The Holy Defense and the Global Powers: Exploring Russian Scholars' Opinions

The present article aims at analyzing the approaches of global powers towards the Iranian Holy Defense focusing on Russian scholars. After expanding on the conceptual framework of the subject of research, the balance of power and dual containment were used as theoretical approaches in explicating the topic. The data was gathered using a qualitative method and through studying Russian documents and research and by purposive sampling with theoretical saturation. The findings of this research show that from the perspective of the global powers, the war between Iran and Iraq has been one of the most complicated wars in the world and in the region: this war that broke out as a result of a strategic vacuum within the power structure of the Middle East, caused the Iraqi Ba’ath regime regard the Iranian revolution as both a threat and an opportunity. This interpretation gradually led to the alignment of Iraq with the interests of the United States in the region and ended in the war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which along the Iranian resistance during the eight years of the Holy Defense and despite all the inequalities with the enemy in all respects, have raised much praise in the evaluations done by different countries including the ones carried out by Russian scholars.