Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Volume:5 Issue: 4, Winter 2015

International relations in Iran is characterized by plurality and complexity of discourses. This paper aims to introduce IR “discursive complex” in Iran, its formation, and its dynamics especially during the post-revolutionary era. Five major discourses – realism, Islamism, anti-imperialism, critical dialogism, and international society – are analyzed in terms of the narrative they make about the “reality” of contemporary international life, the main binary opposition on which they build their narrative, their “authorized producers”, their various articulations in the course of time, the identities they construct, and their hegemonic or counter/hegemonic position in foreign policy circles and academic life in different periods.

The aim of this article is to study changes in the Iran’s foreign policy during the administration of Hassan Rouhani. The paper uses four ontological and epistemological approaches in analysis of foreign policy which constitutes explanatory individualism, interpretive individualism, explanatory collectivism and interpretive collectivism. The major question of the present research is: how changes in the foreign policy of the eleventh government can be explained by using each of the four analytical approaches. In response, the author hypothesizes that in order to reach a complete understanding of changes in Iran’s foreign policy during President Rouhani’s administration, a simultaneous attention to all the four analytical approaches is required; the present article considers these approaches as the “contextual level of analysis”. Exploring the four levels of foreign policy analysis, the author concludes that to have a complete understanding of an actor’s foreign policy in the international system, the contextual level of analysis should be used as it combines different levels in its approach. This level of analysis includes material and ideational dimensions in both minor and major levels, all at the same time.

Iranian myths have left imprints on Iran’s political and international vision throughout history. Using a constructivist approach, I try to demonstrate that these myths have had functional significance as meaning constructs to form and shape Iranian identity and Iranians’ international attitude. These myths have been also relevant when the Iranian people presented definitions for themselves, others and the outer world. It is, however, evident that other meaning constructs like history, religion, traditions and language have had roles to play in formation of Iranian identity. All such meaning constructs are in a constant connection with each other and all together shape Iranian identity. That said, the primary question of the present research is، what is the role and function of Iranian myths in delineation of Iranians’ identity and their attitudes towards the international system. In response, I hypothesize that, Iranian myths, as important common meaning constructs in the Iranian mindset, have contributed to the formation of national identity and Iranian international attitude by drawing Iran’s territorial boundaries, expression of Iranian collective particularities and defining of Iranian society’s functions as a nation-state. To test this hypothesis the concepts related to Iranian myths and the mythic functions during different historical eras are studied.

The intense rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is more complicated than disagreement over certain interests. The article tries to conceptualize the causes of tensions between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East. The main question of the article is ‘what are the root causes of the tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East?’ The research hypothesis is ‘the root causes for the tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East are more on ideational interests than material ones. In fact, different types of ideational resources are the basis for the competing interests of Iran and Saudi Arabia in the very strategic region. Thus, to understand the root causes of confrontational policy between Iran and Saudi Arabia, one should try to understand the key ideational elements of the two countries which affect their foreign policy orientations in the region.

The West’s support for Israel constitutes a central controversy in the Middle Eastern Studies; knowledge production about the question of Israel/Palestine in Western academia, where a pro-Israeli is the dominant one, is one significant extension of that controversy. This article starts with considering ‘fresh developments in the field’, to examine the real dimensions, and the capacity to introduce a fundamental transformation in the field of the Palestine studies in the West. Formulated within Kuhn’s theory of ‘paradigm’ and the conditions he proposes for a ‘paradigm shift’, this study analyses the way the ‘counter attack’, by those supporting the pro-Israeli paradigm, behaves towards the new challenge posed by a competing (alternative) paradigm. According to the main argument of this study, what those supporting the pro-Israeli paradigm do/say, when dealing with the alternative knowledge, might suggest that a paradigm shift, or a similar occurrence, is taking place in Western universities.

Since China started its economic reforms in 1978, it has achieved remarkable economic growth and development, presenting itself as a rising economic power in the international system. The rapid economic growth has increased China’s energy consumption especially that of crude oil. Before economic reform, China relied on domestic oil resources. However, the trend of ever-increasing oil consumption turned China into a net importer of crude oil to meet the petroleum needs of its industry sector since 1993. As a result, Beijing has established closer ties with the major oil-exporting countries. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relative position of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and its vast oil resources in China’s Middle East policy. The author examines China’s foreign policy goals, China’s foreign policy toward the Middle East and the status of GCC members in this policy.