Afshon Ostovar is an associate professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and the author of Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards during a ceremony to mark the 27th anniversary of the Islamic revolution at the mausoleum of Iran's late founder of Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran on Feb. 1, 2006.
Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani attends Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's meeting with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Tehran, Iran on Sept. 18, 2016.
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 28: Iran President Hassan Rouhani sits before addressing the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters on September 28, 2015 in New York City. The ongoing war in Syria and the refugee crisis it has spawned are playing a backdrop to this years 70th annual General Assembly meeting of global leaders. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
