Fearing Iran Collectively Through the NCRI

This article analyzes the transformation of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) through its political front, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), focusing on its shift from an anti-imperialist guerrilla group to a prominent diasporic actor advancing Iranophobic narratives in Western policy circles. Becoming an Iranophobic nexus through the deliberate mimicry of dominant Western discourses portraying Iran as an exceptional and existential threat, this article demonstrates how the PMOI has successfully reinvented itself in the 21th century. Specifically, this article argues that the NCRI strategically amplifies and reproduces Western anxieties surrounding Iran to position itself as an essential partner for neoconservative policymakers. This strategic realignment has enabled the NCRI to consolidate significant political influence, marginalize moderate diaspora voices, and establish itself firmly within hegemonic Western security imaginaries, despite its lack of a social base and popular legitimacy among Iranians inside the country and in the diaspora.