Limits of Defiance?: The Role of Post-Soviet Nations in Modernisation of the Iranian Armed Forces and Defence Industries

Abstract

The dissertation contributes to the fields of international relations and security studies by investigating the defence cooperation between Iran and the Soviet Union and former Soviet republics of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus from 1989 to 2015. It addresses the following core research question: What factors have influenced the defence cooperation between Iran and (post-)Soviet nations aimed at building up Iranian defence potential? The research presented in this dissertation deals with conventional arms and their design, development and production technologies, other military and military-related know-how and equipment. The study is based on open sources: the information already published by the media and specialised publications, as well as certain unpublished, but nevertheless open, records of government agencies and private entities from the countries involved. As a result, the study draws from sources in the original languages of the involved parties: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Persian, besides relying on Western and regional publications.