Islamic Utopian Romanticism and the Foreign Policy Culture of Iran

The JCPOA: how Iran's grand strategy stifled the US

“…When concerned with Iran's foreign policy, an aspect of a state's grand strategy, Adib-Moghadam identified four parts to Iran's foreign policy culture: previous western presence and influence leading to a rejection of the west; the legacy of the 1979 Revolution within the country leading to the evolution of the revolutionary idea; consequently foreign policy decisions have been embedded and made in this environment; and this has ultimately resulted in foreign policies that challenge the status quo in international affairs in an exceptionalist manner. 11 Each of these studies support the notion being put forward by this article that the IRI's grand strategy is unique in its goals of pursuing national interests under an idealistic (revolutionary) mantra.…”

Advertising and Pseudo-Culture

“…Khiabany and Sreberny (2004, p. 37) argue that “Islam is certainly an aspect of Iranian culture and has been for over twelve centuries.” However, it is only one aspect of the Iranian culture, and Islamists are not the only influencers in societal developments. As a result, the reinforcements of fundamental Islamic rules are not embraced by all Iranians (Adib-Moghaddam 2005) and some groups (mainly the youth) favor relaxation of some strict religious rules (Jafari 2007). Such diversity of views among Iranians was again a strong source of tension and conflict in the ads during the post-revolution era.…”

“…These two political regimes offer a fertile ground for investigation, as both relied on centralized media control and their pseudo-cultures have challenged the Iranian culture and made their way into the mass mediated images, such as those of advertisements (Amin 2004; Paidar 1995). Moreover, the sharp contrast between the orientations of the Pahlavi and Islamic Republic regimes and their impact on the status and role of women in the society afford us a distinct opportunity to examine the forces of crafted pseudo-cultures in advertising messages (Adib-Moghaddam 2005). This has especially been the case over the last three decades as Iranians have witnessed that the governing regime’s political forces are geared toward religious domination and the demonization of Western liberal values and materialism (Jafari and Goulding 2008).…”

Iran and Saudi Arabia: Emotionally Constructed Identities and the Question of Persistent Tensions

“…She argues that despite the relative success of Iran in the Middle East and Central Asia, Iranian governments have been unable to reach their ultimate foreign policy goals as a result of their inability to understand the new international conditions, which are themselves a consequence of the permanent influence of the Islamic and revolutionary ideology on Iran’s foreign policy (p. 8). Arshin Adib‐Moghaddam () also argues that “Iran continues to challenge the international system in general and the US state as its most dominant power in particular, because of a ‘utopian‐romantic’ meta‐narrative that constitutes the Iranian foreign policy culture” (p. 266).…”