ABSTRACT
Iran has steadily built up its capabilities for asymmetric warfare in the Gulf since its defeat by the U.S. Navy and Air Force during the “tanker war” phase of the Iran-Iraq War in 1987-8. 1 It has focused on modernizing and improving its mix of missile, air, and naval warfare capabilities in ways that allow it to fi ght an unconventional or asymmetric war that try to compensate for its aging and limited conventional warfare capabilities and off set the superior forces the U.S., Britain, France, and the Gulf Cooperation Council states now deploy in the region. In doing so, it has tried to respond to the lessons of the fi rst Gulf War in 1990-1 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and demonstrate its potential ability to “close the Gulf ” both to give it leverage over neighboring states and deter an attack on Iran.
