The Effects of Strategic Culture on Iranian Arms Policy and National Security

This article introduces the concept of strategic culture and tries to investigate its relationships with the Iranian arms policy. strategic culture consist of a code of political values, cultural beliefs regarding threats, national security, the position of the military forces and the use of forces in the international security. In the view of some researchers, the Iranian strategic culture has a determining role in forming arms policy and national security of states. On this basis, the main question of the article is that “how Iranian arms policy and national security have been affected by the county’s strategic culture? The hypothesis of the research is that “based on historical experience, Iranian strategic culture has played main role in shaping the country’s arms policy and national security”.The present research with descriptive-analytical method proposes the hypothesis that several components are effective in shaping the strategic culture of Iran and it can be said that historical experiences, religious-Islamic teachings and geography have played a role in shaping the strategic culture of Islamic Iran more than any other component.