How Identity Affects Iran-European Union Relations (2003-2020)

After the Iranian Islamic Revolution, the Islamic Revolution Discourse and the resulting system transformed the Iranian domestic and foreign policies under the influence of cultural and normative elements, values, and identity. Based on an Islamic-revolutionary identity, the Islamic Revolution Discourse opposes the West-oriented discourse of Liberalism-Secularism. The West and European powers have always had eyes on Iran because of its geo-strategic and geo-political position. The Iran-European Union (EU) relations have gone through ups and downs because of their differing identities and outlooks on issues; identity gaps and contradictions have damaged the relations and posed a number of threats to the bilateral ties. In different periods, the Islamic Revolution Discourse has made the Iran-EU relations to diverge. This study intends to answer the question that how identity has affected the Iran-EU ties. The results showed that the ideology of the Islamic Revolution Discourse, which is based on religious values and the Islamic Civilization revival, is at odds with EU’s Liberalistic-Secularistic identity breeding different attitudes toward issues such as human rights, terrorism, etc. Therefore, this study sought to analyze the identity of Iran and EU within the framework of Laclau and Mouffe’s Theory of Discourse and Hegemony using discourse analysis research method.