Controversial Actor of the International System: Iran.

• Author: Caner, Mustafa
• Position: "Iran and the International System," "Iran in the International System: Between Great Powers and Great Ideas," "Iran in an Emerging New World Order: From Ahmadinejad to Rouhani"

Iran and the International System

Edited by Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Reza Molavi

Iran in the International System: Between Great Powers and Great Ideas

Edited by Heinz Gartner and Mitra Shahmoradi

Oxford: Routledge, 2020, 268 Pages, $160, ISBN: 9780367194475

Iran in an Emerging New World Order: From Ahmadinejad to Rouhani

By Ali Fathollah-Nejad

Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, 465 Pages, $100, ISBN: 9789811560743

Received Date: 07/ 29/2021 * Accepted Date: 09/07/2021 * DOI: 10.25253/99.2022241.14

Introduction

Since the Great Game of the 19th century, Iran has been a strategic country under the scrutiny of the great powers. As a result of the weakness of its Qajar dynasty, Iran entered the sphere of influence of Britain and Russia. Since then, Iran has been trying to achieve a stable position in the international system. However, the only stable thing has been Iran's pendulous swinging in and out of the sphere of influence of various great powers.

Before the Islamic Revolution, in the international system determined by the Cold War, Iran had positioned itself in the Western bloc. Limiting the Soviet Union's influence in the Middle East and preserving and implementing the values of the Western world constituted Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's foreign and domestic political agenda. However, after the 1979 Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, formulated the motto, 'Neither East nor West, but only Islamic Republic!' In accordance with this slogan, Iran challenged the international system: Khomeini declared that Iran did not belong to the Western Bloc led by the U.S. or the Eastern Bloc led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Instead, it would follow a unique path. Revolutionary enthusiasm and the energy of the emotional explosion of the people opened up a space for implementing this bold new foreign policy. The Iran-Iraq War fed the feelings of sacrifice of the masses. Thanks to the state of emergency provided by the full-scale war, Iran's attempt to become a new order-making actor worked for a while. However, with Khomeini's death, this understanding of independent foreign policy ended.

The wave that the Islamic Revolution created was not strong enough to eliminate geopolitical realities. Khomeini's charisma served to ignite the Iranian people for a certain period. In the 1980s, the U.S. preferred to tire Iran with the Iran-Iraq war and did not intervene directly. However, with the disintegration of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, the U.S., which stood out as the only hegemon in the international system, made Iran an active part of its agenda. For its part, Iran was also changing, just like the international system itself. Under Rafsanjani's presidency (1989-1997), steps were taken to normalize with the outside world. During the reformist President Khatami's term (1997-2005), it was thought that a new page would be opened in relations with the U.S. However, these expectations were not fully realized, and Iran's crisisridden relations with the U.S. and the international system continued. Consequently, Iran has been framed and treated as the problematic actor of the international system in several areas, including nuclear, ballistic missile technologies, terrorism, and human rights.

The three books under review in this article offer different perspectives on Iran's interaction with international actors (states, organizations, or peoples) and its place in the international system. While the perspectives offered in the three books differ, they often address common issues. Taken together, they offer a complementary view for those who wish to deepen their understanding of Iran's interaction with the international system.

Iran and the International System presents the Iranian perspective toward the international system. Iranians' conceptions of a just and egalitarian international order and their points of reference are conveyed to the reader. In this sense, it stands apart from works that seek to measure Iran on the scale of Western values. Undoubtedly, the rich discussion environment offered by such an approach departs from the tendency to see Iran as the 'problematic' actor of the international system, and instead contributes to Iran's struggle for acceptance and self-expression in the international system, thus expanding opportunities for dialogue.

The articles in this work were written after the 2009 presidential election protests that shook Iran for months, and they reflect Iran's fragile political mood after the protests. At that time, when state-society relations had become problematic in Iran, the...