Due to the recent war in Iraq, the Middle East has once against jumped to the forefront of everyone's mind. The world has been focused on Iraq and Iran for a decade now because Iran has established a strong foothold in Iraqi life since the toppling of Saddam Hussein. However, in order to understand this issue and attempt to solve it, an extensive study must be made of all the reasons that Iran is succeeding where the United States has not. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the historical influence that Iran, particularly the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has had on Iraq since its creation. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has taken over its home country and a historical analysis will chronicle its rise. Case studies of Iran and Iraq will be used to understand the geopolitical, military, economic, and religious reasons for the IRGC's ever-increasing influence. Previous studies and news coverage have only focused on one issue at a time; however, it is rare to find a study which combines all the reasons. This thesis will not only compile an analysis of these reasons, but will also explore and suggest what steps or policies Iraq can adopt in order to prevent it from being a puppet to other world powers.

This dissertation is aimed at analyzing the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps&rsquo / (IRGC) relationship to politics, which evolved into different forms through the three decades of the revolution. Eventually the IRGC has become one of the most influential organizations with respect to Iranian politics. This situation has raised the following question / why and how has the IRGC become such an influential political actor in post-revolutionary Iranian politics? Considering different forms of the IRGC-politics relationship, this study also questioned the reasons that lay behind the shifts in that relationship. In order to answer these questions, this dissertation examined the relationship between the Revolutionary Guards and the political leadership in post-revolutionary Iran. It maintained that there are four variables that determined the IRGC-politics relationship, which are ideological position of the political leadership, power of the political leadership, ideological outlook of the Revolutionary Guards and corporateness of the Revolutionary Guards. In order to analyze forms of the IRGC-politics relationship and to explain shifts between these forms, it traced these variables through the post-revolutionary history of Iran, which was divided into four periods (i.e. transition, radical, thermidorian, and neo-radical periods) because of the changing political and revolutionary dynamics. It concluded that because corporateness of the IRGC reached into a high level whereas power of the political leadership was seriously weakened in the last two periods, the IRGC&rsquo / s clout significantly increased in Iranian politics. Congruence or incongruence between ideological values of the political leadership and of the IRGC, and their commitment to pursue those values determined the confrontationist or cooperative nature of the IRGC&rsquo / s relations with the political leadership.

This paper presents a narrative history of Iranian revolutionary ideology and its evolving impact on foreign policy. It looks at this history primary through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an institution established after the revolution and designed to defend the Islamic political order in Iran as well as oppressed Muslims abroad. The Revolutionary Guard, or Guard for short, became a focal point in the efforts of Iranian revolutionaries to export their ideology and has evolved overtime into a politicized and unconventional military force, often associated in the media with supporting foreign terrorists and militants. This paper argues that the Guard has implemented revolutionary ideology in an arc from radical to pragmatic. Unlike past literature on the Guard, this paper situates the organization’s institutional history in Iran’s broader political context and concentrates on its relationships to and differences with other factions. A persistent aim is also to analyze terminology such as radical and pragmatic and provide theoretical foundations for the use of such terms.

During the last decades the word ”terrorism” has a whole different meaning. Brutality has increased and terrorists of today show no mercy on civilians and innocent people.Fatemiyoun, the Iran-supported brigade (Afghani citizens) have immigrated to Iran to take part in war in a third country, Syria. This type of military activity has created great anxiety in Afghanistan and in the rest of the middle East.In this study the concept ”terrorism”will be used in regard of the Fatemiyoun activities and the implementation of threat and violence in Syria.The issue focused on in this study will be if Fatemiyon can be regarded a terrororganisation or not.I will be using two definitions and two theories. These definitions and theories are applied to actual material concerning the presence of Fatemiyoun in Syria. This is connected to the IRGC and the Iranian government's political concern to expand shiism.There are already some studies on the connection between states and terror groups. The choice to analyze militia groups has favoured the study as Fatemiyoun is a militia group and as a result Fatemiyoun is regarded a terrorist organisation in these theories.Fatemiyoun as a new phenomenon is also a motive for further studies concerning the relation between Iran and its militia groups.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also known as the Pasdaran, is a unique military institution created to secure the ideals of Iran's revolution as well its territory. Since the end of the Iran-Iraq War, however, the IRGC's role in Iran's political economy has increased significantly beyond that mandate. Unfortunately, the leadership in the United States has demonstrated neither the aptitude nor the desire to understand Iran. Given the IRGC's command of Iran's nuclear development program and encroachment into its foreign policy, it is more important than ever to understand Iran's leadership structure. This study attempts to explain an important part of that structure by considering the influence of the leadership dynamics of Iran along with its economic and religious/social conditions on the IRGC's position within the state, using an historical analysis consisting of secondary sources. Accordingly, the IRGC's rise to power can be traced back to the dual sovereignty written into the constitution of the Islamic Republic. Though the divine sovereignty, embodied by the velayat-e faqih (Supreme Leader), is supposed to take precedence over popular sovereignty, embodied by the directly elected President, when the two conflict, Khomeini's successor, Khamenei, a junior cleric, was unable to manage then President Hashemi Rafsanjani. So he empowered the IRGC to compensate, but that choice set into motion a sequence of events that has enabled it to become powerful enough to be a threat to the velayat-e faqih himself.

In 1979, Iran underwent the Islamic Revolution, which radically changed society. The Iranian Revolution Guard (IRGC) was born from the revolution and has witnessed its role in society changed over time. Many have said the IRGC has reached the apex of its power and is one of if not the dominating force in Iranian society. The most recent extension of the IRGC's control is in the economic realm. The purpose of this research is to explain the reasoning and mechanism behind this recent gain in power. The literature review demonstrates flaws by previous studies of Iran. Most used a singular focus on explaining the IRGC's influence on Iran's economy by only focusing on political or economic aspects. This study will show how explaining the political economy of Iran best explains the role of the IRGC in Iran. The research uses event-data analysis to synthesize previous research performed on Iran. The researcher used various sources to explain the recent rise in the IRGC's power. Focus was placed on explaining three aspects of Iran's political economy, elected institutions, accountable businesses, and unaccountable businesses. Elected institutions included the majlis (the Iranian parliament) and the presidency. Accountable businesses included businesses which reported information to the Iranian central government while unaccountable businesses reported no information to the Iranian central government. Although presence in all three increased, elected institutions and accountable businesses witnessed a greater amount of presence than unaccountable institutions.

yes / The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps or IRGC is a multilayered political, ideological, and security institution that has steadily acquired an increasing role in Iran’s economy in recent years. This paper analyses the increasing 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 socio-economic 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, and in particular its economic expansion under Ahmadinejad’s presidency. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of the IRGC’s rise on the economic policy of the new government under President Rouhani. / The full text is unavailable in the repository due to copyright restrictions.

The IRGC, or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Iran have utilized soft power to increase their influence within the Middle East. By using military superiority; ideological influence; and trade, both the Iran and the IRGC established dependency between themselves and patron states. Of these patron states, the research focuses on Iraq; Syria; and Yemen, and how Iran and the IRGC affect them through soft power. This research suggests that Iran and the IRGC is using the disability of the aforementioned states to increase their own influence by making them dependent on Iranian military supplies; cultural indoctrination to align with Iranian ideology; and economic dependent on Iran. As Iran's influence grows within these states, its power in the Middle East grows and becomes a security risk for Saudi Arabia; Israel; and any other regime that does not have its interests align with the Iranian regime.

No / The widespread protests of November 2019 may be marked as the bloodiest recent chapter of the Islamic Republic of Iran's history in terms of popular dissent. The two major protests in December 2017 and November 2019, followed by the public reaction to the shooting down of the Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 by the IRGC over Tehran after the US killing of General Soleimani, suggest that the prevailing dynamics of political protest in Iran are changing. There is an increasing sense of radicalisation among protesters, while the state is prepared to resort to extreme violence to maintain control. The geography of political protest has changed. The declining economic situation has had a profound impact on the more vulnerable segments of the society who are now increasingly playing a more proactive role in challenging the state. The methods of protest have been evolving over the last four decades, especially in the cultural arena. Last but not least, the willingness of the protesters both to endure and inflict violence is precipitously transforming state-society relations beyond recognition. This article begins by providing a brief overview of protest in the history of the Islamic Republic, up to the public reaction to the 2020 downing of the Ukrainian airline over Tehran. This provides a historical context to assess the ways in which both the political climate and protests have changed over the last four decades. A section identifying and analysing the factors which have created the current political cul-de-sac then follows. The changing dynamics of the protests are the result of the existing political gridlock and the economic crisis, and it is thus important to evaluate the prevailing conditions which have paved the way for the radicalisation of political climate in Iran. The final section examines the changing dynamics of political protest.