Strategic Studies Quarterly

Abstract With the victory of the Islamic Revolution, many of the dominant discourses in various fields, including historical discourse, changed. Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei played a pivotal role in directing this discourse change as the leaders of the Islamic Republic. In the historical discourse of Iran after the revolution, talking about the historical understanding and insight of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei is very important; especially since the insights, methods and values accepted in historiography as well as the historical thinking of some Iranian historians after the revolution have been greatly influenced by their views and approaches. Given the importance of this issue, the present article seeks to answer the question of what is the place of history and historiography in the historical discourse of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei as the leaders of the Islamic Republic. And in the next step in the form of a comparative study, what are the similarities and differences between the historical discourse of these two leaders.

Abstract The paper intense to illustrate the scientific and theoretical strategy thought of Ayatollah Khamenei, based on realism and also it answers the question that whether Realism has the capacity and required capabilities to analyze and illustrate r their motivations, decisions, behaviors and approaches of the leadership as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The authors of the paper believe that the tragic decrees and thoughts of Ayatollah Khamenei are mainly aimed at increasing the relative security rather than relative power of the country. This kind of view is in fact a realistic knowledge of the issues and is bound to the ethical and Islamic frameworks. Therefore, the military goals and strategies of Ayatollah Khamenei are shaped towards active and as well as containment of the challenges emerged out of new developments in the field of urgent security issues of the country.