The Comparative Study of American Foreign Policy during the Presidency of George W. Bush and Obama toward Iran

The relationship between the United States and Iran has always been faced with many ups and downs, so that the United States has attached Iran, in various periods of time, with different means and methods, from the 1953 Iranian coup d’état to the military strike against Iran in Tabas, provoking Iraq to invade Iran and weapons aid to this country during the war, as well as supporting the internal opposition of the regime and the cruel sanctions in recent years. In this study, we want to comparatively study George W. Bush and Obama’s policies toward Iran. The incident of September 11, 2001, collapse of the twin towers of global trade in the United States caused a huge turning point in its foreign policy. In this context, Bush put forward a preemptive war plan for countering terrorism, as well as the Greater Middle East project became the leader of the US foreign policy. After this incident, he divided the countries of the world into two categories, sponsors of terrorism and anti-terrorism, and called Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, the axis of evil. When Obama came to power in 2008 took the slogan of change, he defined the policy of multilateralism and internationalism as part of his doctrine. Although he pursued the policy of interaction and diplomacy of negotiation in the Iranian nuclear issue, he was pushing for pressure on Iran to change its behavior, like Bush. Obama and Bush’s first goal and priority is to control Iran’s power and strike the regional balance of power in favor of the security and national interests of the Zionist regime; but with different methods; one with force and threat (hard power), the other with negotiation and threat (smart power), one through changing the regime and the other through changing the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The question of research is that what is the distinctive feature of the US foreign policy toward Iran during Barack Obama’s presidency compared to Bush’s presidency? In the following, this hypothesis was proven that the US foreign policy regarding Iran during Obama’s presidency continues Bush’s policy, with the difference that he chose to stop the forcible way based on coercion and threat, and used a more lenient approach coupled with active diplomacy and multilateralism to pursue foreign policy goals.