Exploitable Vulnerabilities of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Paperback

by U. S. Army War College (Author)

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.