ABSTRACT
The post-revolutionary organizational rearrangements of the Iranian state took place as an unintended consequence of the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988—a long war, especially in the context of Middle Eastern wars. This chapter seeks to restore the centrality of war to the theoretical discussion of social class formation. It examines how the alliance between the conservative elite and war veterans' associations has stymied class-based mobilization in Iran. The chapter sheds light on the origins of the Basij as a coercive instrument of the state. By directing his appeal to the Basij, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has relied on a strategy of veteran co-optation with numerous antecedents in other postwar contexts. The chapter contributes to the understanding of how mobilization for the Iran-Iraq War, the prosecution of the war, and demobilization in its aftermath impact the politics of the present. The social support infrastructure that encompasses the Martyrs Foundation represents an enduring and politically consequential legacy of the war.
