konfliktusokra koncentrálva, egészen a terrorszervezetté nyilvánításig. Megvizsgáljuk, hogy mennyire van alapja annak, hogy egy szuverén ország fegyveres erejének egy részét terrorszervezetnek nyilvánítanak más országok.

The Precariousness of Self-Defence in International Law by the Targeted Killing of Major General Soleimani of Iran by the United States

The view of the United States that it can lawfully hunt and kill terrorists plotting attacks on Americans even in the territory of other states is not peculiar to the Administration of Donald Trump. The earlier Administrations of Barack Obama and George W. Bush, Jr had acted against terrorists similarly. However, the killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, a senior state official of Iran, goes beyond the narrower issue of the targeted killing of terrorists to the right of self-defence in international law and deserves closer analysis because of its precarious implications for international law and its unique rule-making mechanism.

The Researcher as a National Security Threat

AbstractBased on ethnographic research in Iran among the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its Basij militia, this article explores the process of gaining access to these militarized groups in order to conduct long-term research. Specifically, what does it mean to build rapport and gain trust within a highly securitized space such as this? What happens when the researcher is a potential “national security” threat in both Iran and the United States? How is national security enacted in everyday interactions in the field? Given that anthropologists have tended to have an affinity with the group and community they work with, this article explores the implications of research among a group of men in charge of surveillance, intelligence gathering, and citizen suppression in the country. The article argues that in the midst of national security rhetoric, interrogative surveillance is a strategic tool that makes space for engagement.

The Politics of Development and Security in Iran's Border Provinces

This article examines the politics of development and security in Iran's border provinces from the 1979 revolution to the present day. We argue that there has been a narrowing division of labor between the government bureaucracy and security services regarding development and counterinsurgency in the border provinces. Since 2013, this outcome has created both cooperation and competition between the president and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in their efforts to improve development and security in these provinces.

The State Department Designates Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a Foreign Terrorist Organization

On April 8, 2019, President Trump announced that his administration would designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). This is the first time the United States has designated an arm of another government, rather than a non-state actor, as an FTO. In his announcement, Trump asserted that the Iranian government has used the IRGC to engage in a campaign of global terrorism. The measure, which officially took effect on April 15, expands on previous terrorism-related sanctions imposed on the IRGC and Iran.

كشانەوەی وڵاتە یەكگرتووەكانی ئەمریكا لە ڕێكەوتنامەی ناوەكی ئێران: هۆكار و لێكەوتەكان

Signing Iran’s nuclear deal in 2015, was a hope to solve the problem of Iran’s nuclear program – a disputed issue between Iran and the west for more than a decade. After three years, this issue has again become a controversial subject between the United States (US) and other signatories of the deal as the result of the US president Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal unilaterally on 8 May 2018. This step was a beginning of tensions between the US and Iran and paved the way to renew economic sanctions on Iran – even the US placed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) into foreign terrorist organizations list and deployed military forces in the Middle East as a preparation for a conflict. These events put Iran’s nuclear deal into uncertain future and brought a wide International and regional reaction against the Trump’s act. Following the US withdrawing from the deal, Iran maintained its obligation with the deal, but finally after a year decided to suspend some part of its commitment to the deal. This paper aims at studying the reasons behind the US decision to withdraw from Iran’s nuclear deal and examining the future of Iran’s nuclear deal, and finally proposing some scenarios to the future of US –Iranian relations.

The strengthening of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in political system of Iran and the risk of political imbalance

The strengthening of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in political system of Iran and the risk of political imbalance

La influencia de las operaciones militares en Siria en el Estado de la Seguridad Internacional en la esfera militar y social

Las operaciones militares en Siria están involucrando enormes fuerzas, por un lado las pertenecientes a las capacidades militares del ejército de Assad, y por otro a las fuerzas religiosas que aspiran a derribar su régimen. Con independencia de la guerra civil, desarrollándose desde el 2011, actúan también las fuerzas pro- Assad, y las unidades integradas en el Cuerpo de la Guardia Revolucionaria Islámica. Además de las acciones militares en el territorio de Siria e Irak, dirigidas por las fuerzas de la coalición de los países occidentales lideradas por Estados Unidos,. En el Norte de Siria, , las operaciones contra el Estado islámico son llevadas a cabo por fuerzas kurdas La gran cantidad de participantes en estas acciones conduce con frecuencia a conflictos de intereses. Como ejemplo, el derribo de un avión ruso por fuerzas turcas, que generó un potencial riesgo de un conflicto militar que podría englobar a la totalidad de Medio Oriente, así como poner en peligro la estabilidad no solamente de la región mencionada, sino también convertirse en un conflicto global entre Rusia y la Organización del Tratado del Atlántico Norte (OTAN). La situación en Siria está lejos de la estabilización y en cualquier momento puede convertirse enla chispa de un conflicto de amplia dimensión internacional.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Iran–Iraq war: an unconventional military’s survival

As Iraqi forces invaded the Iranian border shortly after the Islamic Revolution, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) participated in the battle along with the debilitated Iranian Army. The IRGC was a young religious-revolutionary institution that lacked the resources that revolutionary armies and militias conventionally rely on. Nevertheless, it survived the battle pressure and even achieved relative military successes in the second year of the war. By examining personal narratives written by Iranian veterans, this article argues that in the void of conventional resources in the first year of the war, the Guards retrieved elements of their Shia background to recognize a religiously inspired charisma in every combatant who would devotedly step up for martyrdom. This shared understanding of the omnipotent charisma was then acknowledged in action—by commanders’ deployment of it to impose order and through frequently held Shia rituals on the battlefield. It thereby created an alternative source of cohesion and motivation that led to the IRGC’s survival and prepared them for further successful steps by the end of the war’s first year.

Великий князь Николай Павлович — карикатурист: кто такой “Ouf” на шарже из коллекции его рисунков библиотеки Зимнего дворца

One of the most significant spheres of Emperor Nicholas I’s activity was his policy in the sphere of culture and art. It used to be traditionally characterized as an influence of the “unenlightened” absolutism. The characterization of Nicholas I as a person and his attitude to art can not be complete without the study of his drawings, which are kept in the archives, for the most part in the State Archive of the Russian Federation. They testify to his high level of professionalism as a graphic artist and cartoonist. The collection of Nicholas I’s drawings has recently become the subject of examination. Now the attribution of historical figures depicted by the crowned artist is one of important problems. Normally Nicholas I did not name the prototypes of his drawings. Sometimes they are intently encoded. Parallel study of writing (especially the “Notebooks” of the Grand Duke Nicholas) and visual sources enables us to make well-grounded conclusions. Thus, as M. V. Sidorova, M. N. Silaeva and A. A. Litvin determined, one of the cartoons with an original signature “Ouf” and another one “A Reserve Army Officer” (from the collection of drawings of the Winter Palace library) depicts the commander of the Guards Corps — General Fedor Petrovich Uvarov (1769-1824). The critical attitude of Nicholas I towards Uvarov was defined by his participation in a Palace coup d’etat March 11, 1801 and tensions in time when Nicholas Pavlovich was the commander of the brigade. The available iconography of General Uvarov gives additional material for the attribution of the drawing. Lifetime images of Uvarov (the portraits by Janosh Rombauer and George Dawe and the engraving by Francesco Vendramini) depicted General with his distinctive hairdo and recognizable curls as in Nicholas’ drawing. Analyzed material allows us to make more exact the number of satirical drawings, the time of their making and to conclude that Nicholas I was a talented painter who managed to express his attitude to nature and to rise to the abilities of artistic generalization in his satirical drawings.

The Fight against Smuggling at the Soviet-Polish Border throughout 1921-1939

The article considers smuggling as economic crime in the Soviet-Polish border in the interwar period. The reasons for smuggling activities are studied and summarized. Range of smuggled goods is shown. The number of arrested smugglers, their nationality, the value of seized goods both from Poland and the Soviet Union are investigated. Smuggling as a political phenomenon in the Soviet-Polish border in 1921-1939 is under study. The use of smugglers by the intelligence agencies of both Poland and the USSR are emphasized. The role of public authorities of both abovementioned countries in the fight against smuggling, namely Border Guard Corps from Poland; border guards, customs, security services and local Soviet authorities on the part of the USSR are studied. The influence of anti smuggling measures (increased criminal liability, limitation of private capital in trade, strengthen of the state borders protection) on its amount decrease is studied.
 Keywords: State border, smuggling, crime, scouting, Poland, USSR

English

This paper empirically examines the internal and external roles of the popular mobilization forces (PMF) or al-Hashd al-Shaabi. First, the paper examines the PMF’s role in the fight against the Islamic State/Daesh and governance in Iraq. Second, it highlights the PMF’s external links with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The question of whether the PMF is a tool of expanding Iran’s influence and interventionism across the region is thoroughly scrutinized. The paper examines the role of the PMF in increasing the level of sectarianism and paves the way for protracted social conflict in the region. Rising sectarianism offers a fertile breeding ground for Sunni extremism and radicalism, and lethal anti-Shiaism; feeding into a vicious cycle of sectarian violence. These conditions may shape the genesis of protracted regional social conflict between the two main branches of Islam. Key words: Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Islam, conflict.

Factional politics in the Iran–Iraq war

ABSTRACTThis article examines the domestic causes of the Iran–Iraq War. It delves into secret discussions among Iranian political and military elites during the conflict, their analyses of their own performance on the battlefield, and their revealing public disputes and blame game decades later. It contends that an underexplored and yet critical driving force behind Iran’s prosecution of the war was factional politics. Along with state-level geo-strategic, regime-level security and individual-level ideological concerns, factional factors must also be examined to understand Tehran's war-time decisions. Iran’s factional rivalries began between the Islamists and the nationalists; and between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the army at war’s outbreak, and eventually penetrated into the heart of the Islamist camp between the militant clerics and the IRGC.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards: Readying Strength

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a state sponsor of terrorism, economic juggernaut, internal security service, expeditionary force and key political actor.

The Military and the State in Iran: The Economic Rise of the Revolutionary Guards

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a multilayered political, ideological, and security institution that has steadily acquired an increasing role in Iran's economy in recent years. This article analyzes the growing economic and business involvement of the IRGC in the broader context of Iranian state-society relations in general, and its civil-military dynamics in particular. More specifically, we look at the political and socioeconomic processes within which the IRGC operates at the interrelated levels of the state and society. This analysis sets out the framework based on which we examine the IRGC's increasing power in the course of its engagements and various conflicts in both political and societal arenas, in particular its economic expansion under Mahmud Ahmadinejad's presidency. This article concludes by discussing the implications of the IRGC's rise on the economic policy of the government under President Hassan Rouhani.