[This opinion piece was contributed by Abraham Kwak, a columnist]
SEOUL, April 11 (AJP) - As nearly 25 percent of the world's maritime oil trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz daily, the Islamic Republic of Iran projects power not merely as a modern religious state, but as a civilization defined by five millennia of continuous history. This distinction between a standard nation-state and a civilizational state explains why the nation remains an outlier in a region dominated by post-colonial Sunni monarchies. By leveraging the ethical framework of Zoroastrianism and the strategic memory of the Persian Empire, the leadership in Tehran navigates a hostile international landscape with a sense of historical exceptionalism that often complicates the calculations of Washington and Seoul.
Ethical shadow of Zoroaster
The foundations of this identity reach back to the Iranian plateau long before the arrival of Islam in the seventh century. Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest ethical religions, introduced a world defined by a cosmic struggle between truth and falsehood, light and darkness. This was a governing philosophy that underpinned the Achaemenid and Sassanid empires, emphasizing the moral responsibility of the individual. This dualistic worldview persisted long after the initial Arab conquests, eventually molding the character of the nation and granting the people a sense of being the center of a moral universe. This belief continues to inform the high-stakes diplomacy and the rigid internal policies of the modern era.
Safavid pivot to identity
While often viewed as a monolith of Shia Islam, the religious identity of the state was a deliberate strategic choice made centuries after the initial Islamic expansion. For nearly nine hundred years after the seventh century, the region remained majority Sunni. It was not until 1501 that the Safavid dynasty initiated a mass conversion to Twelver Shia Islam, specifically to consolidate a distinct Persian identity in opposition to the Sunni Ottoman Empire. This historical pivot confirms that religious affiliation has long served as a tool for maintaining civilizational distinction. Today, the nation utilizes Shia networks across Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen not as a purely religious crusade, but as a pragmatic means of restoring a traditional Persian sphere of influence.
Geopolitics of the civilizational gate
The Strait of Hormuz serves as the physical manifestation of this long-term memory. To global markets, the waterway is a vital chokepoint for energy; to the leadership in Tehran, it is the ancient gateway of the empire. From the Sassanid era to the present, the ability to control this maritime threshold has been the ultimate proof of regional sovereignty. Threats to disrupt the flow of oil are rarely about the commodity itself. Instead, they are signals that no global order can function in the Middle East without the consent of the Persian gatekeeper. It is a strategy born from the realization that those who control the crossroads of the world dictate the terms of engagement with global powers.
Paradox of the Cyrus legacy
The current hostility toward Israel represents a sharp departure from the foundational narratives of the Persian past. The historical record shows that Cyrus the Great liberated the Jewish people from Babylonian captivity in 539 B.C. and facilitated the rebuilding of the Second Temple. This legacy of ancient cooperation suggests that the present state of total war is a product of the 1979 revolution and the subsequent need for the regime to claim moral leadership in the Muslim world. By positioning itself as the primary defender of the Palestinian cause, the government secures a degree of legitimacy that transcends the traditional Persian-Arab divide.
The survival of the state remains tied to the balance between the mosque and the throne. While religious rhetoric provides the public language of the government, the logic of its actions remains rooted in the preservation of a civilizational legacy that predates the current international system. The friction in the Middle East is a structural clash between a modern global order and a state that remembers a time when it set its own rules. Any resolution to regional instability requires an acknowledgment that the leadership in Tehran is acting on a timeline that far exceeds the immediate diplomatic calendar.
The Iranian government maintains its standing as a primary energy gatekeeper in the Persian Gulf.
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