Exploring the Signification of "security" in Islamic Republic of Iran Foreign Policy

The IRI Foreign policy usually assumed as an apparent and coherent concept. This paper will show that IRI foreign policy is a floating signifier and always there have been serious discursive conflicts about its signification. By focusing on signification of "security" in opponent discourses in IRI foreign policy, present article will show that during IRI, there have been a fundamental contradict between two main discourses, i.e. cooperative and counter-hegemonic discourses. In fact, their articulations of security are absolutely different from each other, especially in relation to international order. The first one that was embodied in fifth and sixth states after Iran-Iraq war (then in seventh and eighth and after an interruption, in eleventh states, in updated versions) regarded international economic and political cooperation as a main way to security. In contrast, the opposite discourse that is mainly embodied in ninth and tenth states, under the presidency of Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, considered resistance against international order, the real way to security. Precisely Speaking, these two opposite significations of security can't be reconciled in one signifier at the same time. So, the signifier took opposite meanings periodically.