Post Revolutionary Iran’s State Behaviour: Towards India, Pakistan and China

Sima Baidya

Deciphering post revolutionary Iran’s state behaviour is difficult. Based on a theoretical foundation, the book dissects Iran’s state behaviour. Narrowing it down to issue area approach, it lays emphasis on the discourse of state behaviour and how it negotiates and re-negotiates with different actors and circumstances alike. Factored in the pre-conceived notion of differentiation between foreign policy and state behaviour, this book examines the overlapping character of the two, its tendency to merge in a low and high intensity scenario; nonetheless posturing it differently at a different point of time. This is done by taking the case study of Islamic Republic of Iran with reference to four issues, political Islam, energy, nuclear ambition and regional engagements. It is further narrowed down by regressing them in the context of three countries; China, India and Pakistan. It clearly demonstrates and substantiates that the areas of convergence and divergence of foreign policy and state behaviour depend upon issues and the context. They need not always be in convergence and not necessarily divergence with each other. Post revolutionary Iran’s state behaviour reflects the changing pattern of its politics. Iranian state behaviour conformed to its national interests and ideology, strives to maintain its identity. Deconstructing Iranian state behaviour, the book finds that it has been influenced by the processes of adjustments and readjustments with the global environs without discarding its core principles. Nevertheless, with respect to diverse issues and the context, post revolutionary Iran’s state behaviour is different at different point of time.

Sima Baidya Sima Baidya is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Her main research pursuits are Post Revolutionary Iran’s Foreign Policy and Gulf politics. She is the author of the book Dissent in the Land of Arab. She has taught at the University of Kalyani and University of Calcutta. She is also a concurrent faculty at the Energy Studies Programme at JNU. She is a regular speaker in many national and international conferences with several research articles under her fold. She has done extensive field research in the Gulf region. She is based in New Delhi. She can be reached at sima.baidya@gmail.com.

Contents

1. Introduction: Iran’s State Behaviour vs. Foreign Policy
2. Political Islam: Identity as a Factor in Foreign Policy and State Behaviour
3. Energy: Discourse of Power
4. Nuclear Ambition: An Instrument of Dominance, Security and Defiance
5 Iran in Central Asia: The Regional Construct
6. Conclusion
Bibliography