The Geopolitics of Emotion and Iran-US Relations (with Emphasis on Iran Hostage Crisis)

Iran's relations to the US has got a shorter life than other great powers. CIA coup in Iran in 1953 and seizing the US embassy on 1978, has formed the beginning and the end of real political relations of the two countries. This article has analyzed the conquest of this place from a particular aspect. The main question of the article is that, what is the relation of the seizure of American embassy in Tehran, to Americans exeptionalism? The assumption of the article is that: “the most important component of the American strategic culture is the idea that this country is exceptional. With the seizure of US embassy, this country got humiliated, and it challenged the US. Perception of exceptionalism, therefore after the event, the country has always been looking for a way to compensate this feeling of shame.” The mentioned assumption has been extracted from the conceptual framework of “The Geopolitics of Emotion”. The article is based on a descriptive-analytic study and reading numerous memories of political officials and American hostages. With assuming the loss of America's strategic interests due to the fall of the Pahlavi regime, this article has considered the American exeptionalism as one of the major reasons of its strategic behaviors towards the Islamic Republic over the past 40 years.