ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the relations between Iran and each of the three South Caucasian states since official diplomatic relations have been established. It is the assertion of that no single theory of international theories can satisfactorily explain the behaviour of Iran and less so the intricacies of its foreign policy. Iran's foreign policy can be achieved by viewing it as being shaped by three distinct contexts that often pull against one another or intermingle: the national, the regional and the international. Strategic culture theorists and analysts contend that culture conditions how states conceive of and respond to their strategic environment, bearing in mind that there is no universal model of rationality. Arjomand views Iran's Islamic Revolution as the last stage in the evolution of clerical authority in Shi'a Islam which started in Safavid times. The internal and international context of Iranian foreign policy significantly altered in the 1990s.
