چکیده:
The study of Iran’s interaction with the international system is predicated on three broad theoretical assertions. First، the international system is a tripartite system with three interrelated yet distinct structures، namely coercive-military، normative-social، and economic-developmental. Second، agency (state)، Iran in this case، is simultaneously unitary and composite، interacting distinctly with corresponding structural components of the international system. Third، the net assessment of any state’s position within the international system، in this case Iran’s، must take into consideration the symbiotic impact of the interaction with all three structures، and the cross fertilization and cross compensatory dynamics between them; weakness and vulnerability in one might be compensated for by strength in another. The delicate balance of Iran’s interaction with the international system in the last three decades، and especially in the post-Soviet/post-9/11 era، has vacillated between a systemically permissible threat of war and the potential for a historical، though reluctant، systemic accommodation. In its brinksmanship interaction with the three layers of the international system، Iran by design and by default has been strategically “lonely” and deprived of meaningful alliances and great power bandwagoning. Nevertheless، Iran is not isolated but rather intensely engaged، relying on its own capability which is predicated on a native strategic culture. The protection of this strategic culture remains the most formidable challenge facing the Islamic Republic in the fourth decade of its life; a challenge that emanates partially from systemic pressure and no less significantly by domestic normative dynamics.
خلاصه ماشینی:
9-34 Introduction While there has been considerable work on Iranian foreign policy in general (Hunter 2010, Takyeh 2009, Ehteshami & Zweiri 2008, Maleki and Afrasiabi 2008, Adib-Moghaddam 2007; Ramazani 2004 and 2001,Sariolghalam 2002, Afrasiabi 1994) and more specifically on Iran’s regional or bilateral relations with great powers and the United States (Parsi 2007; Chubin 1997; Ansari 2007; Limbert 2009; Wright 2010; Maloney 2008; Sick 2001; Bill 1988 and 2001; Brzezinski, 2004; Beeman 2005; Sajjadpour 1995; Cordesman and Hashem 1997; Pollack 2004; Dabashi 2010) since the Iranian revolution of 1979, there has been less attention and scholarly work on relations between Iran as a new player and the corresponding and coterminous International System with which this new actor has interacted since its inception.
The major wars of the last two decades--wars with system wide impact and implications including the 1980 Iran-Iraq war, the US-Iraq war in 1991, and the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, and even the war in Afghanistan (both by the Soviets and the Americans), the Israeli-Hezbollah war in 2006, the Palestinian-Israeli encounters, the continuous shadow of the further use of force in the region, and the greatest military deployment in the post war history by a superpower and its alliance, the dynamics of nuclear proliferation and the future of the NPT regime--all have their roots directly or indirectly in the systemic reverberation of the Iranian revolution and Iran’s role in international politics, and their strategic consequences.