Higher Education, Iranian Style

Ilan Berman, Eurasia Security Watch, American Foreign Policy Council:

Iran’s clerical army is going back to school. Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), or Pasdaran, has announced that the Islamic Republic is planning changes in the “structure, doctrines, and strategies” of the IRGC in response to “new foreign threats.” According to Safavi, these changes will include greater emphasis on “research centers, higher education and production of science” – manifested through a deeper institutional partnership between the IRGC and Tehran’s Imam Hoseyn University, whose faculty and specialists will henceforth not only train IRGC officers, but play an important role in helping Iran’s shock troops refine their strategic doctrine. (Tehran Fars News Agency, October 24, 2005).