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Dr. Hassan-Yari is Professor of Political Science and the Special Assistant to the Principal for National and International Liaison (SAPNIL) at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC-C). A native of Iran, Dr. Hassan-Yari earned his BA from the University of Ferdowsi (Mashhad, Iran), an MA and a PhD in Political Science (International Relations) from University of Québec in Montreal (Université du Québec à Montréal, UQAM). Dr. Hassan-Yari has taught at the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Iran, University of Lyon III (Institut d’Études Politiques) in Lyon, France, UQAM, University of Montreal (Canada) and at the Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada). His areas of interest and teaching include Middle East Issues, Geopolitics, Canadian foreign and defense policy, nuclear proliferation and Comparative Politics. Dr. Hassan-Yari has been the author and coeditor of a number of books and articles.
Since its inception in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) has duplicated almost all state institutions. It retained the institutions that existed under the old regime while creating new Islamic agencies to perform the same tasks. The Iranian armed forces did not escape this process. Under the monarchy, the armed forces were called the Artesh Shahanshahi or Imperial Army. Although called the “Army,” or Artesh, the force consisted of the three main services (army, navy, and air force) plus the Imperial Guard Divisions (Gard-e Javidan) and the Army Aviation Command (Hawa Nirouz).
