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Source: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/irans-long-game
Iran's Strategic Doctrine of "Survive and Exhaust"
(Foreign Affairs) Narges Bajoghli - Iran's strategic doctrine is "survive and exhaust." The goal is not to defeat the U.S. or Israel in any conventional sense. It is to show them both that the cost of confronting Iran is militarily, economically, and politically unsustainable. Tehran's job is to survive punishment long enough, and to inflict enough damage in return, that U.S. and Israeli will for continued conflict collapses. This strategy is working for now. Iran is absorbing strikes and continuing to function. Its military command has decentralized, and a new generation of commanders is even more willing than the old one to fight. If the Islamic Republic survives this war, it will be led by younger, combat-hardened commanders who believe they defeated the U.S. and Israel, despite the enormous cost. If these trends continue, the war could end with the Islamic Republic battered but intact. Iran would emerge weakened in its conventional capabilities but stronger in the one currency that has always mattered most to Tehran: the demonstrated ability to defend its sovereignty against the most powerful militaries in the world. Iran has had 35 years of preparation and a strategy calibrated to outlast rather than outgun. The writer is Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.