International Relations in Iran and its Discursive Dynamics

International relations in Iran is characterized by plurality and complexity of discourses. This paper aims to introduce IR “discursive complex” in Iran, its formation, and its dynamics especially during the post-revolutionary era. Five major discourses – realism, Islamism, anti-imperialism, critical dialogism, and international society – are analyzed in terms of the narrative they make about the “reality” of contemporary international life, the main binary opposition on which they build their narrative, their “authorized producers”, their various articulations in the course of time, the identities they construct, and their hegemonic or counter/hegemonic position in foreign policy circles and academic life in different periods.