{"id":1244,"date":"2026-05-31T04:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/?p=1244"},"modified":"2026-09-06T07:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T07:09:00","slug":"iran-the-onion-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/iran-the-onion-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran: The Onion State"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Iran\u2019s Onion Structure of Power. By Raghu Kondori, in \u201cThe Jerusalem Strategic Tribune\u201d<!--more--><\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\">Understanding Iran requires moving beyond conventional analytical frameworks, which have too often led to strategic misreadings of the country\u2019s complex system. In this in-depth analysis published in the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune, Iranian-French author and filmmaker Raghu Kondori offers a powerful metaphor: that of an \u201conion state,\u201d made up of successive layers of power, in which visible institutions represent only one part of a far deeper architecture. <\/span><span class=\"r-18u37iz\"><a class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1loqt21\" dir=\"ltr\" role=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/JSTribune?src=hashtag_click\">#JSTribune<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"r-18u37iz\"><a class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1loqt21\" dir=\"ltr\" role=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/JSTWorldWatch?src=hashtag_click\">#JSTWorldWatch<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"r-18u37iz\"><a class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1loqt21\" dir=\"ltr\" role=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/Iran?src=hashtag_click\">#Iran<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"r-18u37iz\"><a class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1loqt21\" dir=\"ltr\" role=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/OnionState?src=hashtag_click\">#OnionState<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Iran: The Onion State\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fnDxLIDIv2g?start=15&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>m<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran\u2019s Onion Structure of Power. By Raghu Kondori, in \u201cThe Jerusalem Strategic Tribune\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[12,258,25],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video-podcast","tag-iran","tag-irans-onion-structure","tag-raghu-kondori"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/onionState.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1564,"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions\/1564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}