I wrote a piece about a year and a half ago concerning Iran's ability to cause chaos around the globe--not as a form of preemptive aggression, but primarily along the lines of the proverbial "blowback" that many in politics and the military are talking about today. This seems very relevant given the resurgence of the absurd Iran question, wondering if we should unwisely declare war (or attack anyway, given that we don't tend to ask Congress for authorization these days).
Iran has at least potential access to a worldwide Hezbollah network, although it is very possible that this network is not some single organization as much as it is a disconnected collection of isolated cells who are willing to work with Iran and its agents if approached.
These networks exist in Southeast Asia, in Africa, in Europe, South America, and without much doubt even in North America. Is it the equivalent of the global spy networks of the US or the Soviet Union during the cold war? Not at all. But such cells have shown in recent history that they have the power to cause dramatic damage in small increments, banking on the fact that the death of innocents is always a tragedy. Below is an excerpt, or read the full version here.
Iran has at least potential access to a worldwide Hezbollah network, although it is very possible that this network is not some single organization as much as it is a disconnected collection of isolated cells who are willing to work with Iran and its agents if approached.
These networks exist in Southeast Asia, in Africa, in Europe, South America, and without much doubt even in North America. Is it the equivalent of the global spy networks of the US or the Soviet Union during the cold war? Not at all. But such cells have shown in recent history that they have the power to cause dramatic damage in small increments, banking on the fact that the death of innocents is always a tragedy. Below is an excerpt, or read the full version here.
Of all products exported from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the ideology of the Islamic Revolution carries the regime's pride and weight. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, serves as a separate apparatus from the Iranian national army, used specially to enforce the principles of Khomeini’s revolutionary philosophy.
While the IRGC domestically ensures the continuity of the revolution, it also serves a foreign purpose. Thus, in exploring the complete role of the IRGC, it is necessary to first consider Iran’s foreign policy goals for the Middle East region as well as in the global sense—the reason for such an understanding of Iranian intentions being that the IRGC is used as a tool to enforce the revolution as much in the extraterritorial sense as it is in the domestic sense.
As the US is to some extent leading the charge in attempts to isolate Iran both diplomatically and economically, Iran is countering such efforts with the unusual—by finding both unusual allies and unusual approaches to gaining influence and support abroad. Iran’s foreign policy involves a broad array of economic, political, religious, and military efforts, but one of the overarching and most consequential policies is that of the relentless exportation of the Islamic Revolution to other Muslim countries and areas—particularly those of the Shia—as well as allowing it to take root in countries far away from the Muslim world.
Close to home, Iran’s goals can be described as ones centered on creating instability, especially in the Arab countries, where it aims to interfere in internal affairs and encourages the exchange of less cooperative regimes with ones friendlier to the revolutionary ideals.
No comments:
Post a Comment