Iran and the international system

Much attention in the West has focused on Iran as a problem country. This book challenges the representations of Iran as a hostile regional power led by ideologues, and goes further by discussing how international relations are viewed from inside Iran itself, outlining the factors which underpin Iranian thinking on international relations and considering what role Iran, as a large and significant country in the Middle East, ought to play in a fairly constructed international system. The book is written by leading scholars and policy makers from inside, as well as from outside, Iran a.

1. Iran's religious fundaments and principles in interaction with the international system / Ali Akbar Alikhani -- 2. Political rationality of the Islamic Republic of Iran in comparison with contemporary fundamentalism / Morteza Bahrani -- 3. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the ideal international system / Dehghani Firooz-Abadi -- 4. Peace and security in the international system : an Iranian approach / Asghar Eftekhary -- 5. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the international system : clash with the domination paradigm / Manouchehr Mohammadi -- 6. Transnational culture and international relations of Iran / Mohammad Javad Nateghpour -- 7. Two different faces of Iran-West relations : incompatibility of offical levels with everday life / Vahid Shalchi -- 8. Domestic politics and foreign policy in contemporary Iran / Anoushiravan Ehteshami -- 9. Foreign policy as social construction / Hossein Salimi -- 10. Discourse and violence : the friend-enemy conjunction in contemporary Iranian-American relations / Arshin Adib-Moghaddam -- 11. Energy security and Iran's role in international relations / Paul Rogers -- 12. The impact of Iran's tenth presidential elections on its relations with the EU and Mediterranean states / Mahboubeh Sadeghinia -- 13. The 2009 Iranian presidential elections in comparative perspective / Luciano Zaccara -- 14. Concluding thoughts / Nadir Gohari.

In this book experts examine the main features of Iran's foreign policy from 1980 - 1990, assessing relations with the UN, the superpowers, Europe, the GCC and Iraq. Although the Islamic revolution made Iran a significant force in the international arena, it is argued that the ending of the Cold War and the rise of Iraq as the dominant power in the Gulf are now creating a very different set of foreign policy challenges and options