Iran, Revolution, and Proxy Wars.

• Author: Ozyakar, Ahmet Furkan

By Ofira Seliktar and Farhad Rezaei

Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, 245 pages, [pounds sterling]59.99, ISBN: 9783030294182

Iran's military policy is a contentious subject. Ofira Seliktar and Farhad Rezaei provide a comprehensive look at how Iran has been implementing asymmetrical warfare strategy and proxy war since the establishment of the Islamic Revolution in their book Iran, Revolution, and Proxy Wars. Drawing upon comprehensive primary and secondary sources, the authors do due diligence by analyzing, case-by-case, how Iran's proxy war strategies through Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) are multifactional and target-oriented and to what extent these proxy war tools are correlated with Iran's revolutionary ideology and geopolitical ambitions.

The first chapter provides historical background and elaborates on how Khomeini's Islamic revolution legitimized the requirement of political violence to export the revolution beyond Iran's borders. To carry out this mission, this chapter illustrates how the IRGC has been established and how IRGC-QF is the main responsible structure to embark its proxies through Shiite militias in neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain. The authors also underline the relationship between Foreign Ministry and IRGC-QF as the Iranian embassies and cultural centers in Muslim countries as "these dual-use proxies garnered political legitimacy while offering a cover for terror" (p. 17). Lastly, the chapter lays the foundation of how Revolutionary Guards have systematically developed asymmetrical warfare strategies, preventing Iranian authorities from becoming a direct target on the international stage.

Chapter 2 elaborates on Hezbollah, starting from its establishment phase to demonstrate the scope of application of Iran's asymmetrical warfare strategy in Lebanon. The authors concentrate on how the cooperation between IRGC and Hezbollah was formed and how it has masterminded Hezbollah's development throughout the years in the region, bonded by the mutual aim to destruct Israel. The nexus between Iran and Hezbollah persistently exposes the role of Hezbollah with regard to Iran's revolutionary ideology and the ambition to export the revolution.

Chapter 3 interrogates the asymmetrical warfare strategy of the IRGC-QF in Palestine. The emphasis on the liberation of Jerusalem from Israeli occupation is recalled as one of the key objectives of the revolutionary ideology. Motivated...