ABSTRACT
To gauge change or continuity in Iran’s foreign policy, we need to stand back and look at recent developments on a broader historical timeline. This chapter broaches Iranian foreign policy from the prism of Iran’s history of modernization and reform: specifically, the history of large-scale exercises of socio-economic engineering and political transformation since the early twentieth century. This approach will bring to the light the multiple dimensions of Iranian foreign policy and will support the claim that current president, Hassan Rouhani’s pragmatic agenda is likely to temper foreign policy practices and interactions. This shift in orientation, I argue, was set in motion under the presidency of Seyyed Mohammad Khatami (1997–2005) when Iran underwent a fundamental conceptual and methodological shift: a transition from revolutionary-style politics to a “politics of normalcy” with palpable implications in the foreign policy realm (Tazmini, 2009, p. 20). While Khatami’s presidency was characterized by a systemic conceptual transition, acting president, Hassan Rouhani’s project can be understood as one of systemic consolidation.
