Empire of Terror: Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

About the Book

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps increasingly poses an existential threat to Western security and to Sunni and the few non-Muslim civilizations remaining in the Middle East. Empire of Terror captures this. Empire of Terror is the strategic and political drama of our day. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or Guards, Iran's praetorian force, increasingly poses an existential threat to Western security and to Sunni and the few non-Muslim civilizations remaining in the Middle East. Empire of Terror captures this. It will update current academic literature and provide insights gained from the author's 35 years as an analyst in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Community. It will offer the rigor of academic scholarship and an engaging writing style that will appeal to college students, as well as professors. The author uses case studies of the intelligence and security services of two totalitarian systems of the 20th century - the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany - for comparative analysis. Unlike many other books on the Guards, Empire of Terror will have a long shelf life. The book distinguishes itself from other treatments of Iran by its use of profiles that paint the human drama, and highlight the sufferings of women and gays in Iran. Empire of Terror focuses on the Guards and the role they play in keeping Iran's revolution safe, robust, and dynamic. Empire of Terror offers biographies, as well as explanations of the ideology that propel some of its leaders. It also underscores some of the human, as well as inhumane, elements in this distinctly Iranian drama, which has global implications. There are the perpetrators, victims, heroes, villains, and dupes. This book draws historical parallels to the Soviet Union and the Third Reich to compare the intelligence and security services of states with totalitarian aspirations and to illustrate ideological points of intersection - a collectivist mindset, intolerance for political deviation, strongly defined sex roles and hyper-masculinity, and a ruthless determination to ferret-out and destroy their enemies. In many ways, Iran - its people, politics and culture - are unique. AUTHOR: Mark D. Silinsky is a 37-year veteran analyst of the Department of Defense, an adjunct professor at the United States Army War College, and an affiliated professor at the Haifa University. 2 maps, 2 charts, 18 tables

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. Events and Ideas behind the Guards
Chapter Two. The Guards as a New Tool of Power
Chapter Three. The Guards’ Domestic Policy
Chapter Four. The People’s Militia
Chapter Five. The Guards’ Foreign Policy
Chapter Six. The Guards’ Unconventional Toolbox
Chapter Seven. The Guards, Inc.
Chapter Eight. Empire of Terror
Appendix: Important Personalities
Glossary
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
 

About the Author :
Mark D. Silinsky is a senior intelligence analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense, where he has worked for thirty-eight years, and is an affiliated professor at Haifa University. He is the author of Jihad and the West: Black Flag over Babylon and The Taliban: Afghanistan’s Most Lethal Insurgent Group and coauthor of The Manager’s Guide to Terrorism, Risk, and Insurance: Essentials for Today’s Business.
 

Review :
“Insightful, important, and timely. . . . A virtual state within a state, [the Guards] have exerted tremendous influence on Iran’s politics, foreign policy, and economy. This is essential reading for all those who are interested in how the regime has managed to destabilize the Middle East and carve out an arc of domination known as the ‘Shiite Crescent’ from Lebanon to Yemen.”-Ofira Seliktar, professor emerita at Gratz College and coauthor of Iran, Revolution, and Proxy Wars “Mark Silinsky has the knowledge and the imagination to place the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a key Iranian institution, in the context of other totalitarian regimes, specifically the Soviet and Nazi regimes. The result-ever so timely in the aftermath of the Qasem Soleimani execution-is a compelling guide.”-Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum and publisher of Middle East Quarterly “Mark Silinsky combines a deep and broad knowledge of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with a deep understanding of what is going on in today’s Iran. He makes a powerful case for greater understanding of contemporary Iranian politics in helping the West to manage a seemingly intractable problem . . . and he does so with prose that is informal and engaging.”-Christopher Coker, director of LSE IDEAS, a think tank at the London School of Economics and Political Science “Mark Silinsky has expertly exposed the depraved and fanatical practices of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, giving us valuable insight into their roles in international terrorism and the oppression of the Iranian people.”-Christine Sixta Rinehart, associate professor of political science at the University of South Carolina and author of Sexual Jihad: The Role of Islam in Female Terrorism “Like Nazi Germany and the USSR, the Islamic Republic of Iran is founded on an ideology that is both imperialistic and totalitarian. Mark Silinsky skillfully demonstrates the disturbing parallels between these three toxic regimes, showing how Shiite millenarian thinking makes the Iranian regime’s ideology especially dangerous. All who wish to deepen their understanding of the Iranian threat to the civilized world should read this book.”-Joseph S. Spoerl, professor of philosophy at Saint Anselm College