Explaining Iran's foreign policy: Khomeini's Operational Code?
This thesis aims to study Iran's foreign policy behaviour in the period between 1979 and 1988; with a primary emphasis on Imam Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran during the same period. The thesis will seek to identify Khomeini's Operational Code (a sub-domain of the belief system and an often neglected variable in foreign policy analysis) and link it to the actual foreign policy behaviour. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis techniques will be utilized to help identity and analyze Khomeini's Operational Code. Two case studies will be used to shed more light on the relationship between Khomeini's Operational Code and Iran's foreign policy. The first case-study is Khomeini's endorsement of the American Embassy seizure by Iranian students in November 1979. The second case-study is Khomeini's acceptance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 598, in July 1988, that ended the Iran-Iraq war.