Hostname: page-component-669899f699-ggqkh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-26T12:05:12.965Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Iranian Perspectives on Security in the Persian Gulf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Kamran Taremi
Kamran Taremi*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Tehran
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Iran is the most Important Regional Player in the Persian Gulf. It has the region's strongest military. No other navy in the region matches Iran’s. Its GNP is larger than that of most other littoral states and its industrial base more sophisticated. It is also by far the most populous state in the Gulf. Geographically, Iran borders the entire northern shores of the Persian Gulf. Iranian territory also forms the northern side of the Strait of Hormuz. This and multiple islands in the vicinity of the strait give Iran the ability to control this strategic choke point. Consequently, Iranian views on security in the Persian Gulf are worthy of special attention.

This paper explores these views in an attempt to answer such questions as: What are Iranian perspectives on Gulf security? What are the factors that have shaped these perspectives? How have these perspectives influenced policy and how have they evolved over time?

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 2003 , pp. 381 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Iranian Studies 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1. For the views of the speaker of the Iranian Parliament on this subject, for instance, see Iṭṭilāᶜāt (18 January 1982): 14.

2. Chubin, Shahram, Iran's National Security Policy: Capabilities, Intentions and Impact (Washington, DC, 1994), 8Google Scholar.

3. For a detailed examination of Ayatullah Khomeini's and his disciples’ worldview see Hunter, Shireen, Iran and the World: Continuity in a Revolutionary Decade Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1990), 36–40Google Scholar and Rajaee, Farhang, Islamic Values and World View: Khomeini on Man, the State and International Politics, American Values Projected Abroad, vol. 13 (New York, 1983), 73–82Google Scholar.

4. Hunter, Iran and the World, 40–41.

5. Iṭṭilāᶜāt, 18 January 1982, 14.

6. Chambers, Mortimer, et. al., The Western Experience, Fifth Edition, (New York, 1991), 34, 37Google Scholar.

7. The World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2001 (Washington, DC, 2001), 44–46Google Scholar.

8. Ibid., 12–14.

9. For an excellent discussion of the Nixon Doctrine and Iran's role in it, see Acharya, Amitav U.S. Military Strategy in the Gulf: Origins and Evolution under the Carter and Reagan Administrations (London, 1989), chapter 2Google Scholar.

10. For Iranian leaders’ views of the Arab Gulf states, see Khomeini, Imam, Dar justujū-yi rāh az kalām-i Imām: jahān-i Islām (Tehran, 1362/1983), 57, 62, 69, 74, 170Google Scholar.

11. Chubin, Shahram, “Iran and the Persian Gulf States,” in Menashri, David, ed., The Iranian Revolution and the Muslim World (Boulder, 1990), 74Google Scholar.

12. For a good discussion of the Carter Doctrine, see Acharya, U.S. Military Strategy in the Gulf, chapters 4–6 and Gold, Dore, America, the Gulf, and Israel: CENTCOM (Central Command) and Emerging U.S. Regional Security Policies in the Middle East (Boulder, 1988)Google Scholar.

13. For Ayatollah Khomeini's views of the war, see Khomeini, Imam, Dar justujū-yi kalām-i Imām: jang wa jihād, 2nd ed. (Tehran, 1363/1984), 218, 229–30Google Scholar.

14. Afrasiabi, K. L., After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Boulder, 1994), 58Google Scholar.

15. Cordesman, Anthony H., The Iran-Iraq War and Western Security, 1984–1987: Strategic Implications and Policy Options (London, 1992), 41–42, 45Google Scholar.

16. Ibid., 39–40.

17. Hunter, Shireen, Iran After Khomeini, The Washington Papers, no. 156 (New York, 1992), 2Google Scholar.

18. Afrasiabi, After Khomeini, 36.

19. Hunter, Iran and the World, 119.

20. Amuzegar, Jahangir, Iran's Economy under the Islamic Republic (London and New York, 1993) 61Google Scholar.

21. Sazman-i Barnamah va Budjah, Lāyiḥa-i barnāmah-i avval-i _____ iqtisādī, ijtimāᶜī va farhangi-yi Jumhūrīyah-i Islāmī-yi Īrān, 1368–1373 (Tehran, 1367/1988), 1–3.

22. Amuzegar, Iran's Economy under the Islamic Republic, 156.

23. Ibid., 161.

24. Ibid., 116.

25. Middle East Economic Survey, vol. 32, no. 42 (21 October 1988): A2Google Scholar.

26. Hunter, Iran After Khomeini, 102.

27. Ibid., 119–20.

28. Afrasiabi, After Khomeini, 36.

29. Jones, Peter, “Iran's Threat Perception and Arms Control Policies,” The Non-Proliferation Review, 6 (1998): 42Google Scholar.

30. Middle East Economic Survey, vol.41, no. 47 (212 November 1997): 8.

31. Iṭṭilāᶜāt, (23 February 1999): 23.

32. Cordesman, Anthony H., Iran's Military Forces in Transition: Conventional Threats and Weapons of Mass Destruction (London, 1999), 205Google Scholar.