Writing about Iran´s Foreign Policy

 

Iran´s Foreign Policy. From Khatami to Ahmadinejad a collection of articles edited by Anourshiravan Ehteshami and Mahjoob Zweiri is an useful read for someone interested to know a little bit about the diplomatic endeavours of the Islamic Republic. The articles are written about academics, current and former diplomats, political appointees and cover from very general aspects related to the foreign policy theories applied to the case of Iran to the relationships between Iran on one side, and European countries, US and UK, on the other side. It also includes various details about the relationship between Iran and Iraq, as well as the neighbouring countries and the Gulf countries.

The generous insights shared by some people with years of direct contact with the Iranian realities. However, diplomatically, there are so many very important aspects that are willingly or not omitted from those otherwise very interesting articles. 

For instance, what are the decision making mechanisms in matters of foreign policy. At what extent the Foreign Ministry has the capacity of taking decisions in this respect, and if yes, what kind of decisions and if not, what other institutions are involved in the process and at what extent. Also, when it comes to the nomination of diplomats, is the Foreign Ministry the only institution with attributions in this respect? 

Also, what exactly is the diplomatic program of Iran? How does Russia - and China - outplay their interests in Iran and how does this connect with other international players interested in engaging, such as Arab countries and European countries?

The situation of the human rights is tangentially mentioned in some of the articles but not as a serious impediment in pursuing the foreign policy goals but the situation of dual citizens imprisoned under various accusations is for a long time a matter of distrust in bilateral relations. 

I would have expected more applied analysis of the Iranian revolutionary export abroad, not only in Iraq - which is extensively covered - and Lebanon - less than it deserves but also, for instance, in Africa, or Syria, or Yemen. 

Last but not least, the Iran-UK relations are analysed and commented by two experienced diplomats. However, for obvious politeness reasons, the situation of the debt owed by UK to Iran which is a serious element of wariness in the bilateral relations is absent from the otherwise interesting evaluations.

Overall the book is useful, but would give to many of the articles for various non-diplomatic reasons with the benefit of the doubt. The take is ambitious but it delivers much less that it promises. Still, it is better than nothing and given that Iran will probably keep the first page of the news for a lot of reasons in the next months, it´s good to dedicate some time to this edited volume.