Saeid Golkar

American Purpose

Over the course of the 12-day war, Israel subjected the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to a devastating combination of psychological and physical attacks aimed at destabilizing Iran’s military hierarchy. While the strikes shook the regime and killed high-level IRGC officials, no military commander has yet defected.

Well before that aggression, however, it was widely believed that Israel’s intelligence had significantly penetrated the Islamic Republic’s national security apparatus. In the aftermath of the strike that killed Hassan Nasrallah in October 2024, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that the head of the Israel desk at the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) was himself an agent of the Mossad. That the Israelis were able to locate and kill so many senior commanders on June 13 has all but confirmed for many within the regime that Israel maintains a network of spies at the highest levels of the Iranian government.

Still, a central question remains: why, in the face of such extreme pressure, do Iran’s military elites stay loyal to the regime? The answer is that they cannot afford to leave.

The Architecture of Elite Cohesion

The Islamic Republic has spent more than four decades creating a system in which loyalty is rewarded, dissent is punished, and defection is nearly impossible. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei protects loyalists, distributes privileges, and controls key appointments within the government. For military commanders, their entire careers and personal safety depend on Khamenei’s continued rule.

Under his leadership, any promotion from the first brigade level must be approved directly by the Supreme Leader’s office (Dafter Nezami-e rahbari), following the results of a thorough investigation into the individual’s security and ideological background to ensure their loyalty to Ayatollah Khamenei. Because these people owe their promotion to Khamenei, their futures collapse with him if he falls.

Iran’s military structure is built to prevent internal threats, such as a coup. The IRGC dominates the General Command (Setad-e Kole), which coordinates between Artesh (Iran’s conventional armed forces) and the IRGC. The leadership of Iran’s armed forces is often drawn from ideologically committed members, all of whom are personally loyal to Khamenei.

In addition to this system of promotion and division within the military, Ayatollah Khamenei uses three central policies to keep the Iranian armed forces under his control: intensive indoctrination, economic rewards, and selective repression.

Intensive Indoctrination

The Islamic Republic systematically inculcates a culture of loyalty towards the clerical regime in its armed forces, with the IRGC receiving the most intensive ideological and political training. The regime embeds clerics at all levels of the military, from general staff to lower platoons, and tasks them with promoting the regime’s ideology and monitoring personnel for dissent. Every branch of the military and security systems, from the Joint Chiefs of Staff down to the smallest units, has an Office of the Representative of the Supreme Leader. This office is led by Khamenei’s loyalist clerics and operates independently of the military chain of command, reflecting a unique and unaccountable decision-making process within the system.

Officers who show loyalty through religious participation or regime support are often rewarded with early promotions or key assignments, regardless of merit. These offices are also responsible for recruiting more religious and ideologically-aligned individuals and vetting their promotion from the lowest level to the top positions. This system is so extreme that about 40% of military training focuses on ideological matters, often at the expense of military competence.

Co-optation and Economic Incentives

Another essential tool for the Islamic Republic to ensure the loyalty of its armed forces, especially the IRGC, is economic reward. Over the years, the IRGC has evolved into a formidable military-industrial complex. It now dominates major sectors of the economy, including oil, construction, telecommunications, and even illicit trade.

Much of this wealth flows through elite-controlled foundations (known as bonyads) such as the Mostazafan Foundation, or through massive state-linked enterprises, including Khatam al-Anbia Construction Headquarters. Even the Artesh’s commanders, often seen as less ideologically driven, have been integrated into this system of patronage, receiving material rewards for their loyalty. The Iranian economy has received considerable attention, but the families of armed forces commanders have gone unnoticed. IRGC and Artesh commanders frequently list their sons-in-law as the proprietors of shell companies that are established to bypass sanctions and secure lucrative state contracts through intermediaries.

Consequently, high-ranking commanders have several avenues to reap the benefits of state-sanctioned corruption through exclusive government contracts, protected monopolies, and privileged access to subsidized imports. Economic privileges provide military elites with strong incentives to remain loyal, as defection would result not only in the loss of political power but also in a significant loss of wealth and social standing that could lead to an uncertain, often insecure, future in exile >>>

Saeid Golkar is an associate professor of political science at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, a senior advisor at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), and a writing fellow at the Middle East Forum.