ABSTRACT
Iranian Regional Foreign policy in postrevolutionary years has displayed elements of both continuity and change from the Pahlavi-era foreign policy. Iran's regional foreign policy in the immediate aftermath of the revolution was guided by three abiding priorities: internal consolidation of power, export of Islamic revolution, and the advancement of pan-Islamism. The 2005 presidential election and the ascendancy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power ushered in a right turn in Iran's foreign policy, as well as the regional policy. The political impact of American foreign policy toward Iran was to discredit Mohammad Khatami and the reform movement. In the foreign policy realm, Ahmadinejad attempted to revive the revolutionary foreign policy of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini era, with meager success. This chapter reveals the pan-Islamic ideological appeal of the current regime that lends it a strategic depth in the Arab and the Muslim world that the Pahlavi dynasty could not muster.
