Five months after the latest war with Iran began, it is becoming apparent that this conflict is about far more than missiles, sanctions or oil tankers. It is exposing a deeper truth about modern warfare: democratic nations often struggle to understand the strategic culture of authoritarian regimes.
Western governments have long assumed that economic hardship eventually forces political compromise. That assumption has shaped decades of sanctions policy against Iran. Yet history repeatedly demonstrates that revolutionary regimes frequently value ideological survival over economic prosperity. They are often willing to impose extraordinary hardship on their own populations if doing so preserves their hold on power.
