ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at Iran's own predisposition: its geographical place and its people as well as its political system and its basic foreign policy approach. This is important to understand how, and to what extent, the European Union's actorness is expressed in these bilateral relations and to gauge the importance of the nuclear file. If the history of a people is written by the geography of its place, Iran sticks out – not only for a lot of history but also for a special place. The country is located centrally between Central Asia and the Middle East, between the Caspian Sea and the Indian Ocean, but distinctly different from either region. The political system of the Islamic Republic is marked by a "structural dualism" that is inherent in its name and its history: it is an Islamic theocracy and a republican state with a long administrative tradition.
