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Iran
National Security
DURING THE 1970s, imperial Iran developed one of the most impressive
military forces in the Middle East, and it used those forces to
assume a security role in the Persian Gulf after the British military
withdrawal in 1971. The defense of the strategic Strait of Hormuz
preoccupied the shah, as it did the other conservative monarchs
in the area. Freedom of navigation in the Gulf was important for
international shipping, and the shah was perceived, at least in
certain quarters, as the undeclared "policeman of the West in
the Gulf." When independent observers concluded that Iran's military
buildup exceeded its defensive needs, the shah declared that his
responsibilities extended beyond Iran and included the protection
of the Gulf. Increasingly, the military played a pivotal role
in promoting this policy and, in doing so, gained a privileged
position in society. Under the Nixon Doctrine of 1969, according
to which aiding local armed forces was considered preferable to
direct United States military intervention, Washington played
an important part in upgrading the Iranian military forces. The
United States supplied Iran with sophisticated hardware and sent
thousands of military advisers and technicians to help Iran absorb
the technology.
By 1979 the United States military presence in Iran had drawn
the wrath of Iranians. Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini
specifically identified the shah's pro-American policies as detrimental
to Iranian interests and called on his supporters to oppose the
United States presence. He cited special legal privileges granted
United States personnel in Iran as an example of the shah's excessive
identification of Iran's interests with those of Washington.
Following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the armed forces underwent
fundamental changes. The revolutionary government purged high-ranking
officials as well as many mid-ranking officers identified with
the Pahlavi regime and created a loyal military force, the Pasdaran
(Pasdaran-e Enghelab-e Islami, or Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps, or Revolutionary Guards), whose purpose was to defend the
Revolution. When the Iran-Iraq War began, however, the revolutionary
government had to acknowledge its need for the professional services
of many of the purged officers to lead the armed forces in defending
the country against Iraq. The army was unexpectedly successful
in the war, even though, as of 1987, the regular armed forces
continued to be regarded with considerable suspicion. Within the
Iranian military there was competition between the regular and
irregular armed forces. The Islamic clergy (see Glossary) continued
to rely more heavily on the loyal Pasdaran to defend the regime.
Moreover, most of the casualties were members of the Pasdaran
and Basij volunteers who composed the irregular armed forces.
In the late 1980s, in addition to defending the Revolution, Iran
continued to follow certain national security policies that had
remained constant during the previous four decades.
Data as of December 1987
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