Russia and Iran in the Shadow of Ukraine: Ontological Security, Authoritarian Regionalism, and the Politics of Alignment

ABSTRACT This article assesses two complementary books on Russo-Iranian relations reshaped by the Ukraine war: Ghoncheh Tazmini’s Power Couple, which theorizes a “dynamic alignment” grounded in ontological security and civilizational narratives, and Abdolrasool Divsallar’s edited volume Struggle for Alliance, which maps empirical trends in security, energy, and sanctions evasion under “authoritarian regionalism.” Read together, they depict a durable but non-allied partnership: intensified by war, drones, and isolation, yet bounded by third-party constraints (Israel, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye), economic frictions (INSTC bottlenecks, overlapping exports), nuclear caution, and persistent asymmetry that places Iran in a junior role. The article critiques both volumes’ state-centric focus, foregrounding Iranian opposition perspectives that frame the Moscow turn as dependency and highlighting Syria’s evolving division of labor and the post-Assad recalibration. The Twelve-Day War further confirms Russia’s mediator-first posture and selective military-technical cooperation. Conceptually, the books invite spectrum-based alliance theory; policy-wise, they counsel calibrated responses that distinguish symbolic alignment from operational integration.