Iran's Reconstruction Jihad—Rural Development and Regime Consolidation after 1979

Countries are dynamic social formations in which there is a constant clash and interplay between the forces of change and continuity. Capturing the essence of these complex social totalities necessitates a holistic approach that overwhelmingly concentrates on the entire political, economic, and ideological spheres. However, the vast majority of studies on Iran tend to focus solely on the dialectical relationship between reformists and conservatives when the current social dynamics of the country are analyzed. The examinations based on such a binary dichotomy not only ignore the impact of economics and ideology, but also fail to discern the essence of Iranian politics divided between parallel elected and non-elected institutions. The Islamic Republic of Iran has consolidated and institutionalized its Islamic revolution by establishing organizations, such as Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and revolutionary foundations (or the so-called Bonyads) that are functioning in the economic, political, and ideological spheres. The para-governmental character of these organizations blurs the line between public and private spheres of the country; therefore, revealing their functions and roles enables a better understanding of wider Iranian society.In this sense, Eric Lob's Iran's Reconstruction Jihad provides fresh insights into Iran since the institution that the book investigates has functioned as a revolutionary organization and later as a government ministry in the Islamic Republic. At the same time, the study enables readers to understand the parallel and dual institutional character of the Iranian state. Regarding the political, cultural, and economic functions of the Revolutionary Jihad (RJ), the book analytically represents the wider social dynamics of Iran through the political, cultural, and economic functions of the RJ. As Lob points out, RJ's organizational trajectory mirrors the Islamic Republic's broader evolution in the last four decades, reflecting (a) social changes and continuities, (b) state-society relations, (c) the Islamic Republic's centralization, consolidation, and state building, and, finally, (d) Iran's bureaucratic institutionalization and constraints/opportunities of associational life (335).Lob has produced a comprehensive study on the important yet understudied revolutionary organization and ministry. Revolutionary Jihad is a long-standing institution with its roots in the shah's regime, and through RJ's history Lob has managed to provide an overview of the Islamic Republic of Iran with a spectacular focus on the transformations in the political landscape. Lob's contribution to the scholarship lies in the fact that this is the first book-length study in English that analyzes the RJ based on primary sources. In order to explain the political and social changes and continuities that have transpired in the Islamic Republic of Iran since the revolution, the author conducted 130 interviews between 2009 and 2012 in Iran and Lebanon with government officials, revolutionary activists, war veterans, and development experts affiliated with the RJ. Lob's meticulous work, and his institutionalist approach to the history of RJ, explain the organization's role in the success of the Islamic revolution, the state's development policies, and the mobilization of the population.In the book's introduction Lob demonstrates that Iranian state differs from its Arab counterparts in the region in the sense that it is not fully based on coercive mechanisms in establishing legitimacy. In this regard, while the Arab Spring led to the overthrow of Arab leaders, who had come to power during military coups a generation earlier, the 2009 Green Movement in Iran was controlled by the revolutionary Iranian rulers. Therefore, the author asks, “If coercion did not fully explain the persistence of the Iranian state then what did?” (3). Concordantly, the book describes how revolutionary activists at the grassroots level and political officials at the state level have instrumentalized rural development and other noncoercive tactics to consolidate and maintain the power and influence of the Islamic State. In this sense, Revolutionary Jihad, as an organization instrumentalized for rural development, power consolidation, and overseas policies of the Islamic Republic, presents the most suitable case to understand the essence of the Iranian State. Established as a revolutionary organization in 1979, RJ has been active in (a) improving rural infrastructure, such as constructing bridges, roads and electricity systems and developing agricultural base; (b) determining political outcomes through political activities during election campaigns; and (c) propagating revolutionary and religious values through cultural and educational activities in the rural areas where almost the half of the Iranian population lives. In this context, Lob's detailed account of RJ also reflects state-society relations, wartime operations, bureaucratic centralization, factionalism, foreign policy, and cultural politics in Iran. In addition, the book goes beyond an analysis of Iran, since it provides valuable insights into revolutionary outcomes in other regions. Furthermore, with an analysis of the role of RJ in the Islamic Republic's foreign policy, the book also sheds light on further regional politics.Within this scope, the book examines RJ in nine chapters, which are organized chronologically and thematically. While the first six chapters put forth a detailed historical account of RJ and wider social transformations in the Islamic Republic, the following two chapters elucidate the instrumentalization of the organization in the foreign policymaking of Iran. The book's final chapter, on the other hand, not only critically elaborates on the concepts of jihadi culture and management, but also depicts the current political environment in Iran.In this sense, this book significantly advances our understanding of the Islamic Republic of Iran as it meticulously documents critical junctures in the history of RJ. Whenever Iran is concerned, there is a common tendency to believe that 1979 was a turning point that transformed all the social structures from top to bottom. However, as Lob's detailed account reveals in the first chapter, there are rooted continuities between Shah's Iran and the Islamic Republic. Through dating back the roots of RJ to 1962, starting with the shah's White Revolution, Lob identifies the continuities of rural and development policies between the shah and the Islamic Republic.As mentioned earlier, examining the parallel and dual institutional structure of the Iranian state is crucial for grasping the deeper social dynamics of the country. In chapter 2, the author's account of the official establishment of RJ as a revolutionary organization parallel to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1979 shows how in the early days of the Islamic Republic this Janus-faced state structure was constructed. Moreover, by demonstrating RJ's contribution to the suppression of leftist factions in the revolutionary process, Lob provides fresh insights into how the Islamic Republic instrumentalized revolutionary organizations to consolidate its political power.It should be noted that the new revolutionary state eliminated its rivals not only through coercive mechanisms but also through its development policies. As Lob analytically argues in chapter 3, while IRGC acted as a hard power to eliminate internal and external opponents of the Islamic revolution, RJ as a soft power integrated all segments of Iranian society into the revolution with its development policies in the early post-revolutionary years. This process has resulted in the consolidation of RJ as an institutional mechanism and its transformation from a revolutionary organization into a ministry. With this analysis, Lob presents how state-making in the Islamic Republic was intertwined with revolutionary practices and institutions.In fact, the Islamic Republic consolidated its power through para-governmental organizations such as IRGC, RJ, and various Bonyads. This is why those para-governmental organizations formed the core institutional structure of the new state. Therefore, it is very interesting that RJ as a revolutionary organization was demobilized and institutionalized as a government ministry, but not as a para-governmental organization. The author examines the reasons behind this policy in chapter 4, where he concentrates on the role of factionalism in the bureaucratization of RJ. Moreover, the writer cogently argues that factionalism in the case of RJ, with its expansion and centralization as a ministry, reflects factionalism in the larger state.Even though RJ was institutionalized as a ministry, it established close connections with those other para-governmental organizations during the course of the Islamic Republic. As it is revealed by the author, RJ has used legal loopholes to establish manufacturing and construction companies through Foundation of Oppressed and War Veterans since 1986. This is a significant finding as it reflects that the division between public and private sectors or between civil and political spheres is blurred in the case of Iran. This results in the emergence of public, private, or semi-public institutions having similar functions. In chapter 5 the author correctly notes that the overlap in the duties between the Ministry of RJ and Ministry of Agriculture resulted in President Mohammad Khatami's decision to unite these two ministries in 2001. Lob demonstrates how the dual institutional structure of the Islamic Republic operated in the case of RJ. The office of the representative of the Supreme Leader, which overshadowed the office of the Minister, remained in power even after RJ had been transformed into a ministry. In fact, the RJ itself has benefited from this dual state structure to access state funds. For example, in instances when the government has not allocated sufficient funds to the RJ, it applied directly to the Supreme Leader to increase its funding.This blurred distinction between public and private sectors continued even after the RJ was transformed into a ministry. In chapter 6 Lob spells out how the RJ played a major role in political, economic, and ideological spheres of the Islamic Republic. First of all, it was an effective institution in the factional politics of Iran. For instance, during President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's election campaign the ministry was instrumentalized to gather support for the Principlists. Second, with its developmental and populist policies, the RJ was an effective instrument of the state's social, cultural, and ideological practices. Finally, the RJ was also a major player in the economic sphere as its affiliated firms received projects and contracts through their contacts with the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad. Therefore, contextualizing the broad role of RJ provides a clearer understanding of the wider political, economic, and ideological institutional structures of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Lob's detailed account contributes to such efforts.Iran's Reconstruction Jihad also advances our understanding of the Islamic Republic's foreign policy. The examination of the foreign policy of Iran provided in chapters 7 and 8 is insightful and original, in the sense that it is not a repetition of the existing literature, which mainly concentrates on Iran's relations with the United States or the Middle East, especially the Shiʿi populated regions. In chapter 7, the author thoughtfully concentrates on Iran's (and the RJ's) relations with Africa, where Sunnis or non-Muslims form the majority of the population. In chapter 8, on the other hand, Lob concentrates on Islamic Republic's relations with Lebanon with his original and special effort to present the role of RJ in the development policies of the country. This initiative clearly indicates how Iranian foreign policy has changed with the transformation of a radical interpretation of revolution into a pragmatic understanding of it.The analysis of the RJ's developmental activities in Sub-Saharan Africa is a major piece of scholarship and contribution to the literature on Iran, since there are few studies concentrating on how Iran uses soft power in foreign policymaking. Lob, on the other hand, presents the instrumentalization of development by Iranian policymakers to reinforce the country's security by establishing diplomatic and commercial relations with Africa. Since its establishment, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been subjected to various international sanctions. Lob's examination of the Islamic Republic's relations with Africa also reveals how Iranian policymakers use relations with African states to mitigate isolation and circumvent sanctions. In this sense, the book stands out for its discussion of the importance and possibilities of South-South cooperation, as well as its limits.Even though there is an enormous literature on the Islamic Republic's relations with Lebanon, Lob was still able to produce an original contribution in chapter 8 with his specific concentration on the role of the RJ in Lebanon. The book discusses how the motivation to export revolution has resulted in RJ's policy of supporting and sponsoring Hizballah's effort to establish a similar organization. This led to the creation of Lebanese version of the RJ called Jihad al-Bina. This focus enabled the author to depict the complex relationship between Hizballah, IRGC, RJ, and Jihad al-Bina and to make remarkable contributions to the existing scholarship on Iran-Lebanon relations.One of the other crucial contributions of the book is that it traces the transformation of the cultural role of RJ and the concept of Jihad. At the last chapter, while discussing what the concept of “jihadi culture and management” means and why Iranian politicians and officials were frequently using the term, the author also presents the current political landscape in the Islamic Republic of Iran. By providing examples from politicians of different factions such as the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani, and the conservative Speaker of the Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the writer scrutinizes how the concept of jihadi culture is being propagated by the modern political elites. The discussion vividly reveals the rising popularity and visibility of the term “jihadi culture and management” during and after Rouhani's victory in 2013 presidential elections.In short, Lob's major piece of scholarship meticulously researches the instrumentalization of the RJ by the Islamic government to consolidate power at home and abroad. This detailed analysis of RJ as the soft power of the Iranian state also mirrors the Islamic Republic's broader evolution throughout the study. If there is a criticism of Lob's study, it is that the author indicates (in chapter 5) that even though there is rent-seeking behavior in the country the Iranian state cannot be defined as a rentier state. Therefore, he prefers to label the Islamic Republic of Iran as a developmental state. The criticism here is not related to the arguments or the findings of the author, but with his insufficient elaboration of the discussion. Both rentier state and developmental state literatures are built upon deep-rooted scholarly heritages and theoretical discussions. Therefore, describing the Iranian state as a developmental state without debating the vast literature on the topic, the author weakens his argument and therefore superficially approaches the discussion. However, the central aim of the book is not to discuss the Iranian state model, and so this criticism does not go beyond an intellectual contention.Another criticism may be directed at the analysis of the RJ's policies in Lebanon in chapter 8. The author at a certain point focuses more on Lebanon's version of RJ, instead of digging out the impact of the policies of the RJ and Iran in Lebanon. Even though he presents the complex relationship between these two organizations in the chapter, as a reader of a book structured around a specific institution, I expected to see more on the RJ's role in Lebanon. Despite these minor points of criticism, the book is a valuable resource and a comprehensive study that advances our understanding of the current political, economic, and ideological structures of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Archaeology · Business · Consolidation (business) · Political science · Rural development · History · Islamic Studies and History

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