Meaning Structure of Neo-Conservatives and I. R. Iran's Foreign Policy

Going through a moderate rout until 2005, I. R. Iran's foreign policy witnessed the return of a political current, named neo-conservatives, during 2005-2013 experienced a return to revolutionary radicalism. By presuming a relation between foreign policy and understanding and by emphasizing meaning structures, this research seeks to answer this basic question: What was the impact of neo-conservative's meaning structure on I. R. Iran's foreign policy in Ahmadinejad's Administration? In this direction, the author has extracted the fundamental elements of meaning structure of neo-conservatives in the international politics arena through analyzing Ahmadinejad's statements, and then has examined the relationship between macro directions of Iran's foreign policy in this period and neo-conservative's meaning structure. The findings indicate that the fundamental elements of neo-conservative's meaning structure (dualism, friend/enemy relation, divine responsibility, material destiny, eschatology, exaggeration, anachronism and reductionism) have been reflected in the macro directions of Ahmadinejad's Administration foreign policy. In other words, return to preliminary revolutionary principles, anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism, outlook to the east, outlook to the south, resistance and lack of reconciliation regarding nuclear issue have deep roots in neo-conservative's meaning structure; a structure that is constructed from combining political Islam and revolutionary left ideology in the Islamic Revolution, lived experience of Iran-Iraq War and identity threat during Reform Era, and it produces meaning in the inter-subjective context of neo-conservatives.