Security in Rouhani’s and Raeisi’s Foreign Policy discourses: Different elements and formations

The definition of security can affect many discursive conflicts in the domestic politics and more importantly in foreign policy. Particularly in Iran, the theme of security has a significant role in constructing foreign policy discourses. Various governments have tried to organize their own discursive approaches to address these issues and solve them. The article aims to examine how security is constructed in the discourses of the two recent Iran’s Presidents, namely Ebrahim Raisi and Hassan Rouhani. The main question of the article is what approaches did Hassan Rouhani and Ibrahim Raisi have towards the issue of security in the initial period their offices, ie the first year? The purpose of this article is to identify the key elements of security in Iran's foreign policy discourses that helps to better understanding of Iran's foreign policy. Based on the lene Hansen’s theoretical framework and Laclau and Moff's method of discourse analysis, the article probes how security is articulated, how the ‘other’ constructed and how dislocation is occurred in these discourses. In the one hand, the article argues that, Rouhani's security discourse is based on common interests as its master signifier, in opposition to violence and extremism as its other. In the other hand, Raisi’s security discourse is based on justice as its master signifier, in opposition to dominance and intervention of foreign powers. Accordingly, the conceptual and methodological framework is explained. Then the security discourse of Rouhani and Raisi is analyzed and also compared to each other.