Complimentary Nature of JCPOA and Iran's Middle East Security Strategy: Intertwined Security

Iran has been faced with a plethora of security dilemmas in its Middle Eastern environment within the last decade. Such factors as the Iraqi and Syrian crises, rise of terrorist groups, U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and its growing closeness with the Arabs have led Iran to adopt the intertwined security strategy in the Middle East security sphere. Within this strategy, any instance of insecurity for Iran would be considered as insecurity for the region. Under such circumstances, the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Program of Action (JCPOA) and the departure of the nuclear issue from Iran’s foreign policy agenda has heightened the capacity of Iranian diplomatic apparatus in managing regional developments. Drawing upon an analytical method and defensive neo-realist theory, the author seeks to examine the relationship between the JCPOA and the intertwined security strategy. He concludes that the agreement as one based on positive sum has the potential of being expanded to other regional issues, serving as a solution to regional crises in a realist outlook. On this basis, the JCPOA and intertwined security strategy complement each other, leading to Iran’s active engagement in the resolution of regional crises by directing regional security equations to a win-win game.