Politicization and governance of national security; Trends, patterns and consequences

Politicization in the general sense refers to the involvement and preference of political and group motives and interests in judgments and decisions. In the field of governance, politicization is the non-observance of neutrality in policy-making and decision-making and the interference of political views, tendencies and biases in professional affairs; which may occur at different levels and patterns. Although politicization is one of the most important harms and inefficiencies in all areas of governance, it has more destructive consequences in the field of national security governance. In such a case, agents, political actors, and strategic and intelligence analysts intervene in their political preferences at various stages, such as: subject selection, data collection, information processing and analysis, and report production. They abandon objectivism in favor of political interests. This study examines the prominent trends and events in the field of national security governance in Iran, examines the dimensions and effectiveness of this issue and its findings show that politicization in forms such as polarization, influence, parallelism and disclosure or leakage of information entails significant political and security costs. Accordingly, suggestions have been made for controlling politicization or managing its harmful consequences.