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Iran's Kamikaze Doctrine: Strategic Suicide as Deterrence


(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Catherine Perez-Shakdam - The security doctrine of the Islamic Republic of Iran is not based on survivability but on martyrdom. The regime's internal strategic rationale is apocalyptic. During my time in Iran, I was privy to high-level discussions in which regime officials outlined a chilling scenario. Should Israel and its allies engage in a concerted campaign to threaten the leadership's hold over the state apparatus, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has provisioned for maximum harm to be exacted within Iran's borders - what Iranian insiders have termed the "Kamikaze protocol." Critical infrastructure, including oil refineries, dams, energy hubs, and even civilian urban centers, have reportedly been seeded with strategic weaponry and chemical agents - to be activated by IRGC operatives in acts of sabotage. Western powers continue to operate under the dangerous illusion that the Islamic Republic can be moderated through incentives and diplomatic engagement. This is a profound misreading of the regime's ideological DNA. Iran's leaders are operating from a strategic paradigm where deterrence is achieved through the threat of martyrdom on a national scale. The writer, executive director at the Forum for Foreign Relations, is an associate scholar at the Jerusalem Center.
2025-06-20 00:00:00
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