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Multiple Dualities: Seeking the Patterns in Iran’s Foreign Policy

Year 2019, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 37 - 54, 02.01.2019
https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.456272

Abstract

As one of the most significant actors of the region, Iran’s interactions with great powers (as well as regional powers and non-state actors) have come under scrutiny. This article adopts an historical account and suggests a framework to study Iran’s foreign policy. The framework is contextually built with a multi-level approach to specify the independent and intervening variables of Iran’s foreign policy through the light of neoclassical realist theory. In this context, it is argued that the independent variables of Iran’s foreign policy are geopolitics, threat perceptions and balance of power politics. These systemic variables are filtered through nationalism, theological and revolutionary ideology and policy making mechanisms. 

References

  • Abrahamian, Ervand. “Ali Shariati: Ideologue of the Iranian revolution.” Merip Reports 102 (1982): 24-8.
  • ———. A History of Modern Iran. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  • Akbarzadeh, Shahram, and James Barry. “State Identity in Iranian Foreign Policy.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 43, no. 4 (2016): 613-29.
  • Arjomand, Said Amir. After Khomeini: Iran under His Successors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Arshad, Lubna. “Internal Dynamics of Iran's Foreign Policy.” Pakistan Horizon 57, no. 1 (2004): 47-53.
  • Barzegar, Kayhan. “Iran and the Shiite Crescent: Myths and Realities.” Journal of World Affairs 87 (2008): 87-99.
  • ———. “Iran's Foreign Policy Strategy after Saddam.” The Washington Quarterly 33, no. 1 (2010): 173-89.
  • ———. “Regionalism in Iran's Foreign Policy.” Iran Review, February 7, 2010. http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Regionalism_in_Iran_s_Foreign_Policy.htm.
  • Boekle, Henning, Volker Rittberger, and Wolfgang Wagner. “Constructivist Foreign Policy Theory.” In German Foreign Policy since Unification. Theories and Case Studies, edited by Volker Rittberger (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001): 105-37.
  • Byman, Daniel, Shahram Chubin, Anoushiravan Ehteshami, and Jerrold D. Green. Iran's Security Policy in the Post-Revolutionary Era. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2001. https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1320.html.
  • Dahl, Robert A. “The Concept of Power.” Systems Research and Behavioral Science 2, no. 3 (1957): 201-15.
  • Ehteshami, Anoushiravan. “The Foreign Policy of Iran.” In The Foreign Policies of Middle East States, edited by R. Hinnebusch and A. Ehteshami, 283-309. Boulder, Co.: Lynne Rienner, 2002.
  • ———, and Raymond A. Hinnebusch. Syria and Iran: Middle powers in a penetrated regional system. New York: Routledge, 2002.
  • Farhi, Farideh, and Saideh Lotfian. “Iran’s Post-Revolution Foreign Policy Puzzle.” Worldviews of Aspiring Powers: Domestic Foreign Policy Debates in China, India, Iran, Japan and Russia (2012): 115-46.
  • Goldman, Kjell. Change and Stability in Foreign Policy: The Problems and Possibilities of Détente. Baltimore, MD: Project MUSE, 2015. Holsti, K. J. “The Concept of Power in the Study of International Relations.” Background 7, no. 4 (1964): 179-94.
  • Hunter, Shireen T. “Iran and the Spread of Revolutionary Islam.” Third World Quarterly 10, no. 2 (1988): 730-749.
  • Kamrava, Mehran. “Iran and Its Persian Gulf Neighbors,” in Iranian Foreign Policy since 2001: Alone in the World, edited by Thomas Juneau and Sam Razavi, 104-19. London: Routledge, 2013.
  • Karimifard, Hossein. “Constructivism, National Identity and Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Asian Social Science 8, no. 2 (2012): 239-46.
  • Kayaoğlu, Turan. “Constructing the Dialogue of Civilizations in World Politics: A case of global Islamic activism.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 23, no. 2 (2012): 129-47.
  • Kim, Hong-Cheol. “The Paradox of Power Asymmetry: When and Why Do Weaker States Challenge US Hegemony?” All Azimuth 5, no. 2 (2016): 5-28.
  • Lobell, Steven E., Norrin M. Ripsman, and Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, eds., Neoclassical Realism, the State, and Foreign Policy. New York, NY: Cambridge Press, 2009.
  • Litvak, Meir. “The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Holocaust: Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism.” The Journal of Israeli History 25, no. 1 (2006): 267-84.
  • Maleki, Abbas. “Decision Making in Iran’s Foreign Policy: A Heuristic Approach.” Journal of Social Affairs 73 (2002): 39-53.
  • Milani, Mohsen M. The Making of Iran's Islamic Revolution: From monarchy to Islamic Republic. New York & Oxon: Routledge, 2018.
  • Moravcsik, Andrew. “Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics.” International Organization 51, no. 4 (1997): 513-53.
  • Morgenthau, Hans J. Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace. New York: Knopf, distributed by Random House, 1972.
  • ———. Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace. 5th. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. 1978.
  • Moshirzadeh, Homeira. “Discursive Foundations of Iran’s Nuclear Policy.” Security Dialogue 38, no.4 (2007): 521-43.
  • Negahban, Behbod. “Who Makes Iran's Foreign Policy: The Revolutionary Guard and Factional Politics in the Formulation of Iranian Foreign Policy.” Yale Journal of International Affairs 12 (2017): 33-45.
  • Nye Jr., Joseph S., Gideon Rachman, Walter Russell Mead, John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, Peter D. Feaver, Christopher Gelpi et. al. The Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy: Insights and Evidence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012.
  • Osiewicz, Przemysław. “The Iranian Foreign Policy in the Persian Gulf Region under the Rule of President Hassan Rouhani: Continuity of Change.” Przegląd Strategiczny 7 (2014): 249-62.
  • Owen, John M. “How Liberalism Produces Democratic Peace.” International Security 19, no. 2 (1994): 87-125.
  • Przeczek, Sermin. “Iran's Foreign Policy under President Rouhani: Pledges versus Reality.” Middle Eastern Analysis/Ortadogu Analiz 5, no. 57 (2013): 64-71.
  • Prizel, Ilya. National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and leadership in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Vol. 103. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  • Ramazani, Rouhollah K. “Ideology and pragmatism in Iran's foreign policy.” The Middle East Journal 58, no. 4 (2004): 1-11.
  • ———. “Iran’s Export of the Revolution: Politics, Ends and Means.” In The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact, edited by John Esposito, 41-57. Miami: Florida International University Press, 1990.
  • ———. “Iran's Foreign Policy: Contending Orientations.” Middle East Journal 43, no. 2 (1989): 202-17.
  • ———. “Reflections on Iran’s Foreign Policy.” Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs 1, no. 1 (2010): 11-43.
  • Rathbun, Brian. “A Rose by any Other Name: Neoclassical realism as the logical and necessary extension of structural realism.” Security Studies 17, no. 2 (2008): 294-321.
  • Rezaei, Farhad and Ronen A. Cohen. “Iran’s Nuclear Program and the Israeli-Iranian Rivalry in the Position Revolutionary Era.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 41 (2014): 442-60.
  • Rose, Gideon. “Neoclassical Realism and Theories of Foreign Policy.” World Politics 51, no. 1 (1998):144-72.
  • Rubin, Barry. “Iran: The Rise of a Regional Power.” Middle East Review of International Affairs 10, no. 3 (2006): 142-51.
  • Schweller, Randall. “Unanswered Threats: A Neoclassical Realist Theory of Underbalancing.” International Security 29, no. 2 (2004): 159-201.
  • Sherrill, Clifton. “Iranian Foreign Policy: A Neoclassical Realist View.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, The Hyatt Regency New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 9, 2014.
  • Shin, Gi-Wook. “South Korean Anti-Americanism: A Comparative Perspective.” Asian Survey 36, no. 8 (1996): 787-803.
  • Takeyh, Ray. Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic. New York: Times Books, 2006.
  • The White House. “President Delivers State of the Union Address.” January 29, 2002. Accessed February 4, 2018. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html.
  • U.S. Department of State. Iran's Foreign Policy, by Rouhollah K. Ramazani. Washington D.C. Office of External Research, 1981.
  • Vakil, Sanam. “Iran: Balancing East against West.” Washington Quarterly 29, no. 4 (2006): 51-65.
  • Waltz, Kenneth N. “International Politics is Not Foreign Policy.” Security Studies 6, no. 1 (1996): 54-7.
  • Wohlforth, William Curti. The Elusive Balance: Power and perceptions during the Cold War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
  • Yeşilyurt, Nuri. “Explaining Miscalculation and Maladaptation in Turkish Foreign Policy towards the Middle East during the Arab Uprisings: A Neoclassical Realist Perspective.” All Azimuth 6, no. 2 (2017): 65-83.
  • Zaccara, Luciano. “Iran’s Permanent Quest for Regional Power Status.” In Diplomatic Strategies of Nations in the Global South, edited by Jacqueline Braveboy-Wagner, 181-211. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
Year 2019, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 37 - 54, 02.01.2019
https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.456272

Abstract

References

  • Abrahamian, Ervand. “Ali Shariati: Ideologue of the Iranian revolution.” Merip Reports 102 (1982): 24-8.
  • ———. A History of Modern Iran. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  • Akbarzadeh, Shahram, and James Barry. “State Identity in Iranian Foreign Policy.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 43, no. 4 (2016): 613-29.
  • Arjomand, Said Amir. After Khomeini: Iran under His Successors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Arshad, Lubna. “Internal Dynamics of Iran's Foreign Policy.” Pakistan Horizon 57, no. 1 (2004): 47-53.
  • Barzegar, Kayhan. “Iran and the Shiite Crescent: Myths and Realities.” Journal of World Affairs 87 (2008): 87-99.
  • ———. “Iran's Foreign Policy Strategy after Saddam.” The Washington Quarterly 33, no. 1 (2010): 173-89.
  • ———. “Regionalism in Iran's Foreign Policy.” Iran Review, February 7, 2010. http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Regionalism_in_Iran_s_Foreign_Policy.htm.
  • Boekle, Henning, Volker Rittberger, and Wolfgang Wagner. “Constructivist Foreign Policy Theory.” In German Foreign Policy since Unification. Theories and Case Studies, edited by Volker Rittberger (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001): 105-37.
  • Byman, Daniel, Shahram Chubin, Anoushiravan Ehteshami, and Jerrold D. Green. Iran's Security Policy in the Post-Revolutionary Era. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2001. https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1320.html.
  • Dahl, Robert A. “The Concept of Power.” Systems Research and Behavioral Science 2, no. 3 (1957): 201-15.
  • Ehteshami, Anoushiravan. “The Foreign Policy of Iran.” In The Foreign Policies of Middle East States, edited by R. Hinnebusch and A. Ehteshami, 283-309. Boulder, Co.: Lynne Rienner, 2002.
  • ———, and Raymond A. Hinnebusch. Syria and Iran: Middle powers in a penetrated regional system. New York: Routledge, 2002.
  • Farhi, Farideh, and Saideh Lotfian. “Iran’s Post-Revolution Foreign Policy Puzzle.” Worldviews of Aspiring Powers: Domestic Foreign Policy Debates in China, India, Iran, Japan and Russia (2012): 115-46.
  • Goldman, Kjell. Change and Stability in Foreign Policy: The Problems and Possibilities of Détente. Baltimore, MD: Project MUSE, 2015. Holsti, K. J. “The Concept of Power in the Study of International Relations.” Background 7, no. 4 (1964): 179-94.
  • Hunter, Shireen T. “Iran and the Spread of Revolutionary Islam.” Third World Quarterly 10, no. 2 (1988): 730-749.
  • Kamrava, Mehran. “Iran and Its Persian Gulf Neighbors,” in Iranian Foreign Policy since 2001: Alone in the World, edited by Thomas Juneau and Sam Razavi, 104-19. London: Routledge, 2013.
  • Karimifard, Hossein. “Constructivism, National Identity and Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Asian Social Science 8, no. 2 (2012): 239-46.
  • Kayaoğlu, Turan. “Constructing the Dialogue of Civilizations in World Politics: A case of global Islamic activism.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 23, no. 2 (2012): 129-47.
  • Kim, Hong-Cheol. “The Paradox of Power Asymmetry: When and Why Do Weaker States Challenge US Hegemony?” All Azimuth 5, no. 2 (2016): 5-28.
  • Lobell, Steven E., Norrin M. Ripsman, and Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, eds., Neoclassical Realism, the State, and Foreign Policy. New York, NY: Cambridge Press, 2009.
  • Litvak, Meir. “The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Holocaust: Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism.” The Journal of Israeli History 25, no. 1 (2006): 267-84.
  • Maleki, Abbas. “Decision Making in Iran’s Foreign Policy: A Heuristic Approach.” Journal of Social Affairs 73 (2002): 39-53.
  • Milani, Mohsen M. The Making of Iran's Islamic Revolution: From monarchy to Islamic Republic. New York & Oxon: Routledge, 2018.
  • Moravcsik, Andrew. “Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics.” International Organization 51, no. 4 (1997): 513-53.
  • Morgenthau, Hans J. Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace. New York: Knopf, distributed by Random House, 1972.
  • ———. Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace. 5th. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. 1978.
  • Moshirzadeh, Homeira. “Discursive Foundations of Iran’s Nuclear Policy.” Security Dialogue 38, no.4 (2007): 521-43.
  • Negahban, Behbod. “Who Makes Iran's Foreign Policy: The Revolutionary Guard and Factional Politics in the Formulation of Iranian Foreign Policy.” Yale Journal of International Affairs 12 (2017): 33-45.
  • Nye Jr., Joseph S., Gideon Rachman, Walter Russell Mead, John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, Peter D. Feaver, Christopher Gelpi et. al. The Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy: Insights and Evidence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012.
  • Osiewicz, Przemysław. “The Iranian Foreign Policy in the Persian Gulf Region under the Rule of President Hassan Rouhani: Continuity of Change.” Przegląd Strategiczny 7 (2014): 249-62.
  • Owen, John M. “How Liberalism Produces Democratic Peace.” International Security 19, no. 2 (1994): 87-125.
  • Przeczek, Sermin. “Iran's Foreign Policy under President Rouhani: Pledges versus Reality.” Middle Eastern Analysis/Ortadogu Analiz 5, no. 57 (2013): 64-71.
  • Prizel, Ilya. National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and leadership in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Vol. 103. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  • Ramazani, Rouhollah K. “Ideology and pragmatism in Iran's foreign policy.” The Middle East Journal 58, no. 4 (2004): 1-11.
  • ———. “Iran’s Export of the Revolution: Politics, Ends and Means.” In The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact, edited by John Esposito, 41-57. Miami: Florida International University Press, 1990.
  • ———. “Iran's Foreign Policy: Contending Orientations.” Middle East Journal 43, no. 2 (1989): 202-17.
  • ———. “Reflections on Iran’s Foreign Policy.” Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs 1, no. 1 (2010): 11-43.
  • Rathbun, Brian. “A Rose by any Other Name: Neoclassical realism as the logical and necessary extension of structural realism.” Security Studies 17, no. 2 (2008): 294-321.
  • Rezaei, Farhad and Ronen A. Cohen. “Iran’s Nuclear Program and the Israeli-Iranian Rivalry in the Position Revolutionary Era.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 41 (2014): 442-60.
  • Rose, Gideon. “Neoclassical Realism and Theories of Foreign Policy.” World Politics 51, no. 1 (1998):144-72.
  • Rubin, Barry. “Iran: The Rise of a Regional Power.” Middle East Review of International Affairs 10, no. 3 (2006): 142-51.
  • Schweller, Randall. “Unanswered Threats: A Neoclassical Realist Theory of Underbalancing.” International Security 29, no. 2 (2004): 159-201.
  • Sherrill, Clifton. “Iranian Foreign Policy: A Neoclassical Realist View.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, The Hyatt Regency New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 9, 2014.
  • Shin, Gi-Wook. “South Korean Anti-Americanism: A Comparative Perspective.” Asian Survey 36, no. 8 (1996): 787-803.
  • Takeyh, Ray. Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic. New York: Times Books, 2006.
  • The White House. “President Delivers State of the Union Address.” January 29, 2002. Accessed February 4, 2018. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html.
  • U.S. Department of State. Iran's Foreign Policy, by Rouhollah K. Ramazani. Washington D.C. Office of External Research, 1981.
  • Vakil, Sanam. “Iran: Balancing East against West.” Washington Quarterly 29, no. 4 (2006): 51-65.
  • Waltz, Kenneth N. “International Politics is Not Foreign Policy.” Security Studies 6, no. 1 (1996): 54-7.
  • Wohlforth, William Curti. The Elusive Balance: Power and perceptions during the Cold War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
  • Yeşilyurt, Nuri. “Explaining Miscalculation and Maladaptation in Turkish Foreign Policy towards the Middle East during the Arab Uprisings: A Neoclassical Realist Perspective.” All Azimuth 6, no. 2 (2017): 65-83.
  • Zaccara, Luciano. “Iran’s Permanent Quest for Regional Power Status.” In Diplomatic Strategies of Nations in the Global South, edited by Jacqueline Braveboy-Wagner, 181-211. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
There are 52 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Tuğba Bayar

Publication Date January 2, 2019
Published in Issue Year 2019 Volume: 8 Issue: 1

Cite

Chicago Bayar, Tuğba. “Multiple Dualities: Seeking the Patterns in Iran’s Foreign Policy”. All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace 8, no. 1 (January 2019): 37-54. https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.456272.

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