{"id":1277,"date":"2026-06-13T06:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T06:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/?p=1277"},"modified":"2026-06-21T04:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T04:06:23","slug":"iran-the-onion-structure-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/iran-the-onion-structure-of-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran: The Onion Structure of Power"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><strong><b>Why the West Misreads Iran\u2019s Resilience. By Raghu Kondori in The Times of Israel<\/b><\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>For nearly half a century, Western capitals have predicted the collapse of the Islamic Republic. Every major crisis has been interpreted as the beginning of the end: the Iran-Iraq War, student uprisings, the Green Movement, the maximum pressure campaign, the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, economic crises, regional confrontations, assassinations of senior military figures, and internal factional rivalries. The prediction changes. The conclusion remains the same. This time, the regime will fall. Yet the system survives.This persistence is usually explained through familiar concepts:<\/p>\n<p>Read the full article on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.timesofisrael.com\/iran-the-onion-structure-of-power\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Times of Israel<\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1283\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1283\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1283 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Onion-Iran--300x170.jpg\" alt=\"Why the West Misreads Iran\u2019s Resilience. By Raghu Kondori in The Times of Israel\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Onion-Iran--300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Onion-Iran--768x434.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Onion-Iran--800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/shahvand.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Onion-Iran-.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1283\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">By Raghu Kondori in The Times of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why the West Misreads Iran\u2019s Resilience. By Raghu Kondori in The Times of Israel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1283,"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":[1],"tags":[12,69,15,272,273],"class_list":["post-1277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-iran","tag-irgc","tag-israel","tag-onion-structure","tag-times-of-israel"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Iran: The Onion Structure of Power - Shahvand think tank<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why the West Misreads Iran\u2019s Resilience: The Onion Structure of Power. 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