Christian Smith: Foreign. Hello and welcome to this podcast from Geopolitical Futures. I’m Christian Smith. The US Israeli war with Iran is two and a half weeks old with no end currently in sight as attacks on Iran continue. Iran itself appears set on applying pressure wherever it can and it is so far successfully making the war as difficult as possible, possible for the rest of the world. So on t...
The strongest version of this narrative acknowledges the U.S.’s strategic miscalculation in underestimating the IRGC’s resilience and the complexity of Iran’s political-military structure. The initial assumption that destroying the civilian government would lead to regime collapse was flawed, revealing a significant intelligence failure. The IRGC’s decentralized command and control, combined with its economic and military influence, has allowed it to sustain resistance despite U.S. airstrikes. T...