Drivers of political economy affecting the military power of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract

The current research, which was carried out with the aim of explaining and identifying the drivers of political economy affecting the military power of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is practical in terms of its purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of its nature and method. Upstream documents and library sources have been used to identify the drivers of political economy. Qualitative data analysis based on the theme analysis method (AtlasT.I software), which led to the identification of more than 270 basic themes. After combining and summarizing, the basic themes were reduced to 64 core themes and finally 14 main categories were extracted as key drivers. In order to explain the effect of political economy drivers on Iran's military power, the method of mutual influence matrix and the Mikmaq questionnaire (20*20 matrix) have been used. The responses of the statistical population include: 37 faculty members of the military and civilian universities of the country who were selected in a non-probability purposeful way, were collected and analyzed. The results and findings of the research show that the domestic political economy has a greater effect on Iran's military power. The sequence of influence of drivers is: geography and strategic resources, rentier government, military-industrial complexes, pillars of political power, foreign relations, geopolitical strategy, Westphalian order, oil shocks, anarchic order, foreign trade, diplomacy Defense, liberal order, globalization and international sanctions. Also, the dimensions of military power affected by political economy are: military expenses, equipment and technology, defense diplomacy, manpower, command and management and organizational structure.

Keywords

• domestic political economy
• global political economy
• iran's military power