Worldviews of Aspiring Powers by Nau Henry R.;Ollapally Deepa M.;

Author:Nau, Henry R.;Ollapally, Deepa M.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Foreign Policy Perspectives

Acknowledging the lines outside of which Iran’s foreign policy debates do not step, in the following section we will lay out three perspectives. We identify their proponents as Islamic Idealists, Regional Power Balancers, and Global Power Balancers. The last two categories are further divided into two, producing five distinct categories. We divide regional balancers into offensive and defensive realists and the global balancers into rejectionists and accommodationists.

The key to understanding foreign policy perspectives in Iran is to view them not as well-differentiated and fully articulated positions held by distinct groups of people. It is quite possible for key individuals to hold several positions at the same time or move from one position to another in reaction to the country’s changed security environment. For instance, a look at any speech given by Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reveals his positioning as both a pan-Islamic idealist and an offensive regional power balancer. He has even been accused of being a global rejectionist. Former president Mohammad Khatami has also positioned himself as both an ecumenical idealist and a defensive regional power balancer. Political scientist Amir Haji-Yousefi argues that in his policies Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has shown himself to be both an offensive realist and a global accommodationist at the same time.17

It is for these reasons that in the following sections, attention will be mostly focused on positions and arguments made rather than individuals or institutions holding those positions. Even individual thinkers quoted as proponents of one position or another should not be considered as holding that position alone.

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