| Publication |
2014.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines the geopolitical determinants that have underpinned contemporary Iran-US relations, challenging the established thinking on why this relationship has been characterized by hostility. It is argued that the primacy that has been given to the role of domestic politics in either the US or Iran, as being the main arbiter of this relationship, is incomplete. This relationship is just as much a product of the structural conditions within the Middle East and the wider international system, which created the conditions for the clashing of the core national interests of both these states. However, due to the massive political and social alterations within the Middle East in the past decade, the notion of 'strategic irreconcilability' between both actors is now fundamentally changing. This has given room for a possible recalibration of the Iran-US relationship. Ultimately, it is argued that the synthesis of the domestic, the regional, and geopolitical levels of analysis are needed for a more holistic picture of the past, present, and future of Iran-US ties.
|