Abstract:
What is the role of identity in Iran’s and Russia's foreign
policy in Central Asia? This article discusses that identity in Iran's foreign policy is debilitative and limits Iran's performance in Central Asia, although the perception of identity in Russia's foreign policy justifies its continued and permanent presence in this region. The paper utilizes the constructivist approach as its theoretical framework to analyze the question under investigation. Unlike Iran's foreign policy, Russia's foreign policy defines identity considers Central Asia as an area within Russia’s strategic and vital interests to expand its presence in this region. As a descriptive-analytical study, the paper elaborates on the relationship between identity and foreign policy and the position of interests in the constructivist approach to foreign policy. Then, it will study the performance of both countries in Central Asia. Results obtained from this paper confirm the difference in this remarkably effective concept of foreign policy, which leads both countries to have different perceptions of the whole region and their place in the region.
Machine summary:
Unlike Iran's foreign policy, Russia's foreign policy defines identity considers Central Asia as an area within Russia’s strategic and vital interests to expand its presence in this region.
Keywords: Foreign Policy, Identity, Interests, Iran, Russia, Central Asia *Mahdi Sanaei is an Associate Professor of Russian Studies at the Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran.
Considering all these factors, this paper is an attempt to investigate the possible role of "identity" in Iran and Russia's foreign policies in Central Asia.
Russia's foreign policy considers Central Asia as an area within Russia’s strategic and vital interest to expand its presence in this region.
In contrast, Iran's foreign policy does not define Central Asia as an area for strategic interest and its relative limitation has resulted in Iran's performance constraints in the region which results from the mechanism in which identity is defined based on different identity-making norms; that in turn create specific roles and interests for the country.
(16) The role of the definitions of identity and national interests and even the effect of different meanings on Iran-Central Asia relations are also obvious in separate relationships with other countries of this region.
By broadly defining "national identity," concerning Central Asia, we can consider this region under Iran's specific influence and with regard to the roles resulted from this definition, we can consider broad political, economic, and cultural interests.
Since Russia's foreign policy considers Central Asia as a strategically essential domain for Russian interests, Russia should develop its presence in this region.