An Inclusive Conceptual Framework for Understanding and Analyzing Iranian Foreign Policy

Over the past four decades, a broad range of researches have been done and published by different academics and institutes across the world on the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran which can be divided into ideological, discourse, security, theoretical and historical analysis. The most fundamental deficiency of these researches is that they have not been able to build a comprehensive conceptual framework to have a clear and fair understanding of the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran due to normative, aspirational or reductionistic approaches. Instead of applying scientific methods to investigate and analyze Iranian foreign policy, they have merely concentrated on one of its dimensions, variables, regions or aspects which have created more ambiguity and confusion. Therefore, the main purpose of this essay is to attempt to provide a comprehensive, coherent and scientific theoretical framework in order to have a broader comprehension of the Iranian foreign policy’s evolution and development. In response to the question of what conceptual framework is more efficient to understand Iran's foreign policy? Three conceptual packages have been provided. Looking at Iran's foreign policy as a socio-political phenomenon, looking at Iran's foreign policy from the perspective of universalism or particularism in international relations theory. Each of the aforementioned packages is manifested in a clear and concise proposition and is described in three different sections.