Revolutionary Horizons Regional Foreign Policy in Post-Khomeini Iran

This study examines the sources, characteristics and implications of post-Khomeini Iran's foreign policy. It concentrates on two geographic 'zones of interest': one composed of the countries which surround Iran; the other comprised of Islamic governments and movements beyond Iran's borders. It argues that fears, not just ambitions, have yielded a policy increasingly co-operative (especially in the economic sphere) yet in some respects still confrontational. The study defines 'security' in military and non-military terms to identify the multitude of challenges which have conditioned Iranian foreign policy. Next, it identifies the domestic and external sources of these challenges: notably, the collapse of the Soviet Union, US-Iranian antagonism, deepening economic crisis, and persistent clerical factionalism, regional tension and instability. The study then addresses the post-Khomeini leadership's struggle to pursue economic reform and military rearmament simultaneously. Subsequent chapters are devoted to exploring how, and how successfully, Iran has pursued these aims in its relations with the Arab states of the Gulf; with the Central Asian and Transcaucasian states; with Pakistan and Afghanistan; and with Islamic institutions and movements.