Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-23T17:01:00.563Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Role of Social-Identity Beliefs in the Trends of Foreign Policy of Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

MEHDI HEDAYATI SHAHIDANI
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Guilan, Islamic Republic of IranMehdi.Hedayati88@gmail.com and Hedayati@guilan.ac.ir
ROMAN VLADIMIROVICH PENKOVTSEV
Affiliation:
Department of International Relations and Foreign Area Studies, Kazan Federal University, Russian FederationPRV1@mail.ru and Roman.Penkovtsev@kpfu.ru

Abstract

Values and elements of popular culture play an important role in shaping and implementing the foreign policy of Iran. In this paper, using content analysis and after explaining the characteristics of Iranian identity, the author seeks to investigate the implications of Iranian social beliefs on foreign policy. In other words, the author sets out to explore whether the perceptions and attitudes of Iranian identity at different historical periods have been the basis according to which Iranian politicians have followed the same model or not? For this purpose, three major components, the influence in the regional area, xenophobia, and conspiracy theorythat are complementary in nature, have been selected. Research findings illustrate that the long history of societies like Iran has been the raison d'etre for the recurrence of social beliefs and values in various political eras of such societies.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrahamian, Ervand (2008), A History of Modern Iran, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Afrasiabi, Kaveh. L. (2013), ‘Rouhani's post-populist foreign policy’, Asia Times, available at http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-020813.html (accessed 5 Jan 2015)Google Scholar
Alvandi, Roham (2014), Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah: The United States and Iran in the Cold War, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ansari, Ali (2012), the Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ataei, Farhad and Behestani, Majid (2011), hoviyat va gheyriyat dar zamane sheklgiriye keshvare Iran az manzare Shahname: didgahe ensanbavaraneye irani dar siyasate khareji, (‘Identity and Otherness at the Time of Iran's Formative Period: Shahnameh's Humanist Outlook on Foreign Policy’), Quarterly Foreign Relation, 2 (8) 79109. (In Persian)Google Scholar
Balali, Mehrdad (2014), ‘Iran says it rebuffed US invitation to join anti-Islamic State coalition’, Daily mail, available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2756298/Iran-dismisses-US-efforts-against-Islamic-State-self-serving.html (accessed 15 Nov 2014)Google Scholar
Behestani, Majid and Hedayati, Mehdi (2015), ‘Twin Pillars Policy: Engagement of US-Iran Foreign Affairs during the Last Two Decades of Pahlavi Dynasty’, Asian Social Science; 11 (2). 2031.Google Scholar
Bosworth, Clifford E. (2011), Turan, Encyclopedia Iranica, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/turan (accessed 2 January 2015)Google Scholar
Byman Daniel, L., Shahram, Chubin., Anoushiravan, Ehteshami., Jerrold, Green., (2001), Iran's Security Policy In the Post-Revolutionary Era, RAND Corporation.Google Scholar
Chernoff, Fred (2007), Theory and Metatheory in International Relations: Concepts and Contending Accounts, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Dehghani, S. Jalal (2009), Siyasat kharejiye gomhooriye Eslamiye Iran, (Foreign Policy of Islamic Republic of Iran), Tehran, Samt Press. (In Persian)Google Scholar
Ehteshami, Anoush (2008), Competing Powerbrokers of the Middle East: Iran and Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, Occasional Papers.Google Scholar
Ehteshami, Anoush and Zweiri, Mahjoob (2011), ‘Iran under Ahmadinejad; when crisis becomes a pattern’. In Ehteshami, Anoush and Zweiri, Mahjoob, Iran's Foreign Policy from Khatami to Ahmadinejad, New York: Ithaca Press.Google Scholar
Erdbrink, Thomas (2015), ‘Iran's Supreme Leader Is Skeptical of Nuclear Talks with U.S.’ New York Times, JAN. 7, 2015, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/world/middleeast/irans-supreme-leader-is-skeptical-of-nuclear-talks-with-us.html?mabReward=A4 (accessed 11 Jan 2015).Google Scholar
Fuller, Graham (1991), the center of the universe: the geopolitics of Iran, Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Fuller, Graham and Lesser, Ian (1995), a Sense of Siege; the Geopolitics of Islam and the West, Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Gasiorowski, Mark (1991), U.S. Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a Client State in Iran. New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gerges, Fawaz A. (1999), America and Political Islam: Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Graeme, Davies (2012), ‘the Changing Character of Iranian Foreign Policy’, in Beasley, Ryan et al. (eds.),, Foreign policy in Comparative Perspective: Domestic and International Influences on State Behavior, Washington: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Haji-Yousefi, Amir. H. (2010), ‘Iran's Foreign Policy during Ahmadinejad: From Confrontation to Accommodation’, paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Political Science Association. Concordia University, Canada, 2–3 June.Google Scholar
Hunter, Shireen (2010), Iran's Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era: Resisting the New International Order, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.Google Scholar
Inoguchi, Takashi (1999), ‘Peering into the Future by Looking Back: The Westphalian, Philadelphian, and Anti-Utopian Paradigms’, International Studies Review, 1 no. 2 summer Pp. 173191.Google Scholar
Jamalzadeh, Mohammad. A. (1955), Sar’ O Tahe Ye Karbas, (Beginning and end of a burlap), Tehran, M'arefat Publication. (In Persian)Google Scholar
Jervis, Robert (1976), Perception and Misperception in International Politics, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lambton, Ann K. S. (1991), Landlord and Peasant in Persia: A Study of Land Tenure and Land Revenue Administration, New York: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Lebow, Richard Ned (2008), ‘Identity and International Relations’, International Relations, 22 (4), 473492.Google Scholar
Milani, Abbas (2012), The Shah, A political biography of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Palgrave Macmillan, St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Morgenthau, Hans. J. (2005), Politics among Nations, New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Motaghi, Ibrahim and Postinchi, Zohre (2011), Siyasat kharejiye Iran; Olgooha va ravandha, (Iranian Foreign Policy; Models and Processes), Qom, Mofid University Press. (In Persian)Google Scholar
Nasr, Vali (2007), The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future, New York. London: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Niakooee, Seyed. A. (2013), ‘Contemporary Arab Uprisings: Different Processes and Outcomes’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 14 (3), 421445.Google Scholar
Nigosian, Solomon (1993), The Zoroastrian faith: tradition and modern research, London: McGill-Queen's Press.Google Scholar
Pahlavi, Mohammad Reza (1980), Answer to History, New York: Stein & Day Pub.Google Scholar
Petrushevsky, Ilya P. (1984), Eslam dar Iran, (Islam in Iran), Tehran: Payam Publication. (In Persian)Google Scholar
Pezeshkzad, Iraj (2006), My Uncle Napoleon, translated by; Dick Davis, New York: Modern Library.Google Scholar
Pipes, Daniel (1998), the Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ramezani, Rohollah (2013), Siasate Kharejie Jomhourie Eslamie Iran, (Foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran), Tehran, Nashr e Ney. (In Persian)Google Scholar
Rittberger, Volker (2004), ‘Approaches to the Study of Foreign Policy Derived from International Relations Theories’, Center for International Relations/Peace and Conflict Studies,, Institute for Political Science, Issue 46.Google Scholar
Sajjadpour, Seyyed Kazem (2007), Charchobhaye Mafhomi va Pajoheshi baraye talile siasat Kharejie Iran, (Conceptual frameworks for the study of Iran's foreign policy). Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (In Persian)Google Scholar
Salman, Sayyid (2003), A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism, London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Shawcross, William (1988), Shah's Last Ride, New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Zonis, Marvin and Joseph, Craig M. (1994), ‘Conspiracy Thinking in the Middle East’, Political Psychology: International Society of Political Psychology, 15 (3): 443459.Google Scholar