The Role of Qassem Soleimani's "Proxy Resistance" Strategy in the Withdrawal of Military Forces America from the Region

Subject Areas :

Morteza Mahmoudvand ¹ , Kayhan Barzgar ² , Ibrahim Mottaghi ³

1 - PhD student of International Relations, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Sciences, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Associate Professor of International Relations, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Sciences, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
3 - Professor of Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2023-08-07 Accepted : 2023-08-07 Published : 2022-11-22

Keywords: West Asia, Axis of Resistance, Qassem Soleimani, Proxy Resistance, State-Building Process, Post-Conflict Situation,

Abstract :

This article investigates that how the “proxy resistance” strategy of Major General Qasem Soleimani has led to the weakening of the U.S. oriented political-security trends, ultimately providing the grounds for the gradual withdrawal of U.S. military forces from the areas of the axis of resistance. The hypothesis of this article is that with creation of a network of Iran’s friendly militia forces in the region and their overt and covert operations against the U.S. traditional hegemonic trend, commander Soleimani was able to heighten the costs of the direct presence American forces on the grounds in the West Asia region. Indeed, the U.S. inability to manage the regional crises in the post-conflict situation and its failure in the designated state-building projects has caused the weakening of U.S. role in the crises field of the region. This geopolitical development, has led to the inefficacy of the U.S. traditional role and influence over regional political groups in forming and continuing coalitional governments, subsequently providing the opportunity for opposing with the U.S. military presence in the host countries. To examine this hypothesis, the authors apply the defensive realism theory that considers the countries’ reaction to the threat in time of crisis based on increasing their relative security. The authors use historical-analytical method to conduct this research. Field and qualitative observations have also impacted the degree of authors’ understanding of this concept. In the end, this article concludes that the proxy resistance strategy of general Soleimani has weakened the position of the U.S. in world politics and before its regional allies, and this development has enhanced the regionalism trend in the West Asia region in favor of Iran.