Deterrence as a Security-defense Strategy of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Challenges, Requirements, and its Strategic Model

Since the collapse of the bipolar system and the change in "system arena" and "issues in the new world system", the Middle East has changed into one of the main bases for implementing the new deterrence strategy. Thus, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is located in the disputed region of the Middle East, has highlighted deterrence to ensure its security. The present qualitative study aims to see whether Iran's current strategy is consistent with the components of the “new deterrence” by considering identity-, authority-, and interest-based approaches in national, regional and international levels. In this regard, the main hypothesis raised is Iran's security-defense strategy is inspired solely by the military component of deterrence, not all of the new components of deterrence. In other words, the synergy of all dimensions including the military, political, and economic dimensions of Post-Cold War Deterrence did not exist in the strategic equation of Iranian deterrence,and deterrence for Iran has been a military response to deterrent actions of extra-regional adversaries and their regional allies.In this regard, the present study seeks to achieve a comprehensive understanding of deterrence and its evolution with a pathological approach in order to explain the appropriate model of deterrence in Iran. Based on the results, Iran's performance is more based on the requirements of asymmetric warfare than deterrence due to the increasing impact of both regional and international environments on the national environment.Further, the success of Iranian deterrence relies on the use of "deterrence with denial" versus "deterrence with punishment."