Iran's Strategic Outlook: Geo-Political Implications for the Region

A state's strategic outlook not only incorporates the challenges and opportunities for achieving its national interest but also identifies and utilizes certain strategic drivers that shape its policies that, in turn, formulate and feed into its strategic outlook. Ideology, historical experience,geography, and culture are some of the factors that can play a role in a country's strategic outlook. The study focuses upon Iran, which holds immense importance in the political and strategic realm of international politics. It has a central position in Middle Eastern politics. Whereas in the West, especially in the USA, is often described as an irrational, theocratic, and fundamentalist state that sponsors terrorism as an instrument of policy, yet a closer look at Iran's strategic thinking points to the fact that it is often not the case. The Iranian revolution, ideological rivalry with Saudi Arabia, proxy wars in war-torn region, distrust of the US are the factors Iranian strategic outlooks depends upon.