Critical analysis of the Trump administration's Action to designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) using critical terrorism studies (CTS) and Immanent Critique methods

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, International Relations Department, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Political Science Department, Faculty of Humanities, Yasuj University, Yasuj, Iran

10.29252/piaj.2022.226648.1234

Abstract

On April 8, 2019, the Trump administration put the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC) on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations(FTO) by publishing a fact sheet. Although this action of the Trump administration can be analyzed with different theoretical frameworks, in this research critical terrorism studies(CTS) has been chosen for the purpose of critical analysis of this action. CTS is a critical orientation or perspective that tries to maintain its ontological, epistemological and methodological distance from the common and prevailing prejudices in the mainstream of terrorism studies(TS). The methodology of this research is based on the method of "Immanent Critique"(as a qualitative method) along with the use of valid statistics(as a quantitative method). Therefore, this study seeks to answer the main question that "Using critical terrorism studies(CTS), how is the action of the Trump administration in placing the name of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the list of foreign terrorist organizations(FTO) evaluated?" , presents the hypothesis that "by using the CTS as a theoretical framework and using the method of "Immanent Critique" along with the reliable statistics of western Think Tanks, will extract shortcomings and contradictions of placing the designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization(FTO) by examining the definition provided by The concept of "terrorism" mentioned in Section 2656f (d) (2) of Title 22 of the United States Code and it has been shown It is given that even according to this definition, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is not a terrorist organization and for four reasons borrowed from critical terrorism studies(CTS), this action is merely a political labeling.

Keywords

References

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Political and International Approaches
Volume 13, Issue 4 - Serial Number 70
September 2022
Pages 231-261

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