IRANIAN FOREIGN POLICY DURING AHMADINEJAD
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Iranian Foreign Policy during Ahmadinejad Ideology and Actions Maaike Warnaar
IRANIAN FOREIGN POLICY DURING AHMADINEJAD Copyright Maaike Warnaar, 2013. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-33790-0 All rights reserved. First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-46389-3 ISBN 978-1-137-33791-7 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137337917 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Warnaar, Maaike. Iranian foreign policy during Ahmadinejad : ideology and actions / Maaike Warnaar. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud. 2. Iran Foreign relations 21st century. 3. Iran Politics and government 1997 4. Ideology Iran. 5. Legitimacy of governments Iran. I. Title. DS318.83.W37 2013 327.55 dc23 2013023470 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: November 2013 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my parents, all four of them.
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Contents List of Tables Acknowledgments ix xi Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Studying Iranian Foreign Policy: A Constructivist Approach 11 Chapter 2 Ideology and Legitimacy during Ahmadinejad s Presidency 35 Chapter 3 International Legitimacy: Constraints and Opportunities 63 Chapter 4 A Foreign Policy Ideology of Change 81 Chapter 5 Iranian Foreign Policy Behavior 2005 2013 113 Chapter 6 Nuclear Power Is Our Right! : The 2010 Tehran Declaration 137 Chapter 7 Foreign Threat and Political Repression 153 Conclusion 169 Notes 179 Bibliography 247 Index 285
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Tables 2.1 Political factions in Iran relevant for the period 2005 2013 49 4.1 Juxtaposing Iran and the United States 104 6.1 The nuclear issue Iran and the West juxtaposed 146
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Acknowledgments This project goes back to a student exchange between the Political Science department at the University of Amsterdam and the School of International Relations in Islamic Republic of Iran in 2003. As a participating student, this exchange made evident to me the importance of understanding foreign policy behavior from a domestic, discursive perspective. Since I have studied Iranian foreign policy from this viewpoint, originally under the enthusiastic supervision of Paul Aarts in completion of my master s degree in Political Science and later under the stimulating supervision of Professor Raymond Hinnebusch. Their guidance and support have been indispensable in completing the dissertation that formed the basis of this book. I am deeply indebted to many Iranians who, in the past ten years, have exchanged views with me, or who have, in other ways, been helpful during my many stays in Iran. They go by the first names of Mohsen, Mehdi, Shahriar, Mehrdad, Mehri, Sadeq, Fatemeh, Maryam, Hossein, Nasrin, Davoud, Kayhan, Behzad, Mahsa, Houman, Nasr, Yekta, and Bahareh. I want to thank in particular the generous and knowledgeable scholars who offered their views and feedback at Mofid University in Qom, the School of International Relations in Tehran, the Centre for Strategic Research in Tehran, the Middle East Strategic Centre in Tehran, the Imam Sadiq University in Tehran, and the Faculties of Law and Politics and World Studies at the University of Tehran. They have made accessible to me the various domestic perspectives on Iranian foreign policy and as such have made indispensable contributions to this study. The flaws and mistakes, of course, are all mine. At the University of Amsterdam, I am particularly grateful to Annette Freyberg-Inan, Paul van Hooft, Peyman Jafari, Umut Kibrit, Fadi Hirzalla, Marlies Glasius, Christian Bro ë r, Mohammad Mojahedi, Bertine Kamphuis, and Gerd Junne, all of whom provided guidance or feedback on earlier drafts. Furthermore, I would
xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS like to thank Juliette Verhoeven, Stephan de Vries, Lisalette Dijkers, and Reinoud Leenders for the stimulating environment they created with the many workshops, lectures, and seminars in the context of the Civil Society in West Asia project at the University of Amsterdam. I am indebted to my colleagues Taryn Shepperd, Mohira Suyarkulova, Beatrix Fut á k-campbell, and Gladys Mokhawa at the University of St Andrews for their thoughts on identity and discourse analysis. I am grateful to Mohira Suyarkulova, Laura Khor, Hannah Brooks- Motl, Paola Raunio, and the Kleidosty family for their friendship and their hospitality during my stays in St Andrews. I am also thankful for the funding provided by Noah Lev, Stichting Vreedefonds, the Institute for Iranian Studies at St Andrews University, the British Institute of Persian Studies, and the University of St Andrews School of International Relations. The questions and comments professors Karin Fierke and Anoush Ehteshami provided when I defended my thesis in late 2011 proved of great value in thoroughly rewriting my thesis toward this book, as did the comments by an anonymous Iranian reviewer in the United States. I want to thank the Leiden Institute for Areas Studies for facilitating me while completing this book. In particular, I would like to thank Jos é Brittijn, Gabrielle van den Berg, Johnny Cheung, Asghar Seyed-Ghorab, Lindsay Black, Maghiel Crevel, and Koushyar Parsi for creating a welcoming and encouraging intellectual environment at LIAS. In writing this book, I relied on the inexhaustible support of my family and closest friends. I am deeply grateful to all of them. Most of all, I want to thank my husband Tjerk Jan Schuitmaker for his patience and encouragement all the way through.