In Iran Unveiled, Middle East expert Ali Alfoneh describes the coming revolt of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and the implications this would have on regional and international politics. As Iran experiences the most important change in its history since the revolution of 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the regime in Tehran, traditionally ruled by the Shia clergy, is transforming into a military dictatorship dominated by the officers of the IRGC. This transformation is changing not only the economy and society in Iran, but also the Islamic Republic's relations with the United States and its allies. This book provides the legal, historical, ideological and military frameworks for what Alfoneh believes to be an escalating and inevitable revolution in Iran. Iran Unveiled informs and educates anyone with an interest in Iran-US relations and the future of Middle eastern politics at a time at a time of growing tension in one of the world's most unstable but indispensable political zones.

About the Author
Ali Alfoneh's research areas include civil-military relations in Iran with a special focus on the role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Islamic Republic. Mr. Alfoneh has been a research fellow at the Institute for Strategy at the Royal Danish Defence College and has taught political economy at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Southern Denmark.

Reviews
This book is essential reading for students of Iranian politics and history and paramilitary organizations. Alfoneh (senior fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies) contends that the Pasdaran, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has suppressed ideological heresy alongside its security operations, expanded its power and influence in the country. As a state within a state, he argues, the IRGC could hold the clerics hostage. The book explains the IRGC's origins and outlines its destruction of governmental oversight, its enhanced economic power, and ways it foiled political foes. Alfoneh covers some of the same ground as Emanuele Ottolenghi, Steven O'Hern, and the Rand Corporation's 2008 IRGC study. The book concentrates on the pre-2010 period, not on IRCG's international activities or specifics of the IRCG's subcontracting businesses. The hyped 'military dictatorship' of the title is more of a diffuse subcontracting process. Nonetheless, Alfoneh exposes the IRGC's networks and methods. The IRGC retained its importance under then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As President Hassan Rouhani called in August 2013 for reductions to the IRGC's size, and IRGC cabinet members have decreased, it is not yet clear if the trends and patterns Alfoneh explores are permanent political features or transient. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. * CHOICE *



Book Information
ISBN 9780844772530
Author Ali Alfoneh
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint AEI Press
Publisher AEI Press
Weight(grams) 526g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 162mm * 26mm