China’s Belt & Road Initiative and Iran’s Policy Optionsin Transportation

The China’s Belt & Road initiative, impacted the process of policy planning of the target countries. The pivotal question of this paper is how has the Belt & Road Initiative impacted Iran’s policy planning? What factors have changed Iran’s strategy towards the Belt & Road Initiative? The findings of the paper show that Iran’s pivot to East is a sign of the country’s strategy toward this initiative. This impact is evident in Iran-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Programme on the macro level and in transportation sector in practical level. How and why Belt & Road Initiative affected Iran’s policy-making in the 11th and 12th administrations within the framework of “Theory of Alliance of Interests” is analyzed in the paper. This approach describes the change of policy arising from two factors of “ external fluctuations and shocks on the policy system” , and “ learning practice of policy-makers in the process of decision-making”.