Foreign Policy of Iran under President Hassan Rouhani’s First Term (2013–2017)

Edited by Luciano Zaccara, this collection of papers is the result of a workshop organized at the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University. With his decades-long tenure in the highest echelons of Iranian politics, Hassan Rouhani emphasized the importance of foreign policy for his administration from the earliest days of his presidential campaign. This volume seeks to assess Rouhani’s plans for changing Iranian foreign policy as well as the degree to which he was successful in implementing his vision of reaching a rapprochement with the West. This anthology presents an excellent analysis of Iran’s foreign policy during Rouhani’s first term as president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The book begins by considering Rouhani’s foreign policy as being potentially distinct from the approach of his predecessors and proceeds to elaborate on different sources that shaped Rouhani’s approach to diplomatic relations. While some of the chapters are of use to anyone who is interested in learning more about President Rouhani’s background and Iranian foreign policy, others contain more detailed analyses that are especially useful for scholars of international relations. Most are strongly influenced by a realist perspective to politics as well as the authors’ hope of improving Iranian relations with the West, and this may have biased some of the analyses. Furthermore, this work lacks a thorough consideration of the conflicts that arise due to ideological versus pragmatic concerns as well as institutional ones, such as issues that exist between elected officials (e.g., the president and members of the Majles, or parliament) and assigned positions (e.g., the Supreme Leader and leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC). Nevertheless, the contributors’ comparisons between Iranian foreign policy during Rouhani’s first term with that of his predecessor and the contrasts they present concerning Iranian diplomatic relations in different regions of the world make this study an informative and insightful read. The book begins with a general overview of Iranian diplomatic relations that is particularly helpful for more general readers. Chapters two and three provide broad analyses of Rouhani’s foreign policy. The rest of the papers focus on individual aspects of Iranian diplomacy in the period under study. The first chapter presents an overall review of the anthology. In the second chapter, Mahdi Ahouie explores whether Rouhani’s foreign policy during his first term can amount to a foreign policy doctrine. He concludes that this was not the case. Rather, Ahouie explains that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the nuclear deal with five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council as well as Germany, was the only issue that Rouhani managed successfully to address in his first term. In the third chapter, Ali Fathollah-Nejad sheds light on the importance of developmental policies in shaping Rouhani’s foreign relations. This chapter contends that despite his pragmatic view