ABSTRACT
Having successfully established a dependent variable of political affinity, this study seeks to empirically evaluate the claims of analysts and scholars alike concerning those specific factors deemed pertinent to fluctuations in bilateral relations throughout the post-Soviet era. As indicated in Chapter 1, the broad range of independent factors linked to changes in affinity—and the complexity of their underlying arguments—makes it both efficient and critical to align such arguments within larger conceptual groups. In the remainder of this study I evaluate the status of Russian–Iranian relations as a function of both macro-level national security calculations (Chapter 4) and micro-level changes in the domestic politics of each nation (Chapters 5–7).
