In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

MORE THAN TWO DECADES AFTER THE END OF THE IRAN-IRAQ WAR the Iranian armed forces had risen from the ashes to help their country reclaim what the government sees as its rightful place in the world. Iran still has significant shortcomings in most categories of combat power and military effectiveness . Still, the Iranian military had improved its strengths enough by 2005 to be called a significant threat to US interests and allies in the Persian Gulf by senior US intelligence officials. During 2012, the US Department of Defense in an unclassified annual report on Iranian military power assessed that Iran’s conventional military and ballistic missile capabilities continued to expand while the US Secretary of Defense and the heads of US intelligence warned that the unconventional and cyber warfare threat to US interests from Iran were growing.1 Of course, as mentioned in the introduction, Iran’s armed forces have not formed a continuous identifiable group from the time of Cyrus to today and are not truly immortal. But there are many interesting parallels in Iran’s development and use of its military power over the ages that highlight still extant historical influences and can help explain the current and future course of the Revolutionary Guard and regular military. If there is one lesson for Iran and its potential opponents to draw from the preceding narrative of its military accomplishments and failures, however, it may best be captured, appropriately enough, in the Greek tragedy The Persians. Written by Aeschylus, who had witnessed the defeat of Xerxes’ fleet at Salamis, the play’s message for both victors and vanquished was that hubris—particularly the Great King’s disdain for his Greek adversaries—was behind the Persian defeat. A more recent and succinct version of this warning can be taken from an 1879 cartoon from the British humor magazine Punch. Titled “A lesson from the Zulu War,” the cartoon was published roughly a month after forces of the British superpower were defeated by tribal warriors at the Battle of Isandlwana. It showed a Zulu chief instructing a chastened John Bull by writing on a blackboard the admonition “Despise Not Your Enemy.”2 10 Despise Not Your Enemy Iran’s Armed Forces in theTwenty-first Century 300 Despise Not Your Enemy Iran’s military power today should not be underestimated or disdained because , as opponents ranging from Crassus through Suleiman the Magnificent to Saddam Hussein learned to their sorrow, the fighting men of Iran can deliver unexpected tactics and unpleasant surprises to overconfident enemies. By the same token, Iran’s armed forces should not be perceived with exaggerated appraisals of strength, malevolence, and fanaticism. Iranian military personnel have shown themselves capable of the highest levels of self-sacrifice and bravery. They also have demonstrated that, while as susceptible to the tocsins of patriotism and religion as any other people, they are not automatons in the thrall of even the most unworthy ruler. Aeschylus took Xerxes to task for his overweening ambition as another calamitous aspect of Iranian hubris. Similarly, many of the Parthians’ misfortunes were a result of their unwillingness to stop meddling in Mesopotamia and Armenia , which heightened Roman concerns about frontier security. The first Safavid shah’s provocative anti-Sunni repression invited responses from the Ottomans. Ignoring their own weakness and in some cases pushed by their mullahs, the Qajars initiated losing wars with Russia and Great Britain. In Muhammad Reza Shah’s case, his pretentious pursuit of great power status put him on a collision course with his own people. Some of the current regime’s unpopularity stems from Iranians’ misgivings about the revolutionaries’ continuation of the IranIraq War. Many now see the fighting after 1983 as an abuse of Iranian nationalism and idealism by the clerical leadership to consolidate their power rather than to spread the revolution.3 Iranian attempts to advance the Islamic Republic ’s interests and influence throughout the region in recent years have contributed to growing Sunni-Shia tension and provoked neighboring Sunni states to seek countermeasures to keep Iranian hegemony at bay.4 Factors Shaping Iran’s Military Iran presents a complex picture in its approach to building and using military might. Over the centuries Iran’s leaders repeatedly wrestled with many of the same problems as they sought to create a national military that could defend Iran’s interests and territory and avoid the erosion of power that contributed to the fall of earlier dynasties. The Iranians, like so many other peoples, have...

Share