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Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-897980
Iran's IRGC Turned Revolution into a System of Power, Profit
(Jerusalem Post) Catherine Perez-Shakdam - We imagine the Islamic Republic of Iran as a state governed principally by clerics, animated by religious fervor, and sustained by revolutionary zeal. Portraits of martyrs stare down from every public building. Speeches overflow with references to sacrifice, justice, and divine struggle. But the true center of gravity is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ideological-security apparatus. The Islamic Republic has produced something new - a fusion of mafia economics, paramilitary capitalism, apocalyptic ideology, information warfare, and religious symbolism. To those inside the system, it offers access to monopolies, smuggling routes, black-market economies, infrastructure projects, and sanctioned industries. The IRGC now touches nearly every profitable artery of Iranian life: construction, telecommunications, ports, energy infrastructure, cyber operations, regional militias, and sanctions evasion networks. The revolution long ago ceased merely to govern the economy. It absorbed it. The Islamic Republic of Iran is not merely surviving sanctions. Entire sections of the regime benefit from them. Isolation created monopolies. Black markets created fortunes. Endless confrontation justified endless consolidation of power. Resistance became an industry. The writer is an associate scholar at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.