The Iranian Way of Deterrence

The evolution of Iran's approach to deterrence from the Iran-Iraq War to the Operation True Promises

This piece is part of my broader ongoing work on Iranian deterrence. I wrote this particular analysis during the twelve-day war, but ultimately didn’t publish it. I’m sharing it now because I think it still has value for those trying to make sense of the current war.

Iran’s approach to deterrence, known as bazdarandegi in Persian, bears the imprint of e…