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<p>In its three decade history, the Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Englab Eslami, or Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, evolved  from the relatively modest role of ad hoc security apparatus into its current state as an independent and professional, armed force enmeshed in the political and economic life of modern Iran. In tracing the history of the Guards, one  cannot help but take note of how multiple rounds of U.S. sanctions have set the stage for this transformation.  Sanctions imposed under the Carter and Reagan administrations created a defense gap by first severing ties between  the Iranian and U.S. defense industries and then choking the flow of U.S. war materiel through intermediaries. The  Guards, buoyed by their connection to Iranian defense conglomerate DIO, rose with the tide of domestic wartime  spending; emerging from the Iran-Iraq War with a considerable construction and manufacturing base. The Guards  were then able to leverage this base to dominate postwar reconstruction in Iran, spurred by a gap in foreign  development activity exacerbated by the Clinton era sanctions. Today, smart sanctions appear to continue this trend  by the creation of a finance gap that is tilting the ongoing privatization of Iran's burgeoning public sector squarely in  favor of the Guards.
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<br>Subjects: Politics, Practical</div>
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McKnight, Richard L.</div>
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