Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the most powerful branch of the Iranian armed forces, independent of Iran’s regular army and accountable only to the Office of the Supreme Leader. It was established by Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s first leader (1979–89), and strengthened under the presidency of Ali Khamenei (1981–89) during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88). Under Khamenei’s tenure as leader (1989– ), the IRGC has become deeply entrenched in the economy and regime security, allowing it to undermine civilian political processes in favor of Khamenei’s autocratic rule. The IRGC consists of an army, a navy, an air force, and an intelligence wing.

Establishment and development

The IRGC was a product of the Iranian Revolution in 1978–79. In April 1979 Khomeini, the guiding figure of the revolution, established the IRGC by decree to unify and organize paramilitary forces that had arisen during the turmoil and were committed to the revolution. The unified force, often informally called Sepah or Pasdaran, would thus serve as a counterweight to the regular army (informally, Artesh), which had originally been loyal to the shah. The permanence of the IRGC was formalized in the new constitution adopted later that year.

The IRGC resisted attempts to subjugate it to political control and bring it within the fold of the regular armed forces. Tension was particularly pronounced between the IRGC and Iran’s first president, Abolhasan Bani-Sadr (1980–81), whose friction with various government figures led to his impeachment and removal from office in 1981. The two subsequent presidents, however, Mohammad Ali Rajaʾi (August 1981) and Ali Khamenei (1981–89), were favorable to the IRGC, and Khamenei aided the organization with expansive resources. Although the IRGC was initially deployed in the Iran-Iraq War to bolster the efforts of the regular army, it grew in force, structure, and complexity with the support of the political establishment. A contingent for foreign operations, known as the Quds Force, became active in the Lebanese Civil War in 1982, and Khomeini authorized the creation of a navy and an air force in 1985.

Growth and entrenchment

After Khamenei became the leader of Iran upon Khomeini’s death in 1989, the IRGC became increasingly entrenched. The organization remained largely absent from the public sphere during the presidency of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989–97), but it was encouraged to take on a substantial role in the economic development of postwar Iran. A turning point came in 1997 with the election of Pres. Mohammad Khatami (1997–2005), whose popular reform agenda threatened to undermine the dominance of the IRGC and of conservative clerics like Khamenei. The IRGC began to intervene in political affairs, and Khamenei authorized the establishment of an intelligence wing in order to strengthen the IRGC’s hand.

Under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005–13), himself a veteran of the IRGC, both the political representation and the economic prowess of the IRGC ballooned. Dozens of former IRGC officers were placed in senior posts in government, while the IRGC was awarded innumerable government contracts and billions of dollars in loans to undertake large projects. In 2009, when demonstrations broke out amid allegations of irregularities in Ahmadinejad’s reelection, the IRGC was instrumental in suppressing the protests. Frustrated with the Intelligence Ministry’s inability to prevent unrest, Khamenei ordered an expansion of the IRGC’s intelligence wing that rivaled the government ministry.

When international sanctions targeted Iran’s nuclear program in the early 2010s, the effect on the IRGC was rough, though mitigated. Ensconced in Iran’s economy, IRGC-owned businesses suffered along with the rest of the Iranian market. But the IRGC also profited off smuggling activities and benefited from reduced competition in the legal market. Still, with the economy lagging, the IRGC ultimately supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement between Iran and six other countries in 2015 that limited Iran’s nuclear program. The JCPOA did not address the IRGC’s extensive ballistic missile program, the largest in the Middle East and a key asset of the IRGC.

Alongside both the entrenchment and resilience of the IRGC came heavy setbacks. The international community was more poignantly aware of the IRGC’s outsize role in Iranian policy. When the United States withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, it also targeted the IRGC with layers of sanctions. A number of high-profile figures within the IRGC were assassinated—including Qassem Soleimani, a major general of the IRGC and commander of the Quds Force—while intelligence leaks and corruption scandals further served to destabilize its power structure. In June 2022, as Iranians grew increasingly restless over the country’s state of affairs, an unexpected shake-up in the IRGC’s top leadership revealed that a power struggle within its ranks was ongoing.

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As Khamenei advanced in age, the strength of the IRGC relative to other state institutions in Iran raised questions about the role the IRGC would play in the regime’s future. The popular fury unleashed in September 2022 by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a young woman who had been taken into custody for “improper” attire, led some observers to suggest that the IRGC could seek to unseat the disfavored clerical establishment. Others countered, however, that the cohesion of the IRGC depended on support from the clerical establishment, limiting its ability to act independently and remain intact. Moreover, the IRGC had a friend in Pres. Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line cleric who worked closely with its commanders and appeared poised to replace Khamenei as Iran’s leader. When Raisi died suddenly in a helicopter crash in May 2024, there were few figures who were held in such high esteem among both the clergy and the IRGC, fueling speculation over a potential showdown in appointing Khamenei’s successor.