Dialectics of Post-1979 Iranian Foreign Policy in West Asia
| Author | Seyed Mohammad Houshisadat |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020881718805295 |
| Published date | 01 October 2018 |
| Date | 01 October 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Dialectics of Post-
1979 Iranian Foreign
Policy in West Asia
Seyed Mohammad Houshisadat1
Abstract
The article focuses on Iran’s foreign relations with the West Asia and North
Africa (WANA) region since the Islamic Revolution. It looks at interplay of
domestic and transnational variables. The domestic factors include the beliefs
system of the policymakers, interest of political survival, political economy, the
geopolitics of Persia and also geographical realm. The transnational variables
consist of the global order, symmetrical and asymmetrical interdependence as
well as the regional systemic status. These major components are vital in Persia’s
relationships with the regional and trans-regional players in the WANA region.
Unlike the Iranian negative or conflictual dialectics, the Iranian positive or coop-
erative dialectics is the main consequence of the agent–structure’s interactions
in this region.
Keywords
Foreign policy, foreign relations, West Asia, Islamic Republic, Islamic Revolution,
Iran, Middle East
Introduction
Having been ruled by a range of monarchical dynasties for almost three millennia,
the end of monarchy in Iran was relatively sudden in 1979. Iran’s post-revolution-
ary political system is called the Islamic Republic, reflecting its dual character,
which derives from a combination of republicanism with Islam. The revolution
fundamentally altered the country’s foreign policy priorities as well as its alliance
structures. The foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) in the West
Asia and North Africa (WANA) region has been independent and undergone
Article
International Studies
55(4) 315–338
2018 Jawaharlal Nehru University
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0020881718805295
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/isq
1 Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Corresponding author:
Seyed Mohammad Houshisadat, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran
1417466191, Iran.
E-mails: s.m.houshisadat@ut.ac.ir; mohammad.houshialsadat@utoronto.ca
316 International Studies 55(4)
changes in the past four decades. However, some major principles of Iranian for-
eign policy such as opposition to foreign hegemony as well as support for Muslims
have always been consistent.
The field of foreign policy of Iran in the West Asian region has, to some extent,
matured in terms of monographic research and secondary literature. Some of the
authors such as Ehteshami (2017), Hunter (2010), Amir Arjomand (2009) and
Abrahamian (2008) have confined themselves to the emergence of modern Iran
and the post-revolutionary foreign policy. Others, such as Foltz (2016), Warnaar
(2016) and Rieffer-Flanagan (2013), have attempted to produce grand narratives
of Iranian history and foreign policy. Ramazani (2009) has been analysing the
Iranian foreign policy since the Islamic Revolution. Ehteshami and Zweiri (2011)
and Homa Katouzian (2003, 2009) focus on internal and external conditions
effecting Iranian foreign policy. Nonetheless, Katouzian’s account is a historical
survey and an analytical as well as empirical interpretation of Iran’s history and
foreign policy, encompassing not only political but also economic, diplomatic,
intellectual and cultural developments. Iranian foreign relations in the WANA
region during the post-Arab uprisings in Akbarzadeh and Conduit (2016) have
explained cooperation and conflict between Iran and the regional powers and actors.
Most writings tend to emphasize Iran’s foreign policy in the post-revolutionary era,
not providing an overview of Persian foreign policy since the Islamic Revolution
comparatively and theoretically in different governments. Hence, there is a need
to theoretically elucidate the Iranian foreign relations in the WANA region since
the establishment of the Islamic Republic. This article is an attempt to analyse
Iran’s foreign policy towards the WANA region. It examines the less explored
four decades of Iranian foreign relations in the region and expands the domain,
variables and indicators in which the theories of foreign policy can be evaluated.
The Framework
Foreign policy can be seen as a state/agent’s management of external relations
within the international structure. Therefore, both structure and agency need to be
brought into consideration. We can either explain state behaviour as a conse-
quence of the structure of the international system or observe it as the outcome of
policymaking within the state (Smith, Dunne, & Hadfield, 2016, p. 6). Some, for
example, Rosenau (1971) and Snyder, Bruck, and Sapin (2002) argue that both
agency and structure are involved in foreign policy with decisions being made
(agency) but always within a set of constraints (structure). Epistemologically, the
objectivist approach studies the subject (agent) being impressed by the object
(structure) in foreign policy.
James Rosenau in his ‘pre-theory of foreign policy’ includes individual varia-
bles (agent) as one of his five sets of independent variables thought to be impor-
tant in understanding and explaining foreign policy behaviour. Moving towards a
theory of the ‘National–International Linkage’, he defines linkage as ‘any recur-
rent sequence of behaviour that originates in one national or international system
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