When Iran appointed veteran military leader Hossein Dehghan as its new national security and intelligence chief this week, he replaced Ali Larijani, who was killed in an attack. US-Israeli military attackThe governance passed seamlessly from one doctorate-holder to the next.
Ali Larijani Had a PhD in Western Philosophy. dehghan Has a PhD in Public Administration. In this sense, this transfer was entirely typical of how the Islamic Republic has consolidated its upper reaches for nearly five decades.
Among its presidents, foreign ministers, military commanders and senior officials, it is a cleric-led, religion-driven regime. Replaced Nirankush Shah in 1979 There are a notable number of people with advanced university degrees in its ranks.
Some earned them in the UK; Some even in America. Many received their PhDs from the University of Tehran or institutions created specifically for this purpose by the regime. His subjects range from 18th century rationalist ideas german philosopher Immanuel Kant, For Islamic jurisprudence, for international self-defense.
Read this also ‘Five O’Clock Follies’: Iran says it’s Vietnam redux for America. What does it mean and what happened 60 years ago
Philosophy PhD killed by Israel
For decades, Ali Larijani was described as the “cool, pragmatic face” of the Iranian establishment. He wrote at least three books on Kant and also negotiated nuclear agreements with the West.
He earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and computer science, and both a master’s degree and doctorate in Western philosophy at the University of Tehran, writing his thesis on Kant.
supreme of iran National Security Council, of which he was secretary, he was called “The Righteous Servant of God, Martyr Dr. Ali Larijani”. For his formal education the title of ‘Doctor’ stood next to ‘Shaheed’, a term with a more religious connotation. In practice, within an ayatollah-led regime, this is not a contradiction.
Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told CNN about Larijani after the assassination: “The Islamic Republic is designed to avoid the loss of individuals, but it is not easy to replace people with such diverse experience. He was a true insider who spent decades at the center of the system, which gave him credibility among different parts of the elite.”
Management PhD who came after Larijani
Dehghan holds a master’s degree in metallurgy and a PhD in public administration from the University of Tehran. Analysts say he is a very different personality.
According to a terrorist tracker portalCounter Extremism Project, he is considered a key figure in the formation of Hezbollah in Lebanon, modeling it after the elite Iranian military wing, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. He was also among the key decision makers of Iran–Iraq War, 1980–88.
However, their contact with the West is limited.
In that regard, the current Foreign Minister of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, He has been a regular spokesperson for the regime, especially during the war.
British PhD in Foreign Affairs
Araghchi, whose nightly appearances on CNN, ABC and other channels have made him a household name among avid news consumers, has a degree from a British university.
Araghchi obtained a PhD in Politics and Government from the University of Kent in 1996 under the supervision of Professor David McLellan, a British scholar of Marxism. According to Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, a think tank in Washington, her dissertation analyzed how the Western concept of political participation can co-exist with the Islamic doctrine that sovereignty belongs only to God.
He wrote: “Araghchi’s dissertation, ‘The Development of the Concept of Political Participation in Twentieth-Century Islamic Political Thought’, analyzes the compatibility of the Western concept of political participation with religion in Islamic societies. Araghchi concludes that modern Islamic political thought has sought to reconcile God’s absolute sovereignty with popular sovereignty, fusing elements of Western democracy with Islamic principles to create democratic institutions within the framework of Islamic law. Is integrated.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry website lists Kent’s doctorate as the foundation of his career which led him to ambassadorial posts in Finland and Japan, nuclear talks in Vienna and ultimately to the ministerial chair.
Slavin also wrote after his appointment in 2024 that his credentials “could partially protect him from domestic criticism if Iran makes concessions on key issues”. Meaning, education, including PhD, is not just an academic qualification but also enhances stature in the eyes of people.
American PhD on self defense
Before Araghchi, the most internationally prominent Iranian doctorate-holders were Mohammad Jawad Zarif, Who was also the Foreign Minister from 2013 to 2021.
He obtained his PhD in International Studies from the University of Denver in Colorado, USA in 1988 with the thesis titled ‘Self-Defence in International Law and Policy’. His doctoral committee supervisor, Professor Tom Rowe, told the university, according to his records, “He was extremely talented, had seriousness of purpose and put in tremendous effort. Javad Zarif is a man who believes in the power of dialogue and diplomacy.”
The legal framework he studied in Colorado focused on the states. right of self defense Under international law. Following the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian commander, Javad Zarif was quoted as saying, “In exercising our right to self-defense, we are bound by international law, unlike the United States, which is not bound by international law.”
Glasgow PhD on Islamic Law
Hasan spiritualPresident of Iran from 2013 to 2021, he studied for a doctorate in Scotland. His doctoral thesis, which was submitted to Glasgow Caledonian University in 1999 under his birth name Hassan Fereydoun, is titled ‘The flexibility of Sharia (Islamic law) in the context of the Iranian experience’, the BBC reports.
A quote published by a consortium of researchers called the United States Institute of Peace Reading: “This thesis verifies that no law in Islam is immutable. Immutability applies only to beliefs, values, and ultimate goals in Sharia. Laws that appear immutable even in the ritual part of the religion are not in fact immutable and are subject to change under special circumstances.”
Dr Mahdi Zahra, one of Rouhani’s supervisors at Glasgow Caledonian, told the BBC, “From our discussions, I learned that his approach to Sharia law was modern and reformist.”
Why so many PhDs? What do experts say
The accumulation of doctoral degrees in Iran’s leadership is no coincidence. Scholars who have studied the Islamic Republic point to the decisions taken at the time of its establishment.
“The number of senior government appointees has increased from among graduates of Imam Sadegh and Imam Hussein universities. Trained at these institutions, such appointments are designed to maintain the government’s ideological dominance that maintains post-revolutionary Iran’s conservatism and government longevity,” Dr. Sara Bazoobandhi of the GIGA Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg wrote in a 2024 paper on Iran’s higher education system.
The newspaper directly quoted then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in an address to students in 2016: “My advice to revolutionary students and professors is that they should play their role. We have told the youth that they are the officers of the soft war. You university professors are also the commanders of this soft war.”
Professor Mehrzad Boroujerdi of the University of Edinburgh conducted a four-decade study of more than 2,500 members of the Iranian political elite.peacekeeperA research association.
He wrote, “Only 11 percent of the current political elite of the Islamic Republic have studied outside Iran. Their preferred places of study, in order of priority, have been the United States, Western Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Australia.”
He also noted the regime’s focus: “The need to educate and train revolutionary men and women forced the Islamic Republic to create new cadre training schools such as Imam Sadiq University, Imam Hossein University, Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute, and the University of Judicial Sciences and Administrative Services. Many of the emerging elites are nowadays either instructors or recent graduates of these highly ideological institutions.”
However, a PhD alone is never the whole story, he said.
He explained, “Authoritarian systems demand the loyalty of conformist functionaries who believe that being part of the inner sanctum entitles them to full benefits from the state apparatus and patronage.” “Iranian experts who thrive within the current system believe that economic fortune, political fame and legal leniency are reserved for those who have managed to establish themselves within the ever-strengthening circle of trust built around the supreme leader.” He argued further.
