ABSTRACT
In this study I have attempted to evaluate critically one of the most prominent and controversial political relationships of the post-Cold War era. Although relations between Moscow and Tehran had often been highly adversarial during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, high levels of cooperation exhibited in the early post-Cold War era have forced scholars and policy-makers alike to reevaluate the nature of this bilateral relationship, causing them, in turn, to examine those myriad factors deemed to be principal to cooperation. But the dearth of critical scholarship on the subject of Russian–Iranian relations has not helped us to confidently answer some of our most basic questions about the nature of this relationship or where, in fact, the partnership might be headed in the coming years. Rather than subjecting this political partnership to empirical analysis, speculation and historical recitation have, to date, only further muddied the waters of political inquiry. By redirecting the analysis of Russian–Iranian relations into a science-based forum, this study has attempted to aggregate, explain, and empirically evaluate those factors deemed pertinent to bilateral outcomes.
