Iran in the World: President Rouhani?s Foreign Policy

This book evaluates President Hassan Rouhani's foreign policy during his first two years in office, looking at the case studies of Armenia, Azerbaijan, the UAE, Turkey, and Syria, as well as the Iran-US relationship. President Rouhani came to power in Iran in 2013 promising to reform the country's long-contentious foreign policy. His top priorities were rehabilitating the Iranian economy, ending the nuclear dispute, rebuilding relations with the US, and mending ties with Iran's neighbors. It is argued here that while President Rouhani has made progress in the Iran-US relationship, in nuclear negotiations and some bilateral relationships, his broader success has been hampered by regional political developments and domestic competition. Further, it is contended that his future success will be guided by emerging regional tensions, including whether Iran's neighbors will accept the terms of the nuclear agreement.

Shahram Akbarzadeh is Research Professor of Middle East and Central Asian Politics and Deputy Director (International) of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University, Australia. He currently holds an ARC Future Fellowship on the Role of Islam in Iran's foreign policy and a grant on sectarianism in the Middle East from the Qatar Foundation.

Dara Conduit is Researcher at Deakin University, Australia, and a PhD candidate at Monash University, Australia, working on the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. She holds an M.Litt in Middle East and Central Asian Security Studies from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge, UK in 2015.