ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Sepah's importance in the foreign policy of post-revolutionary Iran, in particular, since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election in 2005. It also examines the features of continuity and change in the Sepah's influence on foreign policy from 1979 to the present. The chapter deals with two major claims: it argues that with the empowerment of the Sepah, the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic has been, by and large, securitised; the interplay of Iran's geopolitical interests and the imperative for deterrence has increased the importance of Sepah's role at both the regional and defence/military levels. It argues that the security elites have adopted, in the words of Barry Buzan, a more 'extra-ordinary means' of foreign policy in order to handle what it perceives as existential threats. The chapter analyses the Sepah's role in the security dimension of the Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign policy, namely, military defence and regional activities, before and after 2005.
