Iran’s strategic culture: the ‘revolutionary’ and ‘moderation’ narratives on the ballistic missile programme

Abstract

Drawing on an analytical framework that combines strategic culture theory with narrative analysis, this paper explores the recent evolution of Iran’s ballistic missile programme (BMP) (2015–2019). Iran’s strategic culture attributes a key role to the BMP but nevertheless allows room for manoeuvre in Iran’s security policy, which explains multiple and sometimes contradicting visions of the BMP. We demonstrate that Iran’s approach towards the programme is enveloped by political discourses, which shift with the direction of Iran’s international relations and domestic politics. We distinguish two competing narratives – ‘revolutionary’ and ‘moderation’ – and demonstrate how they define the opportunities and constraints of Iran’s military behaviour in different ways. Finally, we demonstrate a move towards a more confrontational approach, reflected in the consolidation of the ‘revolutionary’ narrative. This article contributes to a more fine-grained understanding of Iran’s policy towards its BMP, which remains central to Iran’s strategic culture.

Keywords:

• strategic culture
• ballistic missile
• Iran
• foreign policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The time frame of the present contribution is 2015–2019, to the extent that an important instance of Iran’s missile employment in 2020, namely the attack on the US military bases in Iraq, is excluded from the analysis.

2 ‘Arrogance’ is the existence of a kind of cultural, political and economic domination, colonisation and exploitation by a limited minority of a poor and weak majority (Musavi-Jashani and Doroudi 2012).

3 In the 1980s, the US government provided Iraq with intelligence information about Iranian force deployments and movements collected by the US Airborne Warning and Control Aircraft that had been stationed in Saudi Arabia and operated by the Pentagon (Adib-Moghaddam 2006).

4 On 3 July 1988, a US Navy ship, the Vincennes, shot down Iran Air Flight 655, killing its 290 passengers and crew.

5 An Iranian GRACE-1 tanker was blocked by the British navy in Gibraltar on 4 July 2019 because it was suspected of transferring oil to Syria.

Additional information

Funding

This study was conducted at the Research Centre in Political Science (UIDB/CPO/00758/2020), University of Minho/University of Évora, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds.

Notes on contributors

Mohammad Eslami

Mohammad Eslami is a PhD in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Minho and a Collaborative Researcher of the Research Centre for Political Science (CICP).

Alena Vysotskaya Guedes Vieira

Alena Vysotskaya Guedes Vieira is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minho, Portugal, and an Integrated Member of the Research Centre for Political Science (CICP).