The Next Supreme Leader: Succession in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract : The 2009 presidential election in the Islamic Republic of Iran was one of the most transformative events in Iran's modern history. It bared important schisms within the nezam (political system) and pitted two key camps against one another, each with a very different vision of what Iran should be and what it should become. It appeared to solidify (at least for the near future) the dominance of the hard-line faction of the Islamist Right under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and continued an ongoing militarization of Iranian politics led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, firmly entrenching a more insular cadre of decisionmakers at the nezam's core.