Iran’s Military Forces and Warfighting Capabilities: The Threat in the Northern Gulf (Significant Issues Series) - Softcover

Cordesman, Anthony H.; Kleiber, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 089206501X ISBN 13: 9780892065011

Publisher: Center for Strategic & International Studies, 2007

Synopsis

Nations around the world are uncertain and anxious about Iran s intentions in the Middle East and the wider global arena. Its current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has made no secret of his opposition to Western society, particularly Israel, and his desire to acquire nuclear weapons. However, as Anthony Cordesman and Martin Kleiber point out, Ahmadinejad does not necessarily speak for the Iranian clerical regime, which operates in a cloud of secrecy and also directly controls Iran s military. Given the ambiguous nature of Iran s global objectives, this new study focuses on the tangible aspects of Iran s military forces and takes an objective look at the threats Iran poses to the region and the world. The authors systematically assess each aspect of Iranian military forces from their conventional armies to their asymmetric threat via proxy wars in the region. Much attention in national security debates is paid to Iran s intentions without first understanding its capabilities. Lacking such a fundamental understanding, much of this speculation tends to be wasted and irrelevant to what could actually happen in the event of a conflict. Cordesman and Kleiber s study provides, in meticulous detail, a basis for understanding the real threat that Iran poses in the Northern Gulf.

About this title

About the Author:

Anthony H. Cordesman holds the Arleigh Burke Chair in Strategy at CSIS. Martin Kleiber is a researcher with Burke Chair at CSIS.

About this edition

• Publisher: Center for Strategic & International Studies
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 089206501X
• ISBN 13: 9780892065011
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288