On the morning of Sunday, marking one month since the onset of US and Israeli aggression against Iran, one of the country’s principal academic centers came under attack, with parts of it destroyed. Research and educational buildings at Iran University of Science and Technology—one of the oldest and most active scientific and academic institutions in the country—sustained damage in the assault. The university stands among Iran’s leading hubs of scientific research, with a distinguished record in knowledge production and in bridging academia and industry, having brought numerous outputs into the industrialization cycle. The attack on Iran University of Science and Technology is not the first instance of a brutal military assault on the country’s scientific institutions; the American–Zionist adversary had previously targeted universities such as Imam Hossein University on multiple occasions.
Iran University of Science and Technology is not merely an educational institution; it is a network of researchers, students, laboratories, and research groups that underpin a significant share of strategic technologies, core industries, advanced engineering, and infrastructural systems. Targeting such an institution amounts to striking at the “engineering heart” and “productive capacity” of the country in question. In contemporary warfare, the destruction of scientific centers is strategically comparable to the destruction of factories or military bases, as its impact on a country’s scientific and industrial future is both deep and long-lasting. Over decades, this university has trained a body of experts, engineers, designers, and technical managers who play key roles across various economic and industrial sectors. Eliminating or paralyzing such an institution effectively disrupts the cycle of knowledge transfer and the training of future generations of specialists. Modern warfare is less a battle over existing assets than a contest over the “human capital of the future.” An attack on a university is an attack on the cycle of education, research, and human capital formation—a cycle that a nation needs above all for post-war reconstruction.
Regrettably, it must be acknowledged that within the pattern of the Zionist enemy’s wars, attacks on scientific and academic infrastructure are no longer exceptional; rather, they form part of a strategy aimed—beyond physical destruction—at undermining a nation’s capacity to produce knowledge in the future. Recent developments indicate that even universities with purely scientific and technology-driven missions, such as Iran University of Science and Technology, can easily be selected as targets. This seemingly illogical choice, at its core, reflects deeper calculations directly tied to the concept of “national power.”
Attacking Universities: Motives and Objectives
In contemporary history, a recurring pattern can be observed: whenever war breaks out, the initial wave of attacks often extends beyond military and economic infrastructure to include scientific and academic centers, as well as scholarly figures. This phenomenon is not an accidental error but part of Israel’s war logic—a logic that extends beyond the battlefield into cognitive, structural, and future-oriented domains. Understanding this targeting requires recognition of a fundamental reality: war is not only about territory, but also about the capacity to produce the future.
The first strategic rationale lies in the role of universities in reproducing national power. Scientific institutions are engines of intellectual capital, technology, and skilled human resources—assets essential for any country’s reconstruction after war or even for sustaining resistance. Destroying a university or eliminating prominent professors significantly slows a nation’s recovery. In 21st-century warfare, scientific and technological capability has become as decisive as military strength; thus, weakening universities or removing scholars is effectively part of weakening national power. By destroying scientific infrastructure, the aggressor targets the opponent’s future—a future that may not be immediately visible but whose long-term consequences erode the country’s scientific and technological development.
The second factor is the importance of intellectual elites in crisis management and narrative formation. University professors and researchers are typically the primary sources of analysis, data, and scholarly narratives about war. Eliminating or suppressing this group amounts to constraining society’s rational mechanisms for understanding, analyzing, and responding to crisis. The aggressor seeks to empty the field of narrative-building of “expert analysts” so as to impose its preferred narrative in the resulting vacuum. Today’s war is a battle over public belief and collective awareness; removing researchers is akin to extinguishing the lights that can illuminate the darkness of war.
Third, scientific centers often serve as nodes of international networks. Researchers and academics are typically embedded in global scientific communities—structures that, through conferences, joint projects, and professional ties, can attract international attention and support. In times of war, these networks function as channels for information flow and global pressure. By striking these institutions, the aggressor effectively constrains the target society’s channels of communication with the outside world. This forms part of a broader strategy of international isolation: a society that is isolated and lacks a credible voice is more easily subjected to pressure and control.
Fourth, attacks on universities carry a heavy psychological cost. Universities are generally symbols of “civil life,” “progress,” “rationality,” and “hope for the future.” Their destruction sends a symbolic message to society: that even its safest and most dignified institutions are not immune from attack. This message strikes at the collective psyche and social cohesion. Creating a sense of vulnerability and psychological shock is one of the tactics used by the aggressor to erode the will of the target society. War is not waged solely with weapons; it advances through the erosion of morale as well.
Fifth, many universities and researchers operate in fields directly related with defense capabilities, key technologies, policymaking, and national development. Even if attacking a university is deemed inhumane, within the cold and calculated logic of war, the aggressor views it as eliminating potential hubs of innovation, resistance, and strategic technologies. From data science and defense engineering to medicine and the social sciences, universities create a network of intellectual and productive capacity, each component of which can influence societal resilience. The aggressor seeks to disrupt this network under any circumstances.
Attacks on scientific institutions signal a transformation in the nature of warfare. Whereas wars in the past were defined by territorial control and the capture of capitals, today the domination of intellectual institutions has gained far greater significance. In the logic of Iran’s adversaries, the ongoing conflict is a trans-material war—a struggle over the capacity to produce knowledge, manage society, control the future, and engineer narratives. Every strike on a university is an attack on a nation’s memory and its future. Within this framework, scientific institutions are not merely collateral victims of war but primary targets of a protracted, future-destroying strategy—one whose consequences become apparent long after the guns fall silent.
Accordingly, it is not far-fetched to expect that, as its aggression continues, the enemy may move on to target other universities and scientific and research centers, as well as additional professors and researchers. In this context, activating academic diplomacy—through correspondence, engagement, and outreach to scientific and academic institutions worldwide—has become doubly urgent. These institutions, and the global academic community at large, must be made to understand without delay that the enemy has a systematic program aimed at undermining Iran’s scientific and research capacity through the bombardment of universities.
NOURNEWS