Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2
Master's student in Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
3
Master's student of International Relations, Department of International Relations, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Following the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979 and the occupation of the United States Embassy in particular, Iran, and the United States emerged as primary rivals in the international system, particularly in West Asia. After the withdrawal of England in the 1970s, the United States and Iran sought to counterbalance each other's influence in the region. During the 2010s, the Arab uprisings posed a complex challenge to the foreign policy apparatuses of both countries, adding several variables to the ongoing political and historical conflict between the two states. This research aims to explore the differences between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America in their responses to the Arab uprisings. The study employs the conceptual framework of constructivism and uses descriptive and analytical methods to address this query. According to the findings of this study, both states, from a constructivist standpoint, seek to maximize their interests through new regional variables in an intersubjective structural framework. For the Islamic Republic, this intersubjective structure represents the notions of “Islamic awakening,” and “axis of resistance,” and, thus, removing the United States from the region and dismantling the Israeli regime considered the Islamic Republic's primary rival. For the United States, on the other hand, it denotes “democracy and secularism,” thus the prevention of “religious fundamentalism and terrorism” and “revolutions akin to Iran's Islamic Revolution.”
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