Iran-USA relationships: Idealism or Pragmatism

Samiei, Mohammad

doi:10.22059/jcountst.2025.397800.1310

Iran-USA relationships: Idealism or Pragmatism

Document Type : Original

Author

Mohammad Samiei

Department of Iranian Studies, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

10.22059/jcountst.2025.397800.1310

Abstract

Like other great revolutions, the Islamic revolution of Iran had a base of ideology and idealism, because of which the revolutionary ethos was universal and did not limit to the geographical borders. In particular, anti US sentiments were institutionalized. However, unlike Waltz prediction that revolutions in their foreign policy gradually incline from their initial idealism toward pragmatism, did not happen for the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a result, after nearly five decades, the Iran US relations continued to be shaped based on idealism. The question that this paper wants to answer is why idealism in Iranian foreign policy towards US has continued so long. Using historical review, and employing the Popperian situational analysis method, the rivals to Iran in this case, the role of effective institutions, and the conditions in which such relations have been taken shape are analyzed. Finally, it is concluded that the continuation and overcome of idealism in Iranian US relations are because of the access of Iran to the oil revenue and also because of the dual political structure of the Islamic Republic.

Keywords

Main Subjects

International Relations

حوزة موضوعی: ایران و امریکا

Scope: Iran & USA

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