Strategic Lessons Learned by Armed Forces Commanders in the Development and Sustainable Security of the 'Southeast Region of the Country' from the Victory of the Islamic Revolution to 2021

Today, the development and maintenance of security across the territorial domain of any country is one of the primary and important responsibilities of the political system governing that country. Considering the core policies of the system, in line with sustainable development and security, the attention of security, law enforcement, and even military organizations has been directed toward this sensitive and security-critical region of the country. The prolonged presence of armed forces in this area over many years has accumulated very valuable and important experiences among senior commanders. The present article was conducted using a field-based method through semi-structured interviews with 14 senior commanders of the armed forces who were directly involved with the security and developmental issues of the southeastern region of the country. After preparing the interview transcripts, the main categories were identified through a coding process, and strategic lessons learned from the armed forces commanders were developed. The analysis of the findings was conducted using qualitative content analysis, and for reliability assessment, the Pi-score test was applied, resulting in a reliability equivalent to 0.8. For the validity of the research, Lincoln and Guba's evaluation method was used. Finally, the strategic actions, policies, and objectives of the armed forces in the direction of 'sustainable development and security' were formulated. In the southeastern region of the country, it was determined from the victory of the Islamic Revolution until the end of the year 1400.