Abstract:
Political culture represents a society`s widely held, traditional values and its fundamental practices; foreign policy decision makers tend to make policies that are compatible with their society`s political culture because they share, if not all, many of those values. Among the various factors influencing Iran`s foreign policy, the role of political culture seems to be rather underestimated. This article seeks to analyze the role of Iran`s political culture in shaping the country’s foreign policy, through a comparative study of the hardline foreign policy of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the moderate foreign policy of current president Hasan Rouhani. Accordingly, this paper`s main question is the following: What is the role of political culture in the change in Iran`s foreign policy during Ahmadinejad and Rouhani’s presidencies? Our main hypothesis is that the oscillation of Iran`s foreign policy between aggressiveness and moderation reflects Iran`s two simultaneous contradictory political cultures. In this theoretical-analytical paper, we apply a descriptive-explanatory method to examine our hypothesis. First, we will have a very short discussion of the various factors shaping Iran`s foreign policy. In the second section, we will shed light on the main elements of Iran`s political culture, which seem to influence the country’s foreign policy. The third section of this article will compare Iran’s foreign policy during President Ahmadinejad and President Rouhani; we will try to demonstrate how Iranian leaders who are stuck in Iran`s contradictory political cultures, have reacted and why. Finally, the impact of Iran`s political culture on its foreign policy change will be analyzed.
Machine summary:
Political Culture and Iran`s Foreign Policy: A Comparative Study of Iran`s Foreign Policy during Ahmadinejad and Rouhani Amir Mohammad Haji-Yousefi Associate Professor, Department of Political Sciences and International Relations, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran (am-yousefi@sbu.
The third section of this article will compare Iran’s foreign policy during President Ahmadinejad and President Rouhani; we will try to demonstrate how Iranian leaders who are stuck in Iran`s contradictory political cultures, have reacted and why.
Then, by comparing Iran`s foreign policy during Ahmadinejad and Rouhani, we will try to demonstrate how Iranian leaders who are stuck in Iran`s contradictory political cultures, have reacted and why.
We try to contribute to the academic endeavor by this last group by relating Iranian political culture 229 {مراجعه شود به فایل جدول الحاقی} 230 {مراجعه شود به فایل جدول الحاقی} Amir Mohammad Haji-Yousefi to its foreign policy behavior through a comparative analysis of Ahmadinejad`s aggressive and Rouhani`s moderate foreign policy behaviors.
In other words, Political Culture and Iran`s Foreign Policy: A Comparative Study of Iran`s Foreign Policy during Ahmadinejad and Rouhani Iranians and religious leaders of the 1979 Revolution opposed Mohammad Reza shah`s dictatorship, not so much for his tyranny, but his unconditional alliance with the United States and Israel.
Our main argument is that change in Iran`s foreign policy behavior from an aggressive one during Ahmadinejad to moderate one during Rouhani, is mainly due to this contradictory political culture.